The Bready Bunch

St. George

2011-11-25T00:21:00.000-07:00

Welp, here's another post about Eric. But, I can't ONLY blog about Harper, right?? I don't have many picture for this event, but on October 1st, Eric ran the St. George marathon. Holy cow. THAT was an amazing thing to witness... All those marathoners running/walking/barely moving across the finish line. We saw so many people get right to the end and their legs just totally gave out. Their legs literally stopped functioning and it was all they could do to limp across the finish line. Eric didn't have much time to train after the half Iron Man, so the longest run he had ever done in his life up to this point was a half marathon. He felt really good through the whole race and was keeping a pace to finish at about 3 hours, 45 minutes. But then he became acquainted with mile 20 and slowed way down. He just did a run/walk combo for the next 4 miles and then was able to run the last 2 miles. He finished in about 4 hours, 18 minutes. He's not super thrilled with his time but I think it's pretty dang good considering the amount of training he was able to do. He already wanted to do another one as soon as he finished!

Harper seems to have one method of showing her support... by falling asleep. I couldn't believe she fell asleep in this position but it was so cute! She even slept through me cheering for all the racers.

Here comes Doug!!

And there he is!

My old seminary teacher also happened to be running this race. She used to talk about her marathons and running in seminary (I was lucky enough to have her as a Freshman AND a Senior) so it was really neat for me to see her crossing the finish line at one of her races. She totally rocked it and got a PR on this race! Pretty impressive considering she trains at sea level back in Vancouver and came to race somewhere around 2,000 feet higher.

Again, it was really inspiring to watch, but I don't think I'll ever run a marathon. It definitely takes a huge amount of desire and I just don't have that. 26.2 miles?? No thanks!!

Half Iron, Half Man, 100% Sexy

2011-11-25T00:08:00.000-07:00

A half Iron Man people. Eric did a HALF IRON MAN. That's a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run. A total of 70.3 miles. He trained for it all summer and the big day was Saturday, August 27th. I must admit, I was a bit nervous about the whole thing... I didn't want him to overdo it and injure his back and I also didn't want him to fail (heaven forbid) and not finish and be super disappointed. But he did great and I was so impressed!!

Early in the morning waiting for the race to start. The guy on the right is Eric's good friend D Brack, who did the race last year and was the reason Eric signed up for it this year.

Eric, Jonathan and Doug just before the race started

The race start, transitions and finish were at Utah Lake. It was actually really pretty early in the morning and so serene

Random homeless guy that ran the race... Just kidding! This is Eric's friend Jonathan that Eric got to do the race with him. He's a BYU student but didn't shave ALL SUMMER and this was the result.

Gettin ready to go

Eric was most nervous about the swim... You can just see the anticipation on his face

What a sight it was to see all these crazy people getting in the water

And they're off!

Here's Eric coming out of the water. Eric did really great on the swim! He did have a small panic attack right as the swim started, but he was able to turn onto his back, regain his composure and then he rolled back over and got into a great groove. I was so nervous during the swim because it was impossible to tell who was who so I had no idea where he was or how he was doing. I knew how nervous he had been so I was just worried and seeing him come out towards the beginning of the wave of people was quite a relief!

Yeah! So pumped for the next leg!

Starting the bike portion

His number one fan was quite a trooper, hanging out all day outside. She slept for most of it.

Waiting for him to come in on the bike... The bike part took him the longest and it was KILLER. Every one of his 3 friends that were racing with him came in way before him on the bike and me and Kelly (Doug's wife) were kinda getting worried. He finally came in and just looked so beat. I felt horrible and honestly I didn't think he would finish. But he took off on the run and did so great on that portion!

Here he is coming into the finish line! Halfway through the run they loop through the park so I was able to see him at mile 6.5 and I jogged with him for about a quarter of a mile. He probably was most prepared for the run and it showed. He made up some great time and felt really good crossing the finish line.

Victory!!!

Wow! What an accomplishment! I pretty much thought he was insane for wanting to do this race and I think I was more nervous about it than he was but it turned out to be such a great experience. He finished in just under 7 hours... Can you imagine doing intense exercise for that many hours STRAIGHT??!!? I'll never do one, but there were plenty of women participating and it was quite inspiring.

Harper's Hawaiian Adventure

2011-11-24T23:47:00.000-07:00

This spoiled baby of ours has already been to Hawaii! When she was just 2 months old, we accompanied my family on their annual trip to Maui. We flew to Portland on Saturday then to Hawaii the next day. We were only there until Thursday when Eric and I flew back to Portland then back to Salt Lake on Friday. We had to leave early to get back for his BIG RACE on Saturday!

Eric the packhorse at PDX

My mom bought Harper these sunglasses just for this trip. She was rockin' em!

This was right after we got into town... We went to grab a bite and Harper was so hot and sweaty while she was sleeping. I just had to put her across my lap like this so we didn't melt!

Enjoying the morning out on the lawn

My hunky husband and his baby girl, ready to hit the beach

AMAZING fried rice from the Gazebo. Here Eric is demonstrating the MONSTROUS portion size, but this picture doesn't really do it justice. The leftovers fed my entire family for lunch the next day!

Banana pineapple macadamia nut pancakes. Wow.

Harper's hangout

This is the only way we were able to get a little sun time... We just made Harper her own little tent and she slept perfectly in there.

The line-up

What a life!

Oh how I love this place!

We had a great time, but it was much different this time around. Usually when I go to Hawaii with my family, I just soak up as much sun as humanly possible and read as many books as I can. This year, I pretty much only got to be outside in the mornings before it got too hot for Harper's liking. I spent the afternoons in the hotel room with her and then went out on the town in the evening for dinner. One day my dad stayed in the hotel while Harper was sleeping so Eric and I could play in the ocean and we had a blast with my little sisters.

The flights were actually super easy. We just made sure Harper was nursing at take-off and landing and she mostly slept the rest of the time. She is a really good baby, but she did not love the long car rides across the island. Actually, she pretty much hated them. My 14-year-old brother Jody thinks she's a really fussy baby because he somehow always managed to be in the car with me and Harper. Oh well... She can't be perfect :)

Harper's Blessing Day

2011-11-24T23:04:00.000-07:00

I have been on a blogging hiatus. Actually, I have been on an everything hiatus. At the end of August/the beginning of Fall semester, I started a full time internship. It was in Draper so I was commuting about 45 minutes total each way after factoring in time to drive to Highland and drop Harper off at my mother-in-law's house. I am SO grateful for Stacie and her willingness to watch my baby all day, every day. She (and her family) had to make a lot of sacrifices in order to make that happen. I owe a lot of people for my degree and I can't express enough how much I appreciate all of the help I have received in order to complete my education.

So, I finished early a few weeks ago and since then I have just been taking it all in, enjoying being a full-time, stay-at-home mom and being with my baby girl all the time. It was so nice actually to have the time away from her so that even when she is having a bad day and I am going stir crazy from being inside our dark basement apartment all day, I still love being with her and do not take that time for granted.

Since I was so insanely busy, I never had the chance to blog about Harper's blessing. We blessed her on July 31st... I had a lot of family in town for my cousin's wedding so it worked out perfectly because my grandparents got to be there, my aunt and cousin were there and of course my immediate family. My brothers flew in early Sunday morning and were only in Utah for a few hours, just so they could be there and it meant so much to me.

Here are some pictures from the day...

All the men that were in the circle. From left to right: my dad, Eric's uncle Bryce, Eric's brother Connor, Eric's Grandpa Marshall, Eric's uncle Phil, Eric and Harper, my brother-in-law Tyler, Eric's dad, Eric's grandpa Bready, my cousin's husband Matt, my Grandpa Bean (Eric's uncle Curt and our good friend/Harper's pseudo uncle Jeremy Pendleton were also there but they escaped before the pictures.)

Harper's great grandparents. We were missing Grandma Marshall and Mama.

Harper's grandparents. We love them! She is so lucky!!

Everyone from my side that was there.

Family photo (this might be my favorite picture EVER, just because the day was so special)

All my wonderful siblings/half of Harper's aunts and uncles

Oh how I love this baby! She looked so pretty on this day.

My parents with their first grandbaby

My grandparents with their first great grandbaby

Harper got mad taking all those pictures after church so these were round 2. Here are Eric's parents with their first grandbaby (yes, she is SPOILED!)

Such a sweet picture of Stacie and Harper

Her is so pretty!

Eric's fam (minus Morgan... boy have we missed having her around to be with Harper, but we especially missed her on this day!)

Eric and his siblings with Harper. Sister Bready was there in spirit, but Harper was MAD that she wasn't in the picture!

This is a really cute picture of Eric with his parents. He is such a proud daddy!

I was so happy this day. I felt so blessed and so loved by all of our family and friends who were in attendance. But most especially, I am grateful for a husband who holds the Priesthood and was able to give this special blessing to our baby girl. She has such a sweet spirit and we love having her around. She was definitely meant to join our family!

Tummy Proof

2011-07-20T13:51:00.000-06:00

Who wouldn't want to stare at this cute bum?? And those toes?! Girl, please!

This is my current excuse if I don't get dinner cooked... I'm just staring at her all day!

I Don't Cook and My Baby Sleeps on Her Tummy...

2011-07-20T11:59:00.000-06:00

GASP!!!

But I sure am having a good time! Yes, Harper sleeps on her tummy... Turn me in. I've tried her back, I promise. But she just doesn't like it. Whenever I lay her down on her back, dead asleep, she wakes up within 2 minutes without fail. Anyone who knows me knows how much I value sleep. So in order to get at least a couple hours of it, I lay her down on her tummy. All the women I talk to who are my mom's age tell me that all their babies slept on their tummies and they were just fine. And I figure if Harper prefers her tummy then by all means girlfriend, sleep on your tummy! That's how I like it too :)

Dinner. Ugh. I seriously do not cook very often. Granted, for the past 2 1/2 years I have been working full time AND going to school, sometimes taking as many as 14 credits. Sooo... I didn't really have much time. But I feel like a wife failure admitting that. It's not that I don't enjoy cooking it's just that.... um.... I'm lazy? That must be it. Well this week I turned a new leaf. I made a menu, went grocery shopping, and we're 2 for 2 so far on dinner. I even got really ambitious and decided to try a recipe that involved a WHOLE chicken. I had to pull the guts out and rinse off the blood and everything! Let's just say there is a very good reason I buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts to cook with because that was disgusting. I was on the verge of a major gag fest the whole time.

So what I'm trying to say is, I may not follow all the "rules" but this is seriously so much fun! I try to have a photo shoot with Little Missy every day to prepare her for her career in modeling. I'm working on getting her noticed by some agents so she can make me millions modeling for Baby Gap. I was thinking Ellen might be a good place to get her some recognition. (I'm mostly joking, but seriously... this baby is gorgeous, if I do say so myself.) Just check her out!!

"I'm beautiful"

"You people bore me"

Now, look surprised!

Give us a playful smile!

So serene...

Staring off into space

Already making funny faces like Daddy

"I'm totally done with this"

Fake laughter

Yeah, give me some tongue!

The end.

Fulfillment

2011-07-13T15:53:00.000-06:00

I've been a blog slacker. I almost always start my posts with a similar statement because I always seem to fall off the blogging wagon. But this time, I have a REALLY good reason...

This little girl has completely changed my life, in a very good way. I have always known I wanted to be a mother, but until Harper arrived, I didn't realize just how much I wanted that.

Harper has such a sweet spirit and when I hold her close to me, I can feel how close she is to our Heavenly Father. She just barely left his presence after all and I know that for certain.

She has strengthened my testimony of the Plan of Salvation immensely. I know my family will be together forever and I know that our loving Father in Heaven wouldn't want it any other way. I know the love I feel for my baby girl pales in comparison to the love that our Father feels for each of us. So then how could a permanent ending at death even be conceivable??

Harper has brought me so much happiness. Whenever she wakes up during the night to eat, I go to pick her up and almost always get choked up, realizing again how amazing it is to be her mother. And when I lay her back down in her room and go back to bed, I instantly miss her terribly. I don't get a lot done during the day (including blogging) because I know how quickly she will grow and change and before I know it, she won't want to cuddle with me anymore. So I hold her close now and try to soak up every moment that I can.

Having her around has also had a wonderful affect on my marriage. (I won't do a full post, but happy 24th birthday yesterday to my AMAZING husband!!) Eric and I have become so much closer in this past month. I was so worried that having a baby would be taxing on our relationship and that due to the lack of sleep, we would be short with one another and fight more. But the exact opposite has happened. We are learning to work together in a way that would never have been possible without having children. I trust him more, I need him more, and I love him more.

I am so grateful for the timing of everything. God really does know best what we need. I was super baby hungry for quite awhile before we actually started trying to have a baby. But I knew that it wasn't time yet and I'm glad that the Lord has a plan for me and that He is willing to tell me what that is.

Call me crazy, but I am already looking forward to meeting the rest of my children. I know there are lots more up there in Heaven just waiting to join our family. But don't worry, I'll be reasonable :)

She's Here!!

2011-06-17T01:13:00.003-06:00

NOTE: I started writing this weeks ago and never finished. But I wanted to finish it up so that I would have it for posterity's sake. :) As I have since done a post with pictures, I'm not going to take the time to add any to this post.

My sweet baby girl is finally here! She is so perfect. I have never been so happy in my entire life. I want to bottle up the way I have felt in the past week and drink from that bottle for the rest of my life. I am so grateful that God shared with us the divine power to create. I am so grateful that Eric and I were married in the temple of the Lord, sealed together for not just time on earth, but for all eternity, so that we could bring this sweet girl to the world, knowing that she is sealed to us as well. I will never lose her. No matter how short (or long) any of our lives end up being here on earth, we will always be a family and we will all be reunited in the heavens. Having a baby has strengthened my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ 100 fold.

Anyway, I'm going to write out my "birth story" if you will... I always love reading the stories of others and let's be honest, I'm a worse journal writer than I am a blogger so I need this recorded somewhere. It will probably be long, so I'll throw some pictures in to mix things up a bit. :)

Last Wednesday, I went in for my 38 (and a half) week check up. The doctor told me we had the option of stripping my membranes to try and move things along. I still had 2 days left at work and my due date wasn't until the following Saturday. My mom's first baby came 2 weeks late and I was pretty convinced my baby wouldn't be making her arrival anytime soon. So I went for it. I left the office that day 4 centimeters dilated, 80% effaced with a doctor's opinion that I had a 70% chance of delivering my baby in the next 24 to 48 hours. Woot! But I figured that odds are never really in my favor and I went back to work to continue training my replacement.

I had some very mild cramping the rest of that day, but nothing too serious. The next day I was pretty crampy and it was pretty consistent. I also had some back pain that would come and go and I knew it was back labor. I talked to my mom a LOT that day because she was going to hop on a plane as soon as I was in labor and we were trying to decide if she should come Thursday night or wait. The last flight out Thursday left at 6:30 pm and the next one left Friday morning at 6:30 am. My parents had a lot of stuff going on and lots to take care of. My "contractions" weren't super consistent time-wise and they were just kind of coming and going and were not intense at all. I figured even if I was in labor, it would be quite awhile before anything actually happened. So they decided to wait.

I went home to take a nap during my lunch break around 2:30. I was really uncomfortable and I decided that if she was going to come, I had a LOT that needed to get done. So I didn't go back to work that afternoon and little did I know, I would be gone permanently from that time on! I spent the afternoon cleaning like CRAZY! I took multiple loads to the dumpster, cleaned the kitchen, did some baby laundry (hadn't done any yet... I've always been a procrastinator, what can I say?) and just picked up the house. When Eric got home, we went to dinner and then worked on putting together the dresser/changing table (which we also obviously had not done yet.) Around 10:30, Eric was getting super frustrated with the dresser and I was having some much stronger contractions. So I laid down for awhile and started timing them. They were lasting about a minute and came about every 5 minutes but they weren't intense at all and I was told not to go to the hospital until I couldn't talk through my contractions.

I decided to take a shower because I hadn't washed my hair in a couple days and didn't want to be THAT nasty for labor :) While I was showering, I made Eric sit in the bathroom with me so he could time my contractions on the app I downloaded. After I was done, I laid back down and he sat with me, still timing my contractions. Around 11:30 we decided we should probably go in because I didn't think the labor was going to stop. I needed to go to the bathroom first and as soon as I stood up, I had a majorly intense/painful contraction and I started feeling leakage. So I ran to the toilet and lost my mucus plug and some fluid, although I guess my water hadn't officially broken yet.

From that point on, the contractions didn't stop coming. They were literally on top of each other and I was screaming in pain. It was WAAAAY more intense than I imagined it would be that early on in labor. I thought I would at least be able to catch my breath in between and allow myself to relax through the contractions. No way. Eric started dashing around the house, asking what I needed and trying to grab everything that we wanted to take with us. He was kind of frantic and it was pretty hilarious. I was just a nut job, screaming my head off and crying and wanting to DIE.

It hurt SO BAD to sit in the car, but Eric got us from Provo to the American Fork hospital in record time. Probably about ten minutes! We called my mom from the car and she was of course crying and sad that she wasn't there. Then we called my mother-in-law who lived really close to the hospital. She left right away and we beat her there! That's how good Eric did :) Then we called Eric's cousin who was going to be my doula. I told him to tell her that I didn't think she would even make it before the delivery (she lives in Logan) because I was convinced that these contractions were the "transition" contractions right before delivery. I seriously thought the baby was about to come out. Haha I'm laughing so hard at myself right now as I'm writing this.

Some funny moments happened on the drive up there. First of all, Eric had the hazard lights on while we were on the freeway and I (between my tears and screams) asked him why the heck they were on. He acted kind of scared and turned them off and said "oh, it's just a safety thing since we're going so fast." I let him turn them back on and I was completely oblivious to how fast we were going. Then we got to the hospital and stupid us, we never went in for a tour so we had NO idea where to go! haha! So Eric pulled up to the Emergency Room at the ambulance entrance. He got out of the car and tried to open the doors but they didn't open from the outside. So then he pushed a button to page someone and was like "hello??! is anyone there?" Someone came out and Eric told him that I was having a baby RIGHT NOW. He asked me if I was crowning... What kind of a question is that?? How am I supposed to know??

Then a couple of nurses got me in a wheelchair and started taking me to labor and delivery. They tried to take me through one door but for some reason I was in a huge, double-wide wheelchair and it wouldn't fit through the door! So they had to take a different route. Well then we got to the elevator and they couldn't get it to work because apparently that late at night, you have to get someone to activate it. So we had to wait for them to buzz someone to let us on. This was taking so long that Eric had already parked the car and joined us in time for the elevator doors to close.

So then we got to labor and delivery and the nurses asked me a couple questions and then put me in the triage room to check me. Keep in mind that I am still screaming and crying through every single contraction. The nurse who checked me said I was still only at a 4 and 80% (same as the day before!) I about LOST it and I told Eric I couldn't do it. I had been hoping to do a drug-free delivery, but as soon as I heard that, all those plans went straight out the window. Remember, how I thought I was about ready to deliver while we were in the car? Yeah, so the whole 4 cm thing didn't go over well. I still had 6 more to go!! Well, the nurse told me I had to wait an hour and then she would check me again and then admit me if I had progressed. I was NOT happy with that news. I told Eric I needed an epidural and I needed it IMMEDIATELY. He went out to tell the nurse and she told him I had to wait and he said, "Oh, she's not going to be happy about that." So the nurse came in to talk to me again. She ended up checking me again after it had only been about 15 or 20 minutes and realized that my water had broken. So she admitted me and got the epidural ordered and ready to go. Oh, I would like to add that my favorite doctor of the 5 in my group was on duty that night until 7 am and I was pretty happy about that. This doctor (Dr. Bean) happens to be related to me (his dad and my grandpa are cousins) and when the nurse told Eric I had to wait, I told him to go tell her that I wanted to speak to Dr. Bean immediately because he's related to me and he would admit me right then and there. LOL! I was being so unreasonable.

Anyway, the nurses put in my IV and then I got the epidural and it was HEAVEN. Oh my goodness. I was all smiles from there and super excited to meet my baby girl! Eric was SO relieved that I wasn't a monster anymore. I knew I wasn't going to make it without drugs, but I don't think he would have made it either! Then the waiting game started. Eric and his mom slept on the chairs and I dozed in and out while Erin (the doula) massaged my feet with oils. She was hitting pressure points that induce labor and it was so cool to watch the monitor because every time she pressed in a certain spot, I would have a contraction. I'm sure that part of the reason my labor went so quickly and I didn't need pitocin despite the epidural was because we had Erin there. It was great!

By 5 am I was complete and the nurse had me push to see if I should push until Dr. Bean was ready or just wait. After 1 1/2 pushes, she made me stop and said we needed the doctor. So then we waited and he came in right around 5:30. Once I started pushing I pushed for about 3 minutes before Harper was born! It was amazing and she was so perfect! She weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce and was 19 inches long. It took us about an hour to decide on a name but Harper is definitely perfect for her! We love our baby girl and I couldn't be happier with how everything turned out.

Flying While Pregnant

2011-04-19T19:00:00.000-06:00

I can't say I wasn't warned, but flying, and especially a long distance, was not super pleasant at 30 weeks along. (It wasn't pleasant back in November when I was 11 weeks along either, thanks to the nausea.) As I mentioned in my previous post, it took me and Nikki 17 hours with layovers and such to get home from the Bahamas. On the second leg of our journey, I whipped out my phone (on airplane mode, thankyouverymuch) and wrote the following, for your entertainment:

Well, we're up to the 13th person out of 53 total on this plane (including the pilot, co-pilot, and flight attendant) that have now used the lavatory. How do I know this you ask? Well, a picture is always worth a thousand words...

Yes, I merely had to reach out my pointer finger, with my elbow still bent in a 90 degree angle in order to touch said lavatory. As an added note to this story, let me inform you that the lavatory door does not close on its own anymore in this old, tiny plane. Would you like to know how many businessmen chose to leave the door ajar upon exiting the facilities? At least 5. No, thank you, but I do not wish to sit here in all my 7-months-pregnant glory on the very last row of a very small plane and smell the business you just performed in the lavatory. I will simply reach out and close the door myself, hoping you can feel my glare burning into your back as you return to your seat, Mr. Businessman.

Also, to the lovely couple sitting in front of me: thank you for reclining your seats 10 seconds into the flight. That is so thoughtful of you since I'm (as mentioned previously) 7 months pregnant and cannot recline my own seat, therefore leaving me trapped between you and the lavatory, without the use of the tray as there is not enough room back here for my belly AND the tray. Plus, I'm really glad you guys are now closer to me than the lavatory door because I most definitely wanted a close-up view of your frequent, and might I add noisy, make-out sessions. And yes, despite your nasty glares, I will continue to shuffle my playing cards as loudly as possible as a distraction from the miserable situation in which I have found myself. After all, if you had kept your seat in the full upright and locked position, my cards would not be right next to your precious ears.

Paradise Island

2011-04-15T21:19:00.000-06:00

That's where I was this past week... On Paradise Island at the Atlantis Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas. Ever seen Holiday in the Sun? (good ol' Mary Kate and Ashley!) Well, that's where they stayed in that movie too.

This was my little sister's dream vacation and I got to tag along! It was just my mom and 2 of my 3 sisters and boy did we have fun. I didn't bring a camera because I figured they would all have theirs. I figured correctly. Every time we stopped to snap a photo, 3 cameras got pulled out and we had to pose for all of them. I just knew bringing a fourth would be overkill, and I can get the pictures later. But I did take some pics on my phone!

Here's one I snapped while laying by the pool on the last day there...

There were lots of super fancy yachts "parked" in the marina. I would seriously love to know what kind of people have boats like that and sail to the Bahamas. Amazing.

Just a pretty shot of the sunset with the hotel in the background...

I snapped this pic on the way back to the airport... I think it was a school. But I loved how colorful and fun all the buildings there are!

The Caribbean!!!! I can now say I've been in it!

Nikki, Katie and me in front of the Royal Towers! Can you see the arch in between the two towers? That's actually a suite, where one could stay, if one were to pay $40,000 a night. Yes, $40,000 PER NIGHT! Wow.

It was a good trip, but the 17 hour day I had of traveling home yesterday was not pleasant. We left our hotel at 10:30 am, which is 8:30 Utah time and I walked into my apartment just before 1:30 am, 3 flights and 4 airports later. Ugh. My hands and feet were so dang swollen! But they're slowly recovering.

Some of you might be jealous of the awesome tan I got. But that would be pointless because I didn't actually get a tan. I don't think I have ever been as pasty white in my entire life as I was going into this vacation. So I was loading on the sunscreen, knowing that the Caribbean sun is quite intense. Therefore, I pretty much just avoided deep frying myself.

While I was away, Eric sold his car. We are now a one car family. We have been talking about selling the car for awhile now so that we wouldn't have a car payment. But with the new addition coming so soon, we figured it was time to cut out the unnecessary expenses. He got a road bike last month and he's planning on using that to get to and from school until the weather turns bad again. Then I'll just drop him off and pick him up. It might be a little annoying at times, but with a little planning and coordination, we'll be fine. It feels SO good knowing that we are out of debt! I tried to get Eric to let me take a picture of him with the car, but he refused. Luckily I took a picture of it a few days ago in one of our awesome Spring snow storms and he happened to be in it :)

RIP, Veronica. You served us well and you will be missed. :(

Depression

2011-04-05T13:11:00.000-06:00

I have felt a sense of depression lately, and most of it has to do with my spouse. Let's not jump to conclusions here, however, because he hasn't done anything intentionally to cause me to feel this way. Let me explain...

Depression is bound to happen when you step on the scale and realize that you have 11 weeks to go in your pregnancy, have already gained 25 pounds, and now weigh more than your husband. Awesome. (And no, I do not want to post a picture of myself, thank-you-very-much.)

Depression is when your husband RUINS your April Fools joke that you have been planning and scheming for WEEKS. Weeks, people! I even kept it all to myself this year, whereas normally I'm so excited about it that I tell everyone what I'm planning. Not this year. Let's back up and talk about mine and Eric's history regarding April Fools...

Eric and I had our first date/first kiss on April 3, 2008. (I can't believe it's been 3 years already, by the way!) Anyway, we had the date planned and knew what we were doing and I was so dang excited. I really, really liked this boy and despite my sister's best efforts, I was bound and determined to date Eric Bready. He was pretty excited too, because let's face it, I was a major catch! (And really good at deceiving boys into thinking I was something special.)

Well, two days before the date, I decided it would be fun to mess with him a little bit and sent him the following text message:

"I have some bad news... I don't think I'm going to be able to go on our date on Thursday :("

To which he responded:

"Oh, OK. Well do you want to reschedule?"

I was laughing at myself, knowing what I was going to write, but also debated sending the next text... Could he really handle it? Or would he get mad/offended? Well, if he can't take my sense of humor, we may as well know now before anyone gets in too deep:

"Actually, my missionary came home last week and he flew out here to surprise me and proposed. So I probably shouldn't go on a date with you."

Looooong pause:

"Oh wow. Well, congratulations I guess! That's exciting!"

Slight pause, enough to make him sweat a little:

"APRIL FOOLS!!!! Haha I'm SOOO excited for our date!!"

Then I sweat a little while I waited for his response:

"Haha oh man you got me good! I'm laughing pretty hard right now. But thank goodness we're still on because I'm really looking forward to it!"

He passed. And he thought I was funny. Score! (As a side note, these aren't word-for-word texts, although I wish I had saved them. But I have a pretty good memory so they have to be pretty darn close to what was actually said.)

We went on that date, and the rest is history. But now, every year, I try to get him on April Fools Day. But it's really hard because he's usually expecting something, and I get him every time. Neither of us remember what I did the past 2 years, but this year, I was going into early labor!

I thought it out. It was perfect timing since April Fools fell on a Friday this year and I was far enough along in my pregnancy that it was possible and believable... We would go on our normal Friday-night date and then probably come home late to watch a movie or some more 24 (we're on Season 2). He would think he made it through the day this year because it would be somewhere around 11 by the time we got home. Now, I couldn't just say, "Eric, I'm in labor," because that would be way too obvious. So... the water was going to have to break. I decided a balloon was my best option. Luckily the night before, Eric and some of his Chemistry TA friends played a prank on his old professor and it included balloons. So I snuck a couple and put them into my pocket. I practiced Friday morning after Eric had left for school, testing the amount of water and the amount of pressure I would need. The balloon wasn't going to break without some assistance, however, so I decided I would put on a baggy pair of sweatpants, and put my really sharp tweezers in my pocket. I'm ALWAYS cuddled up in a blanket so it was going to be super easy to pull the tweezers out of my pocket without him noticing and pop the balloon. Hysteria would obviously ensue because I was only 29 weeks and we hadn't purchased a carseat and oh-my-gosh-what-are-we-going-to-do?!!?!

But I didn't start there. Oh no. All week long I was complaining of weird "cramps" that were getting pretty painful. "Eric, they must just be Braxton Hicks or something." He agreed. "Eric, they're pretty bad today (Thursday), do you think I should call the doctor?" He thought everything was probably fine and that we didn't need to worry. Friday night we parked at the temple to go in a do a session and he asked if I wanted him to drop me off. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. The contraction-y things were pretty bad when I was walking up to class this morning." He never thought anything of it.

We got home around 10:45, just as I had predicted. Eric went into the room to change his clothes, which usually takes awhile when he's in his Sunday clothes. I almost backed out, thinking again that I was being too mean. But instead, I immediately went into the bathroom to fill up the balloon. It took forever for the water to get warm (I didn't want freezing cold water exploding all over my... area) but I filled it up, tied it off and started heading to the toilet so I could hide it while I went to change my clothes. Just as I turned my back, Eric BARGED in and said, "What are you doing??"

He caught me. Red-handed with a blue balloon full of water. I looked at him and timidly said, "Nothing" with a huge grin on my face.

"Cooourt.... What are you doing?"

"GOING INTO LABOR DANG IT!!!" And then I may or may not have attacked him and hit him a million times and yelled at him for ruining my perfect joke.

See what I mean? Depression. I put a lot of thought into that and just as it was about to happen and my anticipation was killing me, he ruined it. We both laughed pretty hard still, and he did admit that it was a good plan. He thought it was pretty hilarious that I had been faking contractions for a whole week! But alas, I guess I'll have to wait until next year... Unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever be able to use going into labor as an April Fools joke now.

Inappropriate

2011-03-30T19:22:00.000-06:00

I love to laugh. I love when I get going so hard that I can't stop and then everything is so funny that it just makes me keep laughing. Maybe some people think I'm immature during these moments, but I don't care. Laughter is good for the soul.

As part of our date on Friday night, Eric and I went to check out strollers at Babies R Us. We hadn't really looked at any baby stuff with the actual intent of buying something before that so I was pretty excited. There was a jogging stroller travel system on display in the middle aisle of the store and we were trying to figure it out. It took us a good 5 minutes to release the carseat from the stroller. I thought that was pretty funny, so naturally I was laughing a little bit.

Then Eric decided he wanted to test out the folding capabilities of the stroller... Folding the thing was no problem. It was unfolding it that proved to be the challenge. There were probably 15 or 16 red buttons spread out all over the stroller and he was trying all of them to get the dang thing to open back up, but nothing was working. By this point, I was laughing pretty hard so I walked around the corner down an aisle of high chairs and bouncy seats to try to regain my composure.

I came back out to see that Eric was still bent over the stroller, shaking it with all his might. He looked up at me and said, "It's like we're in a movie! We're the stupid couple that has no idea what to do with any of this baby stuff!"

I totally lost it at that point. People were looking at me like I was a crazy person, and I was. I did eventually stop laughing, but then I would think about seeing Eric bent over the stroller in utter frustration and I would start all over again.

Now let's fast-forward a couple nights to Monday's family prayer. Eric had a really big biochemistry test that he has been pretty worried about and he told me he was taking it at 3 pm on Monday afternoon. So I had been praying for him that he would do well. Around 5:30 I texted him and asked if he was done with his test. He said, "Yes, and I got a 97!" I pretty much FLIPPED out I was so proud of him! When I was cooking dinner, I brought it up again how excited I was that he got a 97 and he wasn't really that pumped up about it, which was kind of weird considering how big of a deal it was.

That night was Eric's turn to say the prayer. He was telling Heavenly Father all that we are grateful for and he gave thanks for doing well on his exam that day and asked that he would also be able to study sufficiently and do well on his biochemistry test on Thursday. I jerked my hand away from his and gave him a really weird look. He looked over at me and whispered, "What? I'm taking it on Thursday." And I whispered (because we were in the middle of a prayer, you know) "Well what test did you take today?" His response: "Statistics."

I of course started laughing. (so much for the whispering) No wonder he wasn't jumping up and down and off the walls about getting a 97!! Statistics is a pretty easy class for Eric and he's gotten at least a 97, if not higher on all of his other exams so far. I told him that I thought he had taken the biochemistry test and knew nothing about statistics. He told me he must not have gotten 100 because I was praying about the wrong test. :)

I mostly composed myself and said OK and we resumed the position to continue praying. Eric bowed his head and said, "Sorry" to continue the prayer. I don't know why, but that was hilarious to me so I lost it all over again. Eric was laughing too but also asking me what was so funny. I couldn't even talk. It felt like I was back with my girls in Snow 137 or 320 of the Colony, trying to have roommate prayer. That NEVER ended with an "amen", just a giggle fit that lasted forever. Good times.

Finally when we both calmed down, Eric told me he would just start the prayer over instead of trying to apologize to Heavenly Father for our irreverance. I thought that was a pretty good idea.

I sure hope this baby isn't having second thoughts about her choice in parents... We can be kinda nuts-o sometimes. Hopefully she has a good sense of humor :)

Ruffles and Bows

2011-02-12T11:19:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me at all knows that patience is not one of my strong points. And by that I mean, I have NEVER been a patient person and I HATE waiting for things. Think about it... I sent off TWO missionaries. And I didn't marry either one of them!

Well for someone as impatient as myself, waiting for a baby to arrive is pure torture. I mean, my patience was already pushed to the limit just by waiting this long to even have a baby. And now that I'm pregnant, holy cow, I just want that baby in my arms NOW!!!

I guess I should be grateful I'm not an elephant. Those poor creatures have to wait 22 months to meet their little ones! They are creating something much LARGER than me, but still. If I had the gestation period of an elephant, I would fail at being a parent before it even started. (Couldn't wait 2 years for missionaries, remember?)

Anyway, needless to say, I'm getting really anxious and excited to meet this baby of ours. Eric is too. I still have 4 months left and it feels like an eternity. On that same note, however, it's been 4 months since we found out we were expecting and that has flown by. I have plenty to keep me busy between now and June anyway.

It has helped tremendously that we got to have our ultrasound last Friday!! It was the PERFECT birthday present for me and my parents flew in for the weekend so they could be a part of it, which was really fun and so special.

And that's the reason for the title of my post... Ruffles and Bows...
Because that's all it's going to be for us for awhile since we're having a GIRL!!!!!

We are very excited! I thought for sure I was having a boy, but my mother-in-law knew all along it was a girl. And I guess my own mom did too. Both of them had already purchased baby girl clothes months ago!

Now we just need to decide on a name. We had some boy names picked out that we LOVE, but we're still trying to figure out what we like that will look good in pink.

Last night we went to Target and browsed through their baby stuff. Oh man, I was in heaven. Eric asked me to please stop gasping and saying "OH MY GOSH" with every dress I picked up. I just couldn't help myself... it's all so adorable! We did end up purchasing our first baby item though...

(the pants are turned around so you can see the CUTE ruffles!)

My due date is June 18th, the day before Father's Day. If she's born on Father's Day, then I'm prepared with an outfit to bring her home in!

When He's Not Farting....

2011-01-27T22:39:00.001-07:00

... Eric is actually a really cool guy. I would know, I married him!

I know you all think your husbands are wonderful, and that is just great. But I think mine is awesome and I never really talk about that. He has made my life pretty dang special and has made me feel like a pretty special girl.

Eric was a little peeved about all the silly things I shared about him, but he knows I did it out of love. Nonetheless, I told him I was going to do a special post all about him and how awesome he is, so get ready, cuz here it comes!

In Eric's pre-Courtney days (we'll refer to that as PC), he was quite the ladies' man. And I have a feeling it had something to do with his long hair...

But I bet you guys could have guessed that, seeing as he is such a handsome man and all. What you probably didn't guess is that Eric was on the BYU Lacrosse Team!!!

That's him right there! #5. I am not including this information to brag that my husband was a collegiate athlete (although that is pretty dang cool), but rather because of his personal qualities that led him to that point. Eric started playing lax as a Sophomore at Lone Peak High School--the very first year they ever had a lax program. They were horrible. But Eric worked super hard and he even attended BYU's lax camp every summer to help himself improve. Then when he got to BYU as a freshman, he tried out for the team. He didn't make it. So he worked even harder and worked out with the team as much as possible. Then he tried out again and he made it! This is a pattern I have noticed many times in knowing Eric: when he knows he wants something, he works hard to get it and he doesn't give up until he does. Take me, for example. He had some pretty tough competition ;)

Moving right along here... Eric is also a reeeally good big brother! He is the oldest of 5 kids and every one of his siblings looks up to him a LOT. Although they like to complain that Eric is the golden child and he gets everything he wants, they really do love him.

That is Eric with his youngest brother, Courtland, who is now 13. You can just tell by Courtland's smile how much he loves being with his big brother. Stacie (Eric's mom) always tells me that when Courtland was little, he would ONLY allow Eric to help him do things. None of the other kids were allowed near him. I love stories like this. I know Eric is going to be such an awesome dad because he is a great big brother. I'm glad that he will be the one setting the example in our household. As a side note, the dog is definitely a huge part of Eric's life. Her name is Kai and she also adores Eric. She is pretty much his dog and he trained her. I am amazed at how well she listens to Eric! She wouldn't be so obedient if he wasn't so loving to her. He still wrestles her to the ground though which always worries me because she's getting so old. Stacie always tells us that Kai has a really hard time walking around on Mondays after Eric plays with her on Sundays when we're up there for dinner. :)

Eric is an extremely loyal friend. He would NEVER say anything bad about any of his friends, and he has a lot of them. He accepts all of them for who they are and never judges based on mistakes they may have made or things they sometimes say or do. He is a really great example to me in this arena because I tend to be overly critical of others. I'm quick to point fingers at someone else because of all the issues I have. I'm trying really hard to learn Eric's ways.

This is Eric and his best friend Doug at Eric's birthday party a couple years ago. I also love how silly Eric is. He really is a goofball and it makes life so much fun! We have a great time together even though he told me once, pretty seriously I might add, that I am no fun. Apparently my level of fun just doesn't even compare to his... but he has been diligently trying to change that too.

Eric is an EXCELLENT teacher! And he really enjoys teaching, which is nice for me because--as I have already made abundantly clear in this post--I have a lot to learn from him!

This is me after I caught my first fish! Eric took me fishing back when we were dating and I had a blast. I was worried I would hate it and that I wouldn't be able to catch anything. But thanks to Eric's patience and great teaching, I caught 8 fish that day! (This picture is already making me miss my pre-pregnancy body... oh boy)

Well, I could got on for hours and hours, but I'll wrap it up before anyone falls asleep. I love Eric, and he loves me. That is a wonderful feeling and I can't wait to see our love continue to grow!

Oh and by the way, Eric found out today that he was awarded an ORCA grant for the research he is doing with a chemistry professor on campus. I am SO proud of him and his accomplishments!!

The Power of Prayer

2011-01-20T21:27:00.000-07:00

When I was in my senior year of high school, I had THE best seminary teacher EVER! For our seminary graduation (or maybe it was Christmas?), she gave each of us a plaque that says "Prayer Changes Things." I have come to know that this phrase is so true. Prayer does change things. It can change anything and I have a very strong testimony of that. But even more powerful than the prayer of one person, is the combined power of a multitude praying together.

Yet another powerful tool is the internet. The internet brings people together and allows us to tune into what may be be going on in the lives of other people instead of always just focusing on our own problems.

Today, I am asking anyone who is reading this to help me combine these tools: internet and prayer. There is a very special girl named Mary who will be undergoing a very serious surgery on her brain tomorrow (Friday the 21st.) Last summer, she suffered an AVM bleed. I do not know enough about it to speak intelligently about what exactly that means, but she was in the ICU for awhile and since then has had some very interesting trials. One of which was that she could not taste food the way food should be tasted. This problem made her not want to eat. Can you imagine? Not enjoying the taste of food? That would be so frustrating to me! But that is probably the least of her worries.

Mary is a BYU student and she was miraculously able to return to BYU this past fall but some of her symptoms came back and she had to go home early. So now she is undergoing surgery to remove the AVM from her brain. If any of you bloggers out there enjoy reading good stories of total strangers like I do, Mary's mom started a blog to tell their story. You can check it out here. You can also get all the details on Mary's story and what exactly is going on with her brain.

Although a few years younger than me, I know what a wonderful person Mary is. She has always been so bubbly and bright and so very kind to anyone she meets. She is hilarious and fun too. During my fourth year of Girls' Camp, Mary was a wee little first year and she hung out in our cabin for literally HOURS, entertaining us all with her "Coffee Talk with Linda Showelbowg." Any of you girls out there remember that? :) Then in testimony meeting during Sacrament meeting a couple weeks later she somehow related all the mosquito bites we got to some Gospel principle. She had everyone laughing but at the same time actually had a really great insight.

Anyway, please pray for Mary. Heavenly Father will hear our prayers and we can all be a part of helping one of His children.

If you're interested in getting updates from her surgery, you can read her older sister Catherine's blog here.

Dear Mom

2011-01-11T21:19:00.000-07:00

I think it's about time I tell you how grateful I am that you had me. You see, I'm the second child of your six. And at this point, I don't know if I'll ever make it past baby #1. It's been a rough 17 weeks. I never knew it would be possible for me to have such an awful aversion to food. I have to eat or else I throw up... but I never want to eat because the thought of food makes me want to throw up too. You of all people know how much I HATE throwing up. Before I was pregnant, I hadn't done that since my senior year in high school!

But there have been other issues as well... From the time Baby Bready here was the size of a cumquat, I was already waking up in the middle of the night (every night) having to pee. After getting back into bed, it usually takes me a good hour or two to fall back asleep. Oh sleep... How I love thee. All I want to do is sleep, but I have no time for that.

The nausea FINALLY went away! Hallelujah! The past 4 days have been glorious. Except for now I have this awful pain in my lower back constantly. I sit at my desk at work all day, and then I have to go sit in a desk at school for another couple of hours. Last night it was so bad that not even laying down in bed at night was bringing any relief.

Everyone keeps telling me it's worth it, yourself included. And I know you must be telling me the truth or else you would have stopped at Nikki and I would never have been born. And I can see it in you too. When I was putting all of our home videos onto DVD for you for Christmas I loved watching the ones of you filming your babies. I could hear the love in your voice so strongly. I think I'm starting to get a little glimpse of that, but I cannot WAIT to hold this baby in my arms. I know I will be instantly in love and it's going to feel so good.

I love this picture of you holding me. I am SO ready to be a mom and to finally understand a mother's love.

Love forever,
Bam

P.S. Here I am at 15 weeks. I'm gonna be HUGE seeing as I have such a short torso.

Our Marriage

2011-01-05T18:45:00.001-07:00

December 27th was Eric and my 2 year wedding anniversary. Two years?? Seriously? I know that two years doesn't sound like a lot, but back when I sent off my missionaries (not at the same time mind you), two years was an ETERNITY. But I didn't end up marrying either of those missionaries and boy am I glad! Not that they aren't great guys, but my Eric is so perfect for me and I really do know that Heavenly Father placed him in my life at the exact moment that He did so that we would be married and raise a righteous family.

Oh and that family part? We are both SO DANG EXCITED! Especially Eric. Which just makes me love him even more. Every day he pats my tummy and lowers his head down and says, "Come out." And then he tells me he wants the baby to come out and play with him. We both agree, however, that it would be best if the baby stays in there until it's ready. Although it will be awhile before they can actually play together, I know he's going to be a great dad and that is one of the reasons I know we were meant to be together. Since I was very young, becoming a mom has always been my biggest dream. I always struggled trying to figure out what I wanted to be professionally and choosing a major, etc. and I think that's because all I ever really wanted to do was have babies. And I need someone with me who wants babies too and wants a wife who wants babies and wants to be the support system so that there can be babies (hopefully lots of them!) Eric is perfect for the job.

And now, just some random information about the Breadys:

We bought a box of garbage bags at Costco right after we got married. We're still working on using up that same box.
Eric farts a LOT. I'm pretty sure they get more frequent and more smelly every day.
We both get annoyed when the other person leaves messes around. We both leave messes around on a daily basis.
We each have our own tube of toothpaste: Colgate for Eric, Crest for me. At first I tried to just use the Colgate, but he didn't like the way I squeezed the tube and would comment on it every day. So I just switched back to Crest.
Eric steals my socks. He likes the way girl socks feel on his feet better.
We are both very competitive. We have definitely yelled at each other while playing games with friends. I am only slightly embarrassed about this. (It's usually Eric's fault)
Eric's hiking pace is GRUELING for me. I always say that I love hiking and Eric thinks I'm lying about it because every time we go together, I complain the whole time that he is going too fast.
I sleep in the very center of the bed because I like to be close to Eric, who is dutifully staying on his side.
Speaking of sleeping, Eric says and does HILARIOUS things while he's asleep.

To celebrate our anniversary, we went to La Jolla Groves in the Riverwoods. It was AMAZING. We were both drooling over the delicious food and we cannot wait to go back! I ordered the chicken stuffed crepes, and as much as I want to try everything on the menu, I may have to get the same thing every time I go.

Eric and I agree that this next year of marriage is going to be the best yet! I will graduate from BYU, Eric will take the MCAT and apply to medical school, and of course, we'll become parents.

Someday, I would like to write a post in which I'm completely open and frank about the hard times/fighting we've endured. But for now, I'm content to end on a happy note :)

Interview with My Grandparents

2010-12-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

So for one of my classes I had to interview my grandparents about their experiences in the past with the media. I am supposed to post the transcript to the internet, so here it is. It probably will be really boring for any of you to read, but here is what I learned from doing this:

My grandparents are really neat people. Not that I didn't think that before, but they just have some really interesting stories.

From listening to the recorded interview and transcribing it all, I realized that older people are so much more welll-spoken than our generation. They never say "like" and I say it like a million times ;) But seriously, they just are more poised in their language selection. Does that make sense?

Also, I think it would be really neat to do regular recorded interviews with my grandparents for posterity's sake. Like I said, they have so many cool stories and who actually knows if they're recorded anywhere? I think my grandpa has done a really good job of recording his life history, but there's something about hearing their voices that makes it special.

I love my grandparents and the good example they have set for me about the value of hard work and sacrifice. They built the home they still live in with their own hands. And then they built a cabin in the woods. It is one of my most favorite places in all the world. The best story Grandpa told me in our interview was that when my dad (their oldest of 3 kids) was serving a mission, Grandpa milked cows to earn some extra money to support my dad on his mission in Taiwan. Grandpa was a schoolteacher so it wasn't like he was raking in the dough. But he took on extra work so that he could help my dad out. I admire him and respect him for that. I know how much my dad's mission meant to him and I'm sure he was grateful for the support.

Although Grandpa is a little quirky and Grandma snores really loud, I'm so glad I have them in my life. They always came to major life events and they're planning on coming to my college graduation in April. They told me their only worry is that Chantel (my cousin) and I might be walking at the same time! They are so sweet and I love them!

Here is the transcript (for my assignment's sake, but also for posterity.)

David Storey and Audrey Bell Bean Oral History Project

Interview with Dave and Audrey Bean

Date of Interview: December 6, 2010; Interviewer in Provo, Utah; Interviewees in LaGrande, Oregon (done by telephone)

Interviewer: Courtney Bready

Transcriber: Courtney Bready

Begin Recording 1

Courtney: It’s Monday, December 6^th and I’m talking with Dave and Audrey Bean, my grandparents about their experiences with the media. Before I began recording, I just asked them to share what their memories are as far as their exposure to the media is concerned. Now say that again, Grandma.

Audrey: Well when I first, when we first had TV, I was a kid and it was black and white and it was rather fuzzy I should say, you know it wasn’t really clear.

Dave: And about an 8 inch screen.

Audrey: And it was… boy were we tickled to death.

Dave: It doesn’t get any better than this.

Courtney: Do you remember how old you were?

Dave: Pardon?

Courtney: Do you remember how old you were?

Dave: Oh gosh

Audrey: I was in high school.

Dave: Yeah, 18 maybe, 17.

Courtney: Cool.

Dave: Now radio programs. Years ago they used to have some radio programs like, uh, The Shadow, and they’d say “The Shadow knows” and it was a mystery. And they had Sam Spade who was a detective. What was the show Audrey where they had the creaking door? They’d always open the door and it squacked? It’d make your blood run cold.

Audrey: I can’t remember.

Dave: But then on TV there is a program that’s been running for years, which we still enjoy watching and that’s Perry Mason.

Courtney: Oh yeah!

Dave: Haha. But television now, I think they’re trying to do something which has been needful for a long time. You can be sitting watching TV and half asleep and all of a sudden they kick into an ad and the sound level about three times as many decibels as you were getting before

Courtney: Mm hmm

Dave: And that is very irritating.

Courtney: Yes it is, I agree. Eric and I were just talking about that the other day.

Dave: Yeah. Oh, what else?

Courtney: Do you remember, like, any major events that you heard about on the radio or saw on TV?

Dave: Well, starting out major events on the radio was the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Courtney: Mm hmm

Dave: I was five years old when that happened and I didn’t know why my parents were listening to the radio on Sunday, because they never did that.

Courtney: Oh.

Dave: And uh, why my mother was crying, I didn’t realize that, uh, gee I had an 18-year-old brother that was gonna be subject to the draft and so on and so I well remember that.

Audrey: So do I. I remember going in and sitting in. We were, as I remember we were in Boise, living in Boise at the time and then mother had uh room that had sliding glass doors where the living room was and us kids couldn’t go in there unless we were nice and clean

Courtney: mm hmm

Dave: SO you never went in there huh?

Audrey: Oh yeah, we did. But uh, you opened those doors and we went into this radio and all sat down around the on the floor and listened to that. And that was really quite a big event. A very big event.

Courtney: Right.

Dave: Well another thing, since you didn’t limit the media, I guess we can cover anything.

Courtney: Yeah, anything.

Dave: Uh, when we were kids, we would go to the theater where they showed movies and before they would show them, they always had news reels. And I remember lots and lots of news reels that uh, showed exactly what was going on and where in the second World War and when we were fighting in the Pacific and fighting in Eurpoe and so on and they’d run the news reels always before they would show the movie.

Courtney: That’s cool. I didn’t know that.

Dave: And uh, that you know, we didn’t have television at that time so that was the only way we got to really see what was going on. Do you remember those Audrey?

Audrey: Oh yes.

Dave: Yeah.

Courtney: So would people, did people ever go to the movies just to watch the news reels?

Dave: Oh probably. But at least, and see since we didn’t have television, the movie theaters were extremely popular. We had oh three or four here in LaGrande.

Courtney: Oh really?

Dave: Let’s see, we had the Liberty, the State, the Grenada, and then we put in the drive-in theater so I guess we had four.

Courtney: Wow.

Dave: And uh, people went to the movies a lot because there wasn’t any television so that was the best source of visual entertainment.

Courtney: Right.

Dave: And besides, you could get a sack of popcorn for a dime, you could get a 12 ounce soda pop for a nickel, and a good sized candy bar for a nickel.

Courtney: Well that’s certainly changed, hasn’t it?

Dave: Uh yeah. Only now I get my popcorn free because I get it at Bronson’s Lumber when I go.

Audrey: Well and another thing about the movies Courtney is that if you were ever to see a movie with a couple uh, and if they ever went into the bedroom, it was twin beds. I mean, it’s noth—the movies were not like they are today.

Courtney: Yeah

Dave: You hardly ever saw people smoking and drinking in the movies either.

Courtney: Oh really?

Dave: Way back when. And kissing was very limited, shall we say. They weren’t trying to slobber all over each other or chew on each other, anything like that.

Courtney: Huh.

Dave: Like you see now.

Audrey: Does that help you any?

Courtney: Yeah, keep going.

Dave: Or does that add to the confusion?

Courtney: No, I, I like it. Um, do you remember, let’s see what was I gonna ask? Um, did you, you guys had a TV when you had kids, right?

Dave: Yeah.

Corutney: Did you always have it?

Dave: I don’t remember.

Audrey: What was the question again?

Dave: If we had a TV when we had kids. Whether we always had it.

Audrey: Uh, no we got our first TV. I had a camera, that I had bought when I was working. A real nice camera. And I was able to sell that camera, or trade that camera for a TV set to go into our 10 by 55 foot trailer. And that was back when Jeff and Jeanette were babies. And that was about our first TV.

Courtney: OH, OK.

Dave: And it seems to me that way back when that the news media was a lot less biased than what you see now.

Courtney: Oh yeah

Dave: That you could pick up a newspaper and you could count on learning what was going on and you’d get it from a, more or less a neutral viewpoint.

Courtney: Mm hmm

Dave: Rather than trying to scew it right or elft or who knows which way.

Audrey: They just reported the news, that’s exactly what they did, they didn’t try to embellish it or anything, they just reported the news.

Dave: But to give you an example, uh, we have a good friend here in LaGrande who has a son who is Jim’s age and he worked for a big newspaper back East, Chicago I think. Anyway, he told his father, very proudly, “We don’t report the news, we make the news.”

Courtney: Hmm.

Dave: And that is what is so irritating and probably why very few people really trust the news media.

Courtney: Yeah, that’s true.

Dave: By the way, he got fired.

Courtney: Oh really?

Dave: For plagiarism.

Courtney: Oh, I thought he was supposed to be making the news.

Dave: Well, he made the news alright, but he made somebody else’s news.

Courtney: Yeah.

Dave: And he got canned.

Courtney: That’s funny. Um do you remember, you talked about Pearl Harbor, do you remember, and you listened to that on the radio, right?

Dave: Yes.

Courtney: Do you remember any wars, war coverage or anything on TV?

Dave: We didn’t have TV

Courtney: Not that one, but like, later.

Dave: Which war?

Courtney: Um, any of them, later.

Dave: There was no television coverage of the Second World War.

Courtney: Right.

Dave: So I don’t know… the first TV coverage I may have seen of the wars, probably, I don’t even remember if we had any TV coverage of the Korean war. The Vietnamese War, yes.

Courtney: I think it was Vietnam that was the first one.

Dave: Yeah. Now here’s just a little footnote. Television was invented by Philo Farnsworth.

Courtney: Mm hmm. We talked about him

Dave: Who was, I believe the uncle of my favorite missionary companion.

Courtney: Oh really?

Dave: Yep. Lynn Farnsworth who married Mary Smith, J. Reuben Clark’s granddaughter.

Courtney: Huh.

Dave: Mary, Mary Clark, J. Reuben Clark’s granddaughter.

Courtney: That’s cool.

Dave: Yeah, I thought so too. I got to go to the wedding. Anyway, and my, my missionary companion never mentioned that, never bragged about it or anything. He was just cool.

Courtney: That’s cool. We actually get to go visit Philo Farnsworth’s grave for some extra credit points, so

Dave: Ah. Where is it?

Courtney: It’s in Provo—the Provo Cemetery

Dave: Uh huh. Because uh, Lynn Farsworth grew up in Beaver, Utah.

Courtney: Oh, OK

Dave: Yeah and there’s lots of Farnsworths around. He’s currently in uh, I think Scottsdale, Arizona. In fact, when we picked your father up from his mission, we came through that area and stopped in and visited Lynn Farnsworth and his wife.

Courtney: That’s neat.

Dave: Anyhow. OK. Going back years ago, there were comic strips in the newspapers, the Sunday funnies and what have you. One of them was Dick Tracy. Well, Dick Tracy had cute little wrist radios that they could communicate with back and forth to find out what was going on in town you know where they needed the police and what have you. I thought, man that’s cool. Won’t get any better than that. And then years later in Dick Tracy they had little picket sized televisions on their wrists and I thought, that’ll never happen. But uh, consider what we have now in the world of technology and Dick Tracy was just ahead of his time.

Courtney: That’s true.

Dave: Yeah.

Audrey : And there was Flash Gordon.

Dave: Oh yeah. That’s another comic strip. OK now here’s one for you talking about media… You didn’t say we had to limit it to the US.

Courtney: No.

Dave: In Russia, during the Cold War, there were two major newspapers: Pravda and Itsvestsa I think or Itsvestia. Anyway, one of them, translated means “The Truth” and the other one translated means “The News.” I had a Russian landlady in Berlin and she told me that the saying in Russia behind closed doors was, “there is no news in The Truth and there is no truth in The News.”

Courtney: Huh.

Dave: That’s how much they thought of their media because it was totally controlled and in many nations of the world, that’s the case: the news media are controlled by the government and they tell you what they want you to hear and it’s just plain, flat-out brainwashing. I went to a, a movie in Leisig, which is 175 miles behind the Iron Curtain. I went there in 1979, I sat in an audience amidst a bunch of uh, young men who were Russians, Russian Tank Corp, and they were showing a movie which was primarily propaganda about Mother Russia and how wonderful and how beautiful it is and they were all cheering, “Oh go Mother Russia, oh tremendous.” I thought, “how can you swallow this?” The answer is because they never heard anything else.

Courtney: Hmm.

Dave: In fact, when they had Russian troops in Germany, and in East Germany and East Berlin and so on, we were told that when they sent those troops home, that they had to spend time in Siberia to be re-trained and re-programmed because even though the East Germany economy was terrible, it was so much better than what they had in Russia that they didn’t dare send them straight home and let them talk about what they had seen.

Courtney: Wow.

Dave: Like, running water, indoors.

Courtney: Wow.

Dave: Flushing toilets, things like that. So the news media in many nations of the world is totally controlled by the government that controls the country.

Courtney: Interesting.

Dave: Fortunately, we’re not at that point in this country, but there sure is a lot of news media that is controlled by somebody that I don’t care for.

Courtney: Yeah.

Dave: So as long as we still have news media that puts out both sides, we’ve got some hope. Once that ends, we’re in trouble.

Courtney: Yeah. Well there’s so many more sources now for news that it’s easier to get both sides I think.

Dave: Well, they want to put an end to people like Rush Limbaugh and uh, Bill O’Reilly, Fox News, things like that because they’re very conservative and far right and “we don’t want that”

Courtney: of course. Well, can you think of anything else?

Dave: I don’t know, can we think of anything else Audrey?

Audrey: No I can’t, really. Unless you ask a question and we can come up with something.

Dave: I do, OK I’ll tell you a story about something that I vividly remember.

Courtney: OK.

Dave: I was teaching a class, a ninth grade, low level math class, it was the bottom of the bottom of the ninth grade in math ability. When we heard about the assassination of President Kennedy, so I just happened to have a radio in my room and we stopped talking about math and I turned on the radio and we listened and talked about it and so on. And it really had quite an effect on those kids. So even though they had very low ability in math, they still had an understanding of what was going on and what was happening.

Courtney: Mm hmm.

Dave: Now, here’s one, you probably can’t use this. When your father was on a mission, I milked cows to help support him on a mission. And you go out in the barn and the cows don’t talk to you very much, they’re just kind of boring and I had a radio that I would take out there and I played the radio in the barn and as long as I was listening to news or whatever, things were OK. But when they started playing the kind of music that is on our local radio stations, the cows would get nervous and milk production went down. So the media has an effect, not only on people, but on animals. And so I stopped playing the local radio stations and I took a small cassette player out there and I played Book of Mormon tapes and things like that and, or I would play classical or semi-classical or easy-listening music and the cows were fine. I don’t know what would have happened if I had tried country western, they might have gotten all excited. But anyway, it just pointed out to me that the tempo and the beat of the music coming across the media had an effect on the cows and on milk production.

Courtney: That’s interesting.

Dave: And so, they say, music calms the beast. Well, it depends on what kind of music.

Courtney: Right.

Dave: And it depends on whether you’re talking about a two-legged or a four-legged beast. Because I’ve seen kids get so hyper and stirred-up because of the type of music they’re listening to.

Courtney: Mm hmm.

Dave: And in the Church, we’re cautioned to be careful what you listen to. And with good reason.

Courtney: Definitely.

The Bready Bunch

2010-12-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

What? Two people isn't much of a "bunch" you say? Fine then. We'll make it three. :)

June 18, 2011

Busy?

2010-10-26T22:22:00.000-06:00

To say that Eric and I have been busy would be an understatement.

Eric's schedule looks something like this:

His evenings are filled with studying and tutoring students. Plus grading, etc. for his Organic Chemistry TA job. This schedule doesn't really show all his work hours. Not to mention the insane amount of studying he needs to do for Physics, BioChemistry, and Calculus II. Thursday nights are usually taken up by his calling.

Overview:

15.0 credit hours

20.0 hours of work (he just took on an extra recitation thanks to one of his co-workers getting fired)

10.0+ hours of lab research

4.0+ hours of volunteer work

This is what my schedule looks like:

Yes, I have class until 9 or 10 pm three days out of the week. But on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm usually in the sewing lab until 10 anyway. And I don't actually take lunch breaks. I usually use them to make up hours I've had to miss to do school projects and stuff.

Overview:

40.0 hours of work

11.0 credit hours

As you can see, we've been a little busy. I would like to say that we're loving every minute of it, but who actually loves having every waking hour of their week booked before the week even begins? We do enjoy being busy most of the time, and we know we're preparing ourselves for the future and the family we will have someday, and that makes it all worth it!

In case you were wondering, we rarely do the dishes (in fact, the sink is overflowing at this very moment) and we don't clean unless people are coming over, and even then, it's only on the surface. So if anyone wants some extra chores, I know exactly where you can find some!

We are holding on as tight as we can, just trying to make it to Thanksgiving. That will be a much needed break and hopefully carry us through the rest of the semester.

Maui

2010-09-21T22:49:00.000-06:00

Welp, I'm back. We haven't had the internet at home for awhile and all our pictures are on Eric's computer. But, I do have pictures from Maui!! We went to Hawaii with my family way back in July and we had a great time! Thanks Mom and Dad :)

This is Eric and Katie while we were on our way to Eric's chosen birthday activity. We celebrated Eric's 23rd birthday while we were in Hawaii. I can't imagine a better way to spend the day!

He wanted to go hiking in the jungle.

It was actually really beautiful! We went on someone's property that has all these gorgeous waterfalls so they leave it open for the public to enjoy. Here's one of the waterfalls...

By the way, on the way to the falls, Jody HATED the choice of music and all the singing along that was happening. It was hilarious.

Eric was a dare devil and wanted to jump off all the waterfalls. I would only jump from the really low spots.

Then, later that night, we went to Bubba Gump's for Eric's birthday dinner!

Where we enjoyed DELICIOUS food and a lovely sunset.

Then we went to visit "the tree" which Eric had never seen before. I tried explaining it to him over the phone when I was here 2 years ago with my family right after Eric and I got engaged. However, he was quite impressed seeing it in real life.

And of course, all trees are made for climbing...

We actually got up on a pretty good spot. Here is Cassie, demonstrating how high we were

The next day, we went on a snorkeling trip! It was so fun!

The best part of the trip was that Eric and I got to snuba dive! I was TERRIFIED to try it because I don't necessarily even love snorkeling, but I did it, and I'm so glad I did! By the way, don't we just look so attractive in snuba gear? :)

And here's us with Jody and Dad... Jody LOVED the experience!

We got to see the turtles up close and personal. It was way cool!

The next morning, Eric and Scotty got up at 2:00 am to go on a bike ride to see the sunrise on the Road to Hana. When we were signing up for the excursion, I was planning on going, but the guy told me we would be going 20 mph around hairpin turns and that if I couldn't keep up, they would throw me in the van. Since I haven't been on a bike in.... a really long time.... I opted out. But they had a great time!!

Here they are in their sweet gear!

And the beautiful sunrise

My favorite part of the trip was just being able to lay out by the pool, reading my book until I was so hot I couldn't stand it. Then I would either play in the ocean, or cool off in the pool, and then go back to my book. It was the perfect R&R vacation with just the right amount of entertainment mixed in. Eric probably wouldn't agree... he likes to keep busy.

One day, Eric and I rented surfboards for an hour. I had only been surfing one other time and it was with an instructor who pushed me into the waves in order to catch them. So this time, I pretty much layed on the board on my stomach the whole time, trying to catch a wave. Well just at the very end, I caught it, and I KNEW I had caught it. I was trying to stand up, but only made it to my knees before realizing I was CRUISING straight towards where all the people were playing in the waves. I was just screaming and apologizing and going so fast I didn't know what to do with myself. Everyone just kind of squealed and dove out of my way, grabbing children as they went. It was absolutely hilarious and SO fun!

Another day, Eric, Scotty and I rented paddle boards. You know, where you stand up on a large surfboard and use a paddle to move around. We picked the windiest part of the day apparently, and it was WAY harder than it looked! But it was really fun at the same time. I was the only one who didn't fall off, by the way :)

All in all, it was a wonderful vacation and I wish I was back in Hawaii right now. I got such an amazing tan and it is for sure completely gone. Hopefully we'll be back next year!

America, America!

2010-07-21T20:48:00.000-06:00

The Fourth of July has always been my favorite holiday. I love everything about it--the food, the family get-togethers, the friends, the fireworks, the parties, and just the overall feeling of happiness and gratitude that I have throughout the entire day. I am so grateful that I am an American and that I live in such a wonderful place.

I have always thought that my favorite part of the 4th was being at home in Washington with my own family. Fort Vancouver claims to have the best fireworks show west of the Mississippi and I love going every year. However, when I found out Carrie Underwood was coming to Provo for the Stadium of Fire this year, there was no question that I would be staying here. She is pretty much my favorite person in the world and the only celebrity that I care anything about. She is my idol. (Please excuse the cliche.)

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I have a pretty sweet job with some awesome benefits. One of those happens to be that Fillmore Spencer is the legal counsel to the Freedom Festival so they have access to pre-order seats at the Stadium of Fire and they get really good seats. Ours were in row 2. They were worth every penny I paid!

Waiting for the show to start

Not the most flattering shot, it's just to show how close we were.

Jacob was excited too! He LOVED the flyover.

Carrie came out to sing the National Anthem! It gave me the chills. Seriously. It was absolutely amazing.

And this was me when she finally came out for the concert. Like I said, she's my idol. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning! :)

She is gorgeous. I want to meet her. She's coming to the Rose Garden in Portland in September. Only $1,800 for the meet-and-greet. Daddy? Pleeeeease???? :)

When she sang "Temporary Home" I teared up during the last verse where she sings about the old man in the hospital room, thinking about my grandpa. She is a very spiritual person and I could feel of her goodness throughout her performance. Someone needs to share the Gospel with that girl!

The other parts of the show were pretty amazing too!

Surprisingly, I have to say, I am a Provo 4th of July convert! Their fireworks were so awesome! Except for maybe the rogue ones that shot straight into the crowd. One of them burned Jenny Oaks Baker. Oops.

In my opinion, they'll never top Carrie Underwood, but I'm sure I'll return to the Stadium of Fire again next year.

The Narrows

2010-07-01T17:50:00.000-06:00

Last weekend Eric and I went down to St. George/Zion National Park. My boss has a condo in St. George that he so graciously allowed us to use for the weekend (thanks Randy!!) We invited our good friends Doug and Kelly to join us for the trip. They just got married in May and are living in Cedar City while Doug finishes up at SUU.

Our plan for Saturday was to get up early, go on a hike, come back around 1, hang out at the pool, play some tennis, eat some sourdough pancakes for dinner, and then go see Toy Story 3. We may have been a little ambitious in these plans, but we accomplished all but one of the activities listed.

Doug wanted to take Eric and I to hike the Narrows at Zion's. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, this hike is up a river bed. You walk in the water pretty much the whole way. It is gorgeous, but rather treacherous for someone as uncoordinated as myself. I was pretty nervous about it, but I have to admit that it turned out to be probably my favorite hike of all time!

Here are some pictures from the beautiful slot canyon:

Check out that gorgeous scenery!

I think I made that face because Eric was pulling his shorts up... ?

Eric was being a good boy and holding my hand across the river. It's kinda hard to see where you're stepping and there are some pretty dang slippery rocks down there. (I have some SWEET bruises from falling)

Check out dem baby blues! Mm hmm!

Me and Eric. We do fun things.

Waterfall.

"The Boulder." This is where we stopped and turned around. We had already gone 7 miles up the river and hadn't been in the sun at all yet. Plus, we'd been wading/swimming through dang cold water. So cold in fact, that I couldn't feel that my feet had bad blisters ALL over them. So by this point, I was not a very happy ~~camper~~ hiker. Hence why I didn't notice the massive boulder hanging above our heads in mid-air until I saw these pictures.

What this picture doesn't show you is how we got UP that waterfall. It was tricky. I wouldn't have made it without the rope that the nice hikers coming down lent us, and Doug. At one point, I was dangling from the rope on one arm and Doug on the other. Pretty scary. After warming up and eating lunch, the only way down was to jump. And yes, I did plug my nose, thank you very much. After jumping, I was happy again and had a blast going back the last 7 miles, just in case you were worried about me. (This can mostly be attributed to the fact that the sun was directly above us in the sky, keeping the canyon and water nice and warm.)

At any point where the river was deep enough, we floated. We filled our reservoirs with air and our packs made for very nice flotation devices. Everyone we passed said things like, "Let's do that when we go back down," and "Wow, that looks fun!" I can't take credit for the idea though... It was Doug and Kelly's. If any of you hike the narrows, please steal this idea. It will make your adventure a million times better! (Just watch out for the rocks below the surface... Tailbones don't like them very much.)

The four of us at the END of our hike: Eric, me, Kelly, and Doug

Like I said earlier, there were other activities as well, but they just didn't get photographed.

All four of us LOVED Toy Story 3. I think it's mine and Eric's new favorite movie!

Thanks Doug and Kelly for the AWESOME weekend! We love you guys!

Rodeo, Rodeo, Wherefore Art Thou, Rodeo?

2010-06-29T22:58:00.000-06:00

Something that may surprise a few of you: Eric LOVES rodeos. More than popcorn.

Whoa! I might not want to take it quite that far... Maybe they come in number 2 after the popcorn.

Anyway, when we passed a billboard for the Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days, he told me we were going, no questions asked. It's his favorite one.

I haven't been to a rodeo in YEARS, but I was pretty excited to go. Here are some pictures from SATURDAY NIGHT!

His cowboy hat--I think he would make a pretty sexy cowboy, circa Marlboro Man ;)

The "homemade" belt buckle:

The rodeo clown was obsessed with a guy in the crowd named Junior. His jokes weren't very funny, but his back flips on top of stilts were pretty sweet.

I'm not so sure I belong in a cowboy hat...

This was the "world-renowned" show that they did right before the bull riding. Basically, the chick got on her horse and ran around in circles while the buffalo thought a reeeeally long time about getting up onto the trailer like they were supposed to.

They finally got up there, but the biggest cheer came when one of them dropped a huge poop right up on top. Oh and the truck pulling the trailer was pretty sweet too.

I think my favorite part of the whole thing was the strawberries and cream. I could eat that every single day. And in case you're wondering, they don't take cards at S Days... cash only please. Next year Eric and I will try to remember that to avoid the uh... heated discussion... we may have had ;)

A Little Scolding...

2010-06-21T16:30:00.000-06:00

Several people have been getting on my case lately for not blogging in such a long time. Yeah, yeah, I know... I'm busy, OK?

But then, the other day, it went to a whole new level. My husband--that dear, sweet man who teases me for always reading blogs--got on my case about it. He told me that if "we" don't blog about our adventures, everyone will think we're really boring people and no one will invite us to do anything. How yellow of you, Eric!

When I mentioned that he could feel free to update the blog anytime he wants, I got a flat out "no."

So here's my attempt at getting Eric some play dates.

I'll start with the most exciting news: WE RAN A HALF MARATHON!!!!!!

I have always wanted to do one. I even signed up for one two years ago and started training with the lovely Laura Wilde. But alas, I caught a terrible cold, I had a bad break-up, and the training went down the drain. But ever since Eric and I got married, we've talked about wanting to do one together. So when we saw the Utah Valley Half Marathon was going to debut this year on June 12th, we jumped on the opportunity and signed up. And good thing we did because that race sold out QUICK!

Before you get too excited or anything about this adventure, let me just preface the rest of this story by saying that I AM NOT A RUNNER. I have never considered myself to be a part of this elite group of individuals. I always wanted to be, but I never classified huffing and puffing to maybe run the whole 2 mile route around my neighborhood instead of walking half of it enough to give myself that title.

Anyway, my 3 goals for my first organized race EVER (no, I had never even done a 5k before this) were as follows:
1. Finish the race
2. Run the entire time (i.e. no walking breaks)
3. Finish under 2 hours, 30 minutes.

I was a little iffy on the last 2 seeing as on my long training runs, I always had to walk and couldn't even finish 11 miles in under 2 and a half hours. However, I am proud to say that I accomplished all 3 of these goals.

Toot! Toot!

(That was me tooting my own horn, in case you were confused.)

Anyway, I finished #65 out of 107 in the female, 19-24 division with a time of 2:19:11. That put me 298th place out of all the 533 women finishers! That may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but when you refer back to my list of goals, you should be just as excited as I was. And lucky for me, I finished 2 whole minutes before the winner of the FULL MARATHON! Haha.

Eric was much more impressive than I was, finishing at 1:51:26! Woot! That put him 15th out of the 28 men in his age division (19-24) and 81st out of the 248 men who finished the race. Good job Eric!!!

The best part of the whole thing was that my Dad and brother flew in just to cheer us on. And anyone who knows Scotty knows that him getting up to be at a finish line by 7:30 am is a BIG deal. But it sure meant a lot to have them there! Nikki joined them at the finish line and Eric's parents came too. They actually found me up the canyon somewhere around mile 7 and cheered me on there too. Boy did I need that boost!

We haven't gotten the pictures from Jon and Stacie yet, but here are the ones my dad sent that he took of us.

Me about to come around to the finish... That's why I'm smiling :)

Here I come!!!

Eric had to get a bandaid for a blister afterwards. I was chowing on some Little Caesar's pizza... That stuff never tasted better!

Me and Eric with our finishers' medals!

And our SWEET running shoes... These made all the difference for us.

Pulling into the mall parking lot at 3:45 am on Saturday was the coolest thing ever! There were so many runners all over the place and tons of buses. It was pitch black and cold and rainy and we were all crazy enough to be getting ready for a major run.

Remember that whole thing about me not being a runner? Well, I have to say that just a mile or so into the race, as I was cruising through the green, wet canyon at 5:30 in the morning with a hoard of other people, I felt like I was right where I belonged. As cheesy as that sounds. I've always heard that half marathons are addicting... I already can't wait to do another one!

Happy St. Patrick's Day To All, and To All, A Good Night!!

2010-03-17T22:24:00.000-06:00

Wait a minute, am I getting my holidays mixed up?? Maybe I am, but you wouldn't blame me if you saw my window this morning....

Yes, that is a wreath. A CHRISTMAS wreath. I cannot reach the window. I can't reach it from my porch, and I can't reach it from the ground. If I could, rest assured the CHRISTMAS wreath would have been gone on NEW YEARS DAY!!

If you don't quite understand my anger behind this statement, please refer to my previous post found HERE

Still waiting for someone to buy me that house...

Anyway, on a happier note, I have finally uploaded some of our "recent" pictures onto my computer. I will share some of the less hideous ones for your viewing pleasure

First off, did I mention how sweet our New Year's Eve was?? Cuz it was AWESOME! I love four-wheeling with Eric. We went up and had a bonfire overlooking the valley. The ride back was just slightly uncomfortable because I'm a girl and the world is NOT a woman's urinal. Although Eric frequently brags to me that it IS a man's.

Also since we've talked last, I turned 22! (side note. After reading this I went and checked my last blog post. Apparently we actually HAVE spoken since my birthday, but I failed to mention it due to the anger I was letting out on my keyboard. Why is it I only post when I'm angry?) Woot. Not that big of a deal. But I guess the next time I will turn an age that is 2 of the same number, I will be 33. That sounds like a scary number to me. So 22 is cool for now. Below is a picture of my birthday chair from Eric (Bready family tradition). He bought me some didodaurs! :) They are now "hiding" on the top of our fridge. I like to think of them as extra protection when Eric's not home. Also, he ate most of the candy he bought for me. That's OK, Eric. It's the thought that counts.

Also, we had a ward 80's skating activity. It was a BLAST! I suck at roller skates and almost died, but don't worry, I didn't even fall once! Can you believe it?? Me, the clutz-o, didn't fall.

Eric rocked the roller blades and he had way too much fun. The kind that makes you really sweaty and splits open your old, female, worn-out, purchased-from-DI jeans.

And I'm pretty sure I should wear this fuschia lipstick more often. We made a special trip to Walgreen's on the way to Classic Skating just to pick some up. It totally completed my outfit. I did have a jacket that matched Eric's in the picture above, but the color combo with all my pink and green photographed really weird (and probably looked super weird in real life anyway) so I opted for this picture instead.

P.S. Eric was also really excited about his V-neck T-shirt. I pretty much loved my denim vest.

Welp, that about sums up our life for now.

MY soapbox

2010-02-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I really hate BYU. But only for very specific reasons.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a Cougar, and I am true blue through and through, but there are some things that drive me NUTS!

So nuts in fact, that I am blogging right now to vent.

I haven't blogged in quite awhile, but for now, I need my soapbox. Even if no one hears me.

Everyone knows by now that I am currently working full time and taking 14 credits at BYU. I'm busy. To make a long story short, my 4-6:30 class went WAY over last night so I wasn't going to make it to my 6:10-7 class so I decided to skip ahead and go to my 7:00 bassoon lesson a little early. But, I had a very clever idea! Since I was parked by Brick Oven (closest lot to the JSB where these classes were) and it was POURING down rain and FREEZING cold and I was wearing hole-y flats (flats with holes-not practical, but very cute) I decided that instead of trekking all the way across campus to the HFAC and then all the way back to the opposite corner of campus, I would drive and park by the JKB. Genius!

As soon as I left the parking lot, I remembered something. Game night. Yikes! There's NO WAY there was going to be parking spots available by the JKB! It's right next to the Marriott Center! But, since my luck is changing ;) ;) I decided to try anyway.

After circling the lot for about 10 minutes, I saw reverse lights! Yes! But someone beat me to it in his little Toyota. And then... the reason for this post... I saw another guy, who had also been circling the lot. He RUNS over there and STANDS in the spot!! Like jumps out of his car to go save the spot! Since I was so close, and I tend to be a passionate person sometimes, I decided to let him know that that was not fair and to defend the poor guy in his car. I'm sorry people, but if you have ever been in a situation at BYU like this, and I can't imagine how you couldn't have been, then you know how extremely ridiculous the parking is. And I know as well as the next guy: FIRST COME FIRST SERVE! Sorry dude on FOOT in a PARKING lot, but the OTHER GUY got there FIRST! He deserves the spot.

So... I rolled my window down and shout through the rain: "You can't do that!" Some girl next to me started honking at me. I later realized that it was his wife. They were a match made in heaven. If the guy had been nice to me, I would have just left. But he was JERK!!!!! (We'll just call him J) I can't even explain how RUDE he was to me! But I was "in the way." So I rounded the corner, pulled my car over, left it running and GOT OUT to talk to J. After some investigation, I find that both these guys are trying to get to the game. HELLO! Get there early. Come on, the game has already started. And you know what J (Jerk Man) pulls out as an excuse??!?!? "My wife is pregnant!" ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!!?! That is ONLY a good excuse if she is IN LABOR!!!! If she is really SO pregnant that it is going to be difficult for her to walk to the Marriott Center, then you FOR SURE should have gotten there EARLY! And even better, how bout J, you DROP YOUR WIFE OFF at the Marriott center and YOU go park the dang car and WALK there!! Anyways then I try to tell him that I have class and I'm just tough out of luck, trying to show him that it is what it is, you know? And you know what he says?!?! "Well why didn't you get here ten minutes earlier?"

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'LL TELL YOU WHY!!!!!

IT'S BECAUSE I FORGOT ABOUT YOU PSYCHOS THAT MAKE ME SO EMBARRASSED TO CALL MYSELF A COUGAR!!!!

Thank you.

The end.

On a happier note, I am currently grateful for:

Eric, of course,
The advertising program,
My Media Law professor for extending the due date for our paper to NEXT Friday,
Catch-up chats,
P90x (although this gratitude is bitter sweet because it's so hard),
Scotty,
The fact that there are only 6 weeks left (of class) in the semester.

I can so totally do this.

And I have zero pictures because we don't take pictures. It's really sad.

Just My Luck!

2010-01-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

I have never had good luck. Ever. I'm not one of those people who wins a car from Keys to Success and gets upgraded to the Penthouse for free on a cruise when my credit card didn't go through correctly. I have never won anything in my life. Whenever I play a card game that has anything to do with luck, i.e. Golf, I lose. It just doesn't happen for me that way, and I'm OK with that.

A few weeks ago, I found a dollar bill on the ground at the mall. I picked it up and I was completely ecstatic about it, telling Eric that I was turning a new leaf in the book of luck. We got home and I hung the dollar bill on the bathroom mirror, proclaiming to my husband: "my luck is changing. Just you wait!"

Well, today I got a phone call. I'm getting some laser hair removal done (it's a long story that starts with Keith Belter calling me a "bearded lady" in the 7th grade) and it was them on the line. "Courtney you are actually the winner of a $500 gift certificate from our corporate office!" I was in shock! The girl even called me cute because I was so excited and told her that I never win anything in my life. Now, unfortunately, $500 can't really buy you that much when laser hair removal is concerned, but I don't even care. It will get me something. And who cares if it's just another one of their attempts to get more money from me? They picked the right person to use some false luck story on, that's for sure!

Not even two hours later, I get another phone call from a number I don't recognize.

Other Person: "Hi, I'm trying to reach Courtney."
Me: "I'm Courtney."
OP: "Well Courtney, this is so-and-so from such-and-such (can't remember the names) and we would like to send you on an all-expenses paid vacation, air fare and hotel accommodations included."
Me: Silence. I know there's a catch.
OP: "You don't have to pay anything, there's no obligations. We just like to send people on these vacations for free in the hopes that they will have a good time, tell their friends about it, and spread the word about our company."
Me: Silence. Thinking about how much I need a vacation right now.
OP: "So, I just need to schedule a time for you to come in and pick up your vacation package."
Me: "Are you sure I don't have to pay anything?"
OP: "No, it's all on us."
Me: "Is this a joke? There's not a catch?"
OP: "No, there's no catch. Seriously, it's just our way of advertising to potential customers."
Me: "Awesome! What do I need to do?"
OP: "OK great, let me just ask you a couple of questions."
Me: .....
OP: "Are you married or have a boyfriend or anything like that?"
Me: "Yeah, I'm married."
OP: "Perfect! Are you between the ages of 25 and 30 or are you over 30?"
Me: Already realizing the problem... My 22nd birthday is in a week. "No, we're not over 30."
OP: "OK good, so you're between the ages of 25 and 30 then?"
Me: "Actually, we're under 25."
OP: "Oh darn. Legally we can't extend this offer to you at this time."
Click.

Awesome.

Just my luck.

We Are Alive

2010-01-20T22:36:00.000-07:00

OK, I'll give it to ya quick and add pictures later. (I probably won't actually do that, but I'll say that I will anyways.)

Thanksgiving: with the Breadys. It was DELICIOUS.

Finals: Eric ROCKED! Me, not so much. :/ (But that's because I didn't try, just so you know!)

Christmas: Spent in Vancouver. Absolutely NO drama getting on an airplane this year. Go figure. It was great to see my family. We played Beattles Rock Band. I got a sewing machine. :) And Eric got P90X. More on that later.

New Years: Lots of Breadys. Four-wheeling in the snow. Bonfire. I WILL post pictures of this (once I find them) because it was one of the coolest things I have ever done.

School: Eric is taking 16 credits. I'm taking 14. Eric is working as a Chemistry TA again, and I'm still full-time as a legal assistant. We. Are. Busy.

P90X: We started it last Monday and we get up at 5:30 every day to do it. It's totally kicking our butts but we love it and we love the extra time that we get to spend together! (Hawaii, here we come!)

Sandra Bulluck: is one of my BFF's. I went to her wedding last weekend. It was beautiful.

More Weddings: Both Eric's best friend AND mine are engaged now. They're getting married on the same day. One in Nevada, one in Salt Lake. We will most likely be attending separate weddings, but I couldn't be more excited!

Work: DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA!!! That's all I want to say about that. It needs to be cleared up. Pronto.

This picture is extremely random... It's from over a year ago when I received my endowment. But really, all this summed up: I love Eric. He is great and we are happy. And I love going to the temple with him.

My new year's resolutions do not include being better about blogging, but I will try.

I Love Christmas Time!

2009-12-08T22:12:00.000-07:00

Today I made Snicker Doodles for Scotty... He may not be getting very many :/ They are really yummy!

Here's the recipe if you wanna try em out. (Mom's recipe)

Snicker Doodles

1/2 C softened butter

1/2 C shortening

1 1/2 C sugar

2 eggs

2 3/4 C flour

2 t cream of tartar

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

2 T sugar

2 T cinnamon

Blend the first four ingredients together. Then add the rest, except the T of sugar and cinnamon. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and roll the cookies in it. Bate at 400 on an ungreased cookie sheet.

The recipe didn't specify a time amount... I think I did mine for about 10 minutes. And I ALWAYS turn my oven down lower. I think I baked this around 365 ish.

In other news, we are doing nothing out of the ordinary. We bought a REAL Christmas tree and it smells SOOO good!!

And we're going to Washington for Christmas. We leave in just 10 days and I am beyond excited! We'll be there for over a week and it's going to be so nice to spend time with my family :)

Who Wants to Buy Me A House???

2009-11-18T14:32:00.001-07:00

Oh, what's my favorite holiday, you ask?

CHRISTMAS!!!!!

However, I am VEHEMENTLY opposed to Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. One of my favorite Bean family traditions is the day after Thanksgiving festivities. Mom leaves at 3 am (or some other ridiculous hour) to fill up Santa's Sleigh. The rest of us stay home and help Dad put up the Christmas lights, which usually turns into Nikki and Dad putting up the Christmas lights.

Then, the first Saturday of December is dedicated to getting our Christmas tree. We take it home, Dad puts it on the stand and gets the lights strung. And then on Sunday after church, we all decorate the tree together as a family. I love it! Since I've been away at school, I haven't been able to help decorate the tree and I miss it dearly.

Anyway, back to what I was saying.... about being vehemently opposed.... I came home from work just now for my lunch break and OUR APARTMENT IS ALL DECKED OUT FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

AAAHHHHH!!!!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas decorations! (Just ask Eric, he'll tell you I'm sure) But I can't handle it before Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving almost as much as I love Christmas and I don't think it's fair to poor Thanksgiving. All you people that already have your Christmas decorations up: Whatever, to each his own. I just think my landlord should have ASKED me before he put a wreath on my Window and garlands with lights down the stairs. It depresses me that I will be renting for the next 20 years or so. I want complete control!

I'm sure I'll be glad when it's Christmastime that our landlord so generously decorates our 4-plex. I will be! But for now, I'm annoyed. My cute Thanksgiving Welcome sign hanging on my door now looks ridiculous. It clashes. But I refuse to take it down.

On a happier note, I'm at home, eating my lunch, watching A Baby Story. *sigh* I love this show. :)

Happy Halloween!!!

2009-11-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

I wasn't sure if I was going to get our costumes done in time for Halloween. This week turned out to be INSANE! Eric has been studying NON-STOP for his classes, particularly Organic Chemistry. We didn't even go to our ward Halloween party :( so I didn't really have much motivation to try out the awesome idea I had.

Nonetheless, Chantel went shopping with me on Wednesday night to get the supplies. And Saturday I woke up with a very strong desire to just do it. So Nikki came over to keep me company and help me out.

This was the result:

In case you can't tell, my inspiration came from this picture:

I think Eric's part of it turned out GREAT! Mine was a little more challenging. But as long as I was standing next to him, people go the idea. We were definitely a hit at the party we went to! Eric LOVED being Wall-E! He definitely got into character very well.

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with his costume, but I spent way too much time and effort on it and I REFUSE to throw it away!!

2 Years Isn't THAT Long, Right??

2009-11-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday I went with my parents to take my little brother to the MTC. Scotty *cough* Elder Bean will be serving in the California Anaheim mission, Spanish speaking for the next 2 years. Being there with him on this day was so important to me, but so very difficult. I am so incredibly proud of him for all that he has accomplished and for the person that he has become. It was touch and go there for awhile, but Scotty is a great example to me. He has a very strong testimony of the Gospel, he's extremely charismatic, and he is surprisingly a very good public speaker. He did a GREAT job at his farewell, as I've already mentioned, and I can't wait to see what he does out in the mission field over the next 2 years!

I love you Scotty!

Oh, Scotty and I have been planning on doing the Amazing Race for several years now. We're doing it when he gets back. We're both fairly confident that we can win the whole thing. He told me to wait to have kids until after that, because it will be easier to do it if I haven't had any yet :)

Hot & Cold, Black & White, Opposites Attract... Right?

2009-10-26T21:06:00.000-06:00

When Eric and I see eye-to-eye, we really agree! But when we don't, well... it's a little rough.

For example, where will we live after med school?

Of course my vote:

The beautiful GREEN state of Washington!

But Eric's vote?

The not-so-green state of Utah. (all you Utards out there, don't get me wrong, some really great things have come out of Utah. It's just not for me.)

And when it comes to our cell phone service?

My vote will ALWAYS stay loyal to

But Eric seems to think he has it better with

I don't know what he's thinking!

But the most important question of all....

WILL OUR KIDS BOARD, OR SKI?!?!

I just don't know what we're gonna do!

We've gone to Parks 3 times in less than a week! I got new boots, and Eric's dad was nice enough to buy him new skis and bindings! Wow! He is WAY excited about his Nordica Enforcers. (Seriously, check his facebook status.) I have to admit, they look pretty good. He also got a new beanie from the Buckle this weekend that we both actually love.

Every time talk of the Mountain comes up, we're sure to have a discussion about what our kids will do. Classic to Eric form, he INSISTS they will be skiing. Surprisingly enough, I'm more of the compromiser in the relationship. Today I suggested we tell them "You can be cool and board like Mom, or you can be cool and ski like Dad!" Eric says he agrees with that idea, but he usually says that just to appease me. It won't last. (How do I know you ask? BEFORE we got married, he said we could live in Washington. Now he's insisting on Utah.)

But there is one thing we agree on....

WE CAN'T WAIT TO HIT THE SLOPES!

And of course, we love each other, very much :)

And we're extremely disappointed in our team. I can't even talk about it right now.

I forgot to mention....

2009-10-20T09:28:00.000-06:00

I just pulled out my letter from the advertising department from my purse. It was the only scrap of paper I had in my purse while I traveled to Washington this past weekend. Since I am so forgetful, and knew I would forget this moment if I didn't write it down, I recorded a memory on that envelope right when I got to Outback for dinner with my family on Friday night. I'm so glad I did because I completely forgot about it in my post last night!

So (this isn't the part I would have forgotten) Eric and I were happily sitting together on the airplane, almost ready to take off. The last 2 people to get on were a mom and her young daughter--probably somewhere around 7 years old. Of course Southwest is retarded and there are no assigned seats so all that was left for them were middle seats in the back of the plane. The girl began to cry. So Eric and I decided to give up our 2 seats so they could sit together.

I ended up sitting between 2 construction workers who were going home for the weekend. They were nice to me and very friendly, but definitely rough around the edges. They were appalled when I ordered water and offered to buy me a drink. I politely declined. I think they may have offered me more than that had I not mentioned that my husband was sitting across the aisle. I tried really hard to make my ring as noticeable as possible.

Anyway, I wanted to tell my family the story, so while we were waiting to be seated at the restaurant I began with, "I sit by the weirdest people on airplanes!"

Without missing a beat, my 10-year-old sister Cassie said, "Well you do sit by Eric these days!"

We all laughed pretty hard. Good one Cassie!

Thank goodness I wrote down what she said... It makes me wish I was better about writing in my journal. :)

A Maze and A Missionary

2009-10-19T19:40:00.001-06:00

Thursday night we went out on a date with our good friend Michael. Eric set him up with one of the freshman girls from his group when he was a Y-group leader of New Student Orientation this summer. It was kind of funny, but we all had a really great time!

Before we picked everyone else up, we took a picture of us being so excited that I got into the advertising program!!

At Cornbelly's in Thanksgiving Point. We had a great time and there was lots to do! We weren't so good at the corn maze though... We went into "phase 2" and ended up coming out the entrance of Phase 1. Oops! So a Corn Cop showed us where to go to get out and back into Phase 2 again. After going in circles and passing the same signs like 10 times, we ended up coming out the entrance. At least it was of Phase 2 this time! :)

Then we played some tether ball! Eric had never played before, but just like always, he was a natural and creamed us all. *** correction: Eric just informed me that he had played tether ball before. My bad. He was amazing regardless :)

Just us...

Gotta love the self-timer pictures!

This past weekend, we went up to Vancouver to go to Scotty's mission farewell. I only took one picture, but it is precious. Saturday night we went to dinner with some of our really close family friends. Ben and Alexa's youngest, Avery is 11 months old and I got to hold her through almost all of dinner. It was so fun to feed her and play with her and make her laugh. Eric took her from me right at the end and he was SO CUTE with her in his arms. If I didn't already want kids so bad, that would definitely have made me want one. Now I just want one even more!!

Isn't she ADORABLE?! Oh man... I was in heaven!

And of course, the reason we went... My little brother! He did such an AWESOME job on his talk and I was so proud of him! I definitely cried during the farewell. I'm going to miss that kid so much. But it will be fun when he gets back from Anaheim because we will be able to speak Spanish together. Plus, Scotty and I are planning on competing in and winning the Amazing Race. We're looking forward to doing that when he gets back. :)

Here he is with his best friend, Sam Beck. Sam is serving in Ghana and he reports to the MTC on Wednesday. They had a triple farewell with one other kid from the ward. It was really neat to see.

I love you Scotty! I can't wait to see what amazing things you will do on your mission and in the future!!

DiSnEyLaNd!!

2009-10-16T14:30:00.001-06:00

Last weekend was a BLAST! I absolutely LOVE being with my family and I am so glad that we all got to go to Disneyland together one last time before Scotty leaves on his mission. Who knows where everyone will be when he gets back and our lives are even crazier?? Anyway, here's the weekend in pictures. My mom has the better ones, so maybe I'll add some after I get back from Vancouver this weekend.

Cassie, Katie and I at breakfast Thursday morning. We got to go upstairs to the concierge lounge for food whenever we wanted. Our room keys let us in. It was great!

My weirdo brothers... Boy do I love them! :)

Waiting to get on Screamin' for the first time. This is definitely one of my favorite rides! I scream the WHOLE time because I'm having so much fun!!

Waiting for the parents at some point or another... They were probably buying pins for Jody.

Courtney and Cassie. She is growing up so fast! :(

Me and the kiddos on Grizzly River Run. Ready to get wet!!

Oh Jody... Such a 12-year-old boy!

Jody and Cassie were such troopers!! This Disneyland trip was definitely very different from any of the previous ones where we all went because Jody and Cassie are finally old enough/big enough to enjoy all the "big kid rides". We drug them all over those parks, day and night. They never complained a bit and kept right up with us! It was great to see them transitioning into becoming friends with the rest of us kids. The older 4 of us have become a lot closer in the last couple years as we have grown up and it is so fun! Anyway, my dad and I were buying Churros one night. It seriously took like 5 minutes. Cassie fell asleep in this position while she was waiting! Poor thing! But then we all went on Splash Mountain, the last ride of the night. It was great!

This was Dad's idea and we all loved it! I love my siblings!!

Happy Birthday Scotty!! Mom bought him this cute hat that was definitely made for little children, but he wore it like a champ and got happy birthday wishes from total strangers all day long.

One day at about 11 am, there was no one in line for the Grizzly River Run. We love that ride when all 8 of us are there because we take up an entire raft. So we decided to go on it. Twice. We got SOAKED! For some reason, I don't look all that wet in this picture... I think my back got it way worse. Anyway, Katie and I figured out how to dry out.

2 years ago, they wouldn't have been caught dead in the same car on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Aww, how precious. :)

Cassie and I realized when we got home that our hair was OUT OF CONTROL! Haha, that's what you get for staying in Disneyland for 16 hours straight! We didn't get back to the hotel on our last night there until nearly 2 am. But it was totally worth it!!

Our matching Minnie t-shirts. (Cassie and Nikki got theirs shortly after we took this picture.) And please don't mind my ridiculous looking hair. It doesn't air dry well. Obviously.

Here it is folks....

2009-10-15T09:23:00.000-06:00

I tried to scan and post my letter, but it didn't work. So I'll just tell you.....

I GOT ACCEPTED INTO THE ADVERTISING PROGRAM!!!!!!!!!

In case you can't tell, I'm ecstatic! I can't believe it! I am SO relieved! And so excited to start the program next semester!!!!

Only bad news is, I told Eric if I didn't get in, I get to have a baby. He never actually agreed to that, but it looks like I won't be going that route anymore. :) Heavenly Father always knows what's best!

Momma called the Doctor and the Doctor said....

2009-10-04T11:04:00.000-06:00

No more monkeys jumping on the bed! Oh and by the way Courtney, you have swine flu. Awesome. I definitely don't recommend it to anyone. All that talk about taking kids to swine flu parties--STUPID!!! It sucks! I missed 3 days of work this week. Momma also used to say "be careful what you wish for." Last week I woke up early one morning to get ready for school and I thought to myself, "I just want to stay in bed." I wanted to lie around all day and be lazy and not do anything at all. Well, I got what I wished for. But one day was more than enough. Day 2 was awful. I wasn't supposed to go anywhere because I was highly contagious, but I couldn't handle the couch anymore so I decided to go to the grocery store. We were out of milk....

Bad idea. I think it took every ounce of energy I had left in my body. Pretty sure I almost passed out in the middle of the cereal aisle. Hopefully I didn't infect anyone. I learned my lesson anyway. Don't go out when you're sick.

The worst part of it was the coughing. I have been coughing non-stop for almost a week now. Nyquill and Dayquill have become my bff's.

Well yesterday I was feeling better and we had tickets to the afternoon session of general conference. So Eric and I made the trek to Salt Lake for the afternoon. Our parking pass ended up being like 2 miles away from the Conference Center. I was wearing heels. Really high ones. And we were running a little late so we power walked to be certain that we were in our seats 30 minutes prior to the start of the session. That did me in. So on the way back, I walked barefoot. Gross. Oh and p.s. I brought tissues with me since I've been having nose issues too. I decided a small packet wasn't enough so I brought a bag large enough to fit my entire box of Kleenex. Thank goodness for Kleenex with lotion! My nose sure appreciates it. :)

Anyway... after the session (by the way, Eric and I both fell asleep for awhile) we went outside and wanted our picture taken. We stood there for about 15 minutes, waiting for the perfect person to take our picture. Yes, there were TONS of people, but we wanted a great picture. (Really, I think both of us were just not in the mood to ask someone to take our picture. I eventually gave in and this was the result)

It was worth the wait.... For some reason we have no pictures of us lately.

My favorite part was walking down the street afterwards and seeing all the protestors. One guy had a shirt that said: "Ask me why you're going to hell." Hilarious.

On a more somber note, Grandma Bready passed away last night. She has been suffering for awhile so it is for the better. We are so grateful for eternal families and for the knowledge we have that we will see her again. Unfortunately, the funeral will be on Saturday so Eric won't be able to come to Disneyland with my family. I would have stayed home as well, but it's our last family vacation before Scotty leaves on his mission so I guess Eric and I will have to represent one another with each of our families.

Hopefully everyone is enjoying conference. Is anyone else getting the message of love?? :)

I Have An Obsession....

2009-09-29T14:45:00.000-06:00

I watch this show EVERY SINGLE DAY. In fact, I plan my lunch break from work around when this show will be on. (2 pm on TLC, in case you're wondering) I'm pretty sure they have 2 full hours of it every afternoon, but I never have that long of a break.

I don't know what it is about it that I love so much. Well, let's be honest, it's the babies. I LOVE BABIES! And yes, I want one SO BAD! But there are several reasons why this won't be happening for awhile:

1:

I need to graduate!! I'm kicking myself for taking so long to choose my major. I just applied to the advertising program. If I get in, I will only have 27 credits left before I graduate! Yay! So.... that's not too long to wait, right? WRONG! Because of reason #2:

I work. Full time. Which is GREAT because I absolutely LOVE my job! But, it makes going to school a little more difficult. Right now, I'm only taking 5 credits and only one class actually on campus. Next semester, I'm going to bump it up a notch. With such great motivation (baby?!?!) I think I should be able to handle it.

And #3?

My wonderful husband, the handsome devil that he is, just doesn't think it's time yet. Normally, I'm always right. But in this case, I have to agree with him. I want to make sure that when we bring another soul into this world that it's done at the right time on the Lord's time table. Heavenly Father knows best what we need. I feel confident that He will let me know when it's "time." :)

So for now, I'm content to wait. I love being married to my amazing husband and I'm totally fine with just spending some time with him for now. Although I'm not really seeing him very much these days. He pretty much lives with Mr. Benson and Mr. Lee. I guess I should start joining him.

I'm happy watching other parents welcome their beautiful babies into this world. Plus, I learn a TON! Not to mention, I do reBLOGsearching and read tons of moms' stories about their deliveries and pregnancies. I found out this weekend that the first four of my mom's six kids all came naturally! Wow! Way to go Mom! With Number 5 she decided to try the epidural, but it only worked on HALF of her body. Talk about pain!! Then Jody decided to get himself stuck anyway and he had to be delivered via emergency C-section. So Cassie came via scheduled C-section. All my new knowledge is pushing me towards the decision of wanting to do natural child births. For those who know me, you know my pain tolerance is basically non-existent. But I'm pretty sure I could handle it. I guess I have awhile to decide though, right? :)

Hopefully someday I'll have as many as my mom had (or more?) and I'll look back at this and laugh.

(So anyone with kids that needs a babysitter, let me know! I would be happy to spend some time with your little ones!!)

The Application Is In!!

2009-09-13T00:36:00.000-06:00

For the past few weeks I've been working on my application to the advertising program. Hence why I haven't blogged in awhile. I wanted to wait until I got accepted (hopefully) before posting this, but I figured that if I don't get in, I probably won't post it at all. :) So here's the commercial I made. It's supposed to be a self-portrait of sorts, in as creative a way as you can come up with. Eric helped me out a TON with this and I couldn't have done it without him!! He is so good to me :) Anyway, please let me know what you think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C81t5ebw7v8

How We Do

2009-08-08T19:52:00.002-06:00

This is going to be somewhat random, but I just wanted to share a few pics from some of my highlights of the summer. I'm trying to keep my posts short and sweet so I don't get overwhelmed by all the missed events. :)

This is from our trip to Washington for Memorial Day Weekend. We decided to take the canoe out on the creek behind our house. I had never actually done this before and it was SO fun!! We had a BLAST! We even went twice it was so fun. Katie was so scared the whole time due to the Beehive kayaking accident she had when she almost drowned a few years ago. Actually I guess it's been more like 5 years. We were so proud of her for coming with us! Even if she did scream the whole first 10 minutes ;)

Anyway, this is a picture of us going through the grass. I know you can't tell, but we actually WERE on a creek, it was just more fun/adventurous to get stuck in the grass.

And this one is of Eric and I 4-wheeling with the Breadys a few weeks ago. We went last weekend too, but we didn't actually get any pictures that time. I LOVE 4-wheeling!! I'm so glad the Breadys are nice enough (and close enough) to take us with them, even though I ride passenger most of the time.

OK, story time! Eric broke my car!! :( This picture is from our trip to Moab. A few weeks before that trip, we went camping in the San Rafael Swell and hiked Little Wildhorse Canyon/played in Goblin Valley. When we got there on Friday night, we pulled off the road to camp. When I say we pulled off the road, I mean we pulled off the dirt road into the "wilderness" to find an existing fire pit to use for our campsite. I had done this my freshman year of college, but couldn't really remember what exactly we had done. Anyway, we realized very quickly that we had pulled off the road too early. There had been TONS of rain in Utah for the 2 or 3 weeks previous to our trip so there were lots of washes and ditches in the sandy dirt. As we were making our way back to the road (mind you, it was nearly dark), Eric totally hit a ditch and we bottomed out in it! I was so scared! (I even let a bad word slip from my mouth, but let's not dwell on that). Luckily we were going fast enough to get back up out of it and not get stuck, but it was bad. The car appeared to be fine. That is, until we got to Moab. Eric got the oil changed in my car the day we left and they re-filled the washer fluid there too because I was out. As we were on our way to Moab, we tried to use the washer fluid but it was still empty! We made a few comments about the stupid guys that work at Jiffy Lube that can't even remember to fill the washer fluid. No worries, we'll just stop and buy some at the gas station. Well, as Eric was pouring it in, he was simultaneously getting splashed on his feet. The washer fluid was going in one end and out the other! After a few minutes of investigation, we realized that it had broken when Eric hit the ditch at Little Wild Horse. Sad day, and I have YET to get it fixed. :(

Us at the end of the trail by Delicate Arch. We asked someone to take our picture. Apparently he didn't realize that the most important part of the background was the actual arch we had hiked to see. :)

And last but not least, I have recently discovered the joys of shooting a gun! OK those who know me well are probably freaking out at the thought of me having REAL gun in my hands. But don't worry, this experience was incidence free! Even with me along! I actually really enjoyed myself. I preferred the 22 with the scope on it to the shotgun that kicked back so hard my shoulder was bruised and I had an instant headache. Plus, let's be honest, without the marks in the middle of a scope telling me where my shot was going to hit, there was no way in the world I would have ever hit anything with the shotgun. Clay pidgeons are just not my thing. Baby steps. I'll get there someday. Eric says he wants a handgun for Christmas. Yeah, and I want to go on a $10k shopping spree. Not gonna happen. Sorry! :)

Starting Fresh

2009-07-23T10:49:00.002-06:00

OK. so I have a confession. I'm a blog stocker! But I haven't posted since September... I tried to do a post the other night complete with pictures and captions and the works, but I realized I had WAY too much to write about. So forget the last ten months (even though they were absolutely amazing and SO key). I'm starting fresh. Maybe once in awhile I'll post some pics with stories from some of our adventures this summer.

Anyway, here's what we've been up to this summer (last weekend was the first one all summer that we actually slept in our own bed!)

Vancouver for Memorial Day, complete with canoe trips on the creek and Nertz of course with the sibs
Several trips to Southern Utah - St. George, Moab, Zions, Little Wildhorse Canyon, Goblin Valley - LOTS of hiking! :)
Vancouver again for the 4th of July (my FaVoRiTe holiday)
4-Wheeling with the Breadys
HAWAII - we spent almost 2 whole weeks on the beautiful island of Oahu with Eric's family, and I just have to mention that we swam with wild dolphins. That was definitely the highlight of the trip!

We also got a calling in our ward... Marriage and Family Enhancement teachers! ha! We're FAR from experts, but it's fun nonetheless.

And the last couple nights, Eric has been playing Lacrosse again for the first time with the men's league. So fun to watch! Last night he scored a sick goal!!

I'm still working at Fillmore Spencer as a legal assistant for Randy. I love my job and all the girls I work with. Eric just scored an awesome job on Tuesday that he will start next month. He's going to be working at a preschool for autistic kids. The people interviewing him were so impressed by his interactions with the kids that they offered him a job on the spot! I'm so proud of him! :)

Well that's all for now. Tonight we're going to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house so maybe I'll have a picture to post tomorrow!

My AMAZING Trip to the North of Spain!

2008-09-07T12:30:00.015-06:00

OK so I just got back from my trip to the northern part of Spain and I have to say it was quite amazing! We did SOO many things in just one week! It was very long and very tiring, but so worth it! I honestly don't even remember all the places we went, but I do remember carrying my stupid "Cuaderno" around everywhere I went. The Cuaderno is the huge, fatty notebook we have to have for the entire 3 months that we're in Spain... It's full of questions about Spanish history and about the places we're visiting. I have to admit, it does help me to understand and learn about the places I am visiting, but it has become a sore subject for all of the students here because we sometimes just want to enjoy the trip without carrything that stupid thing around. Anyway, I'll share stories as I go with the pictures... Be warned: There are TONS of pictures from this week!

First stop: random little town of Coca with a HUGE castle! It was pretty sweet! We may have just enjoyed it because we got to get off the bus and we were all super excited that we were out of class for a week, but it was still very pretty.

This is me inside the castle at Coca... I found an underground tunnel-type thing that just kept going further and futher down. It was really dark and creepy and at the end I found... Old pots and pans. Kinda disappointing.

Continuing my obsession with doors... Here's one from the castle.

Alarie, Dana and I at the casle of Coca!
2nd stop: Leon
OK can anyone say TOURIST!?! Oh my gosh I am pathetic! Backpack: check. Sunglasses: check. Notebook: check. Water bottle: check times HUGE. Watch: check. Camera: Check times two! Hey what can I say?! I want to make the most of my experience here! But I DID buy my shirt and my sandals in Europe, so that counts for something, right?

This is Dana and I in front of the Cathedral in Leon. It's a gothic style cathedral which can be seen by the pointed arches and intricate stone-work here in this picture. See? I swear I'm learning stuff while I'm here!

Here's the cathedral late at night... They light up the whole thing! It was absolutely gorgeous! I have seen so many amazing things here in this country! It's incredible really what's out there in the world that we don't get to experience living in the States.

Here's a statue of a lion in Leon. Leon means lion en espanol (imagine that!) We decided to be reb

A bunch of us went back to the Cathedral at night because we heard that they light it up from the inside and since there are TONS of HUGE stained-glass windows (this particular cathedral has the 2nd most stained-glass windows of any building in the world) it was supposed to be really pretty. I was in the hotel already when I heard about it working on my cuaderno with Kimber. We didn't want to leave because we were so tired, but we did anyway and I must say it was very disappointing. But it was fun to be with all the students. We are all so close and are having such a good time together. I'm so glad that I came!

This is in Covadonga. I LOVED Covadonga! It was raining the whole time we were there and we all got SOAKED! It made me feel like I was back in the northwest in the fall. Some lady is buried here and I guess a lot of Cathotlic people come here to see her. Funny that I took a picture and I already can't remember her name... She must not have been that important :)

Nest stop: Ribadesella. By FAR the BEST place of the week! I LOVED it! I saw pictures of it in the wintertime and it's all covered in snow. If I didn't have to live in Provo and snow was a rare things for me, I would like to visit in the winter... it looks like it's very beautiful at that time of year. It was raining while we were there which I loved!

This was our hotel in Ribadesella. Isn't it so cool?!? The inside was GORGEOUS! I think all the students would agree that this was the best hotel of the week. I wish we could have stayed there for more than just one night! We were RIGHT on the beach! It was so beautiful!

This is Minta and I on the deck outside our hotel room in Ribadesella. I LOVED this town!!! The weather reminded me so much of the Oregon Coast and the town was so cute and quaint and I totally want to retire there... Take note of the Eric. :) Oh and by the way, I love Minta! She is one of my very favorite people on the trip. She is amazing!

We stayed in some of the most random, small towns. This town was called Santillana del Mar. Again, just another tiny, quaint, cute town where we stood out like sore thumbs as tourists. This hotel was awesome too! Except when I woke up early in the morning to talk to Eric, there were NO lights on in the whole place. I learned this week that Spaniards are very conscious about saving energy. The hall lights are never on unless you turn them on and you're supposed to turn them off when you're done. That's definitely not like the states!

This was our cute little room in Santillana del Mar. I liked this hotel too! All the colors were so bright!!

OK so on one of the days (I can't keep them all straight anymore) we stopped for an hour in this random place called Santander. I know I sound like a broken record here, but I LOVED IT! It was just this really cool beach town. Only it was more like a beach city. And some of the cafes were right on the beach and it totally reminded me of that one set of "girl legos" that Nikki and I used to play with where we built a cafe on the beach. Anyway, it was really, really windy! Apparently there were record high winds there that day. We definitely saw some small boats sinking out in the water. It was way choppy out there!

While we were in Santander, Minta, Kimber and I went on a hunt to find the lighthouse that we could see from the beach. We never actually made it there and we had to run all the way back to get on the bus in time, but I found this HUGE wall of grafiti! There is a lot of grafiti here in Spain but I'm so fascinated by it because it's so bright and colorful. West side what!?

Just another really pretty shot of Santander. I could definitely spend a few days of my life here! Pretty much every place I went to this week I though, "Oh how I would LOVE to come back here with Eric!"

Then: Bilbao
In front of the GUGGENHEIM Museum! The best part of the museum is looking at the architecture of the actual building. All the art inside the building is weird and funky and I didn't like it at all. But it's cool to say that I've been there, right? I wish I would have spent more time outside looking at the building though.

This is me and Dana on the pedestrian bridge in Bilbao. I just want to say, I LOVE BILBAO! It's a really big, industrial city and I loved it! I kinda wish I was living here, or maybe IN Madrid. I like the big city feeling and all the hustle and bustle. I saw TONS of runners here along the river and I wanted to join them so badly! Too bad I didn't bring my running shoes on the week long trip...

Minta and Dana and I decided the bridge was an excellent place to attempt to take some jumping pictures. We took like 6 but they were all blurry. I just like this one because of how contorted my body looks. On one of our attemps Dana totally kicked me! It was pretty hilarious. Also take note of all the big buildings in the background... Love it!

This thing is called "Puppy" and it was designed by Jeff Koons. It's all made of flowers! It was pretty cool, plus the thing's name is Puppy. Hello! Of course I needed my picture with him!

The Guggenheim! I really was so excited about this part of the trip. It was a really good experience and I learned a LOT about surrealism... Most importantly is that I don't really care for it.

K I just thought this building in Bilbao was really cool. Check out all those colored windows! I wonder what that makes the rooms look like inside?

Dana told us to look like modern art... I think I totally fit the part: awkward and ugly haha

IDK actually...
Just another door... I'm pretty sure I found this one randomly on a wall in a museum. It's not even a real door and it doesn't open or lead to anything... It's just there.

Atapuerca

This is me and Carmen at an archaeological dig site. It's called Altapuerca. It's the place where they've found the most bones in the world. It was pretty interesting actually. I didn't understand all of it obviously because the guide was speaking Spanish, but she taught us about where homo sapiens came from and the parts of skulls they've found and what all we can learn from that. It was really cool except for the fact that I had to use the servicios really bad through the whole thing... Reminded me of when I was Cinderella's mom in my Kindergarten play :/ NOT good!

This is a way sweet door we found in Burgos. We didn't do or see much in Burgos but yet again, it was a really cool city. There were a bunch of weddings going on while we were here too and lots of LOUD firecrackers that always made me jump.

There was pretty much only one shop open on a Saturday night in Burgos and it was kind of like a Spanish version of a crappy dollar store only everything didn't cost only a dollar. I found a purple cowboy hat... You better believe that would be a Kodak moment!

Me by the river in Burgos... It was so pretty and tranquil and nice to walk along the river at night with Dana. We had some great conversations... She's quickly becoming one of my very best friens and I am SO lucky to have such a good roommate!

"City skyline" if you will of Burgos. I loved this city too! All the cities in Spain that we have visited so far are GORGEOUS!

Just a pic of the river in Burgos.

OK so this was in Bilbao. We were in the museum in this plaza and all of a sudden we heard bagpipes outside so we ran out to catch the moment. It was actually really cool and they sounded great! Apparently bagpipes are an important part of Spanish history and this group was part of some sort of celebration that the city was having. There were a bunch of reporters taking pictures and tons of people in the plaza wathcing. I was very impressed!

Me and Dana in our cute little room in Burgos.

This was our room in Burgos... We stayed in some WAY awesome hotels on this trip! This was definitely the least nice, but it still wasn't bad. Our favorite part about being on vacation is that we get to take long, hot showers. When we're at home in Alcala, we have to turn the water in the shower off while we're shampooing our hair, or conditioning, or shaving, or lathering up. We're only allowed to turn the water on to rinse off and we had definitely been missing our normal shower routines.

This is on the path on the way home... I've always wanted to take a picture of it. Reminds me so much of home! :)

Some older pics...

This picture is actually from last week but I just never got around to posting it... We tried to go to a bull fight and we got free fans! YES! But then we decided not to go because we're actually going later for the program so it's already paid for and we won't have to pay $30 to sit in the blazing hot sun :)

This is me in front of the bull fighting arena here in Alcala. I'm excited to actually attend a fight!

All the chicas with our fans! We're actually missing a few here but it was still way fun!

Dana and I outside the chapel in Alcala! She's not really that much shorter than me. I'm just wearing heels. Oh yeah and funny story about this day... So our host family (except for our oldest sister Carolina) had been out of town for a few days so Dana and I got up early and trekked to the bus station to catch the bus to church. Then after church we hopped back on the bus to head home. The last time we took the bus we got off too late because we missed our stop so we had to walk an extra 5 mintues. Well this time we were nervous about missing our stop so we accidentally got off about 7 stops too early. It took us 20 minutes to walk home and by the time we got there, my feet were DYING! And as we walked up to the house, we passed Carolina who said, "Oh I tried to find you guys after church so I could give you a ride home in the car but I couldn't find you." Dana and I just looked at each other and started laughing... We didn't know she had a car!!

This was also last week... We were on our way home and we saw this TINY car... Dana is touching both ends of it. I was trying to set up the self-timer and this nice old man walked by and offered to take our picture.

My first time doing laundry in Spain!! I had to hand dry EVERYTHING! So every sock and every pair of underwear is hanging from a clothespin out on this rack in the backyard. It was actually kinda fun! My clothes are all stiff and they smell weird (I don't like the laundry soap we have) but I felt so adventurous! :)

Fun Times with Dana

2008-08-30T04:33:00.003-06:00

OK so the other day (Thursday I think) Dana and I had to take the bus to the chapel to practice a song that we'll be singing on Sunday for a missionary homecoming. It was our first experience taking the bus and we were really proud of ourselves and wanted to take a picture to document the event. Here's what happened...

Fuimos de compras! :) (That means we went shopping!)

2008-08-29T11:56:00.005-06:00

Today was another wonderful day here in Spain!! I got to sleep in for the first time and it felt SOO good! No siesta for me today! A bunch of the students all planned on meeting at the train station this morning around 11:30 to go to Madrid together. Some of us girls were quite excited about the shopping there :) So we totally figured out the whole train thing and got a group of about 20 of us to Madrid. We were there for about 6 hours or so and I had a blast! But of course I did because I was shopping. Let me tell you, the shopping in Spain is definitely better than anything I've ever experienced before... But the exchange rate sucks! I hate knowing that I'm spending way more than it feels like here. It's terrible.

Anyway, here are the pictures from today plus a couple extras. Enjoy!

This is me and Dana and some of our new friends that we met going to Las Ferias (the huge festival going on in Alcala right now). The one in the striped shirt with the... MAN PURSE and MANPRIS (very common here in Spain) is our "brother" Daniel. I'll try to get a picture of the whole family on Sunday.

Our first stop on the shopping trip today.... You wouldn't believe how many shoe stores there are here!! I think I might be in heaven (minus Eric of course!)

This is me in one of the dressing rooms where we spent quite a bit of time today. Isn't it so cool?! I love everything about Spain!!

This is us taking a break at... McDonald's. Lame, I know, but we just wanted some potato wedges, OK? From left to right: Me, Alarie, Stella, Madison, Anna. I really, really like all these girls! They are very sweet and so much fun!

Us girls with all of our purchases for the day. I know, we look very happy right? Well it's because we are!

Some of the group waiting in the train station in Madrid. I am having so much fun with these people! From left to right (starting with the girl in pink): Stephanie, Madison, Alarie, Paige (LOVE her! She's hilarious!), Stella, Anna, Me, Lindsey (whose husband will be arriving shortly to join the group), Lucy and in front is Will (one of the 5 guys in the group... as opposed to 25 girls!)

I don't know if you can see it very well, but this is a picture of my pedometer. I'm so glad I brought this thing! I just barely took this picture and it says right here that it's at 49.680 miles. I've walked almost 50 miles in this past week!! And my feet are definitely feeling the pain...

Here's the view out my bedroom window... Isn't it pretty?

OK this picture is kinda funny... These are my many water bottles (but this picture actually doesn't include all of them). I honestly can't believe how much water I drink here! I'm always so thirsty since it's so gosh darn HOT! Today I took that huge one on the right to Madrid with me and I drank the whole thing. Twice. But the scary part is I rarely ever go to the bathroom... I pretty much just sweat it all off. :/ Gross I know.

Here it is folks... My closet! Yes, I promise you this is Courtney Bean's closet! Can you believe it?! I can't! It sure looks like I packed light... Where did my 120 pounds of luggage go??

My first clothing purchase in Spain: I bought these very European-looking sandals yesterday in Alcala and I absolutely LOVE them!! I feel so... European? haha I just really like them so I thought I'd share :)

Segovia and La Granja

2008-08-26T11:10:00.000-06:00

OK so yesterday we took a trip north up to Segovia and then we also visited El Palacio de la Granja. This trip was AMAZING! And so much fun!

First of all, we saw a castle in Segovia... I've never been inside a real castle before (unless you count Cinderella's castle in Disneyland, in which case I've been inside one probably about a hundred times). It was so cool! We got to climb up to the tallest part and look out over the city... Gorgeous view!!

At the palace of la granja, there was this massive garden. So big in fact that it has streets with names in it. It's over 1500 acres!!! There was a maze just like the ones you always see in the movies, but we didn't have time to go through it because we didn't want to get lost and miss the fountains, which were the whole reason we were there. There's probably about a dozen very large fountains spread throughout the garden and they only set all of them off twice a year. We were there to see the fountains, and what a show we saw!

We discovered the young adult aged Spaniards are CRAZY! Dana and I were standing there waiting for the first fountain to go off and there were tons of people dressed up in crazy costumes all over the place. Then a guy dressed up in a cow costume jumped in the fountain. It was as if he sent off a signal because then EVERYONE started jumping in and pushing everyone else in. We were laughing so hard and taking tons of pictures because we thought it was so hilarious. Well apparently we made ourselves a target....

This crazy Spanish guy came over to Dana and I and started pulling us towards the water. We were screaming, "no! No! No!" over and over again because we had our cameras but he did not give up. So finally Dana through me her camera and her sunglasses and she got picked up and thrown into the water! I definitely documented the whole thing and it was absolutely HILARIOUS! We still cannot believe that happened to us!

OK so anyway... here are all the pictures for today. I am absolutely LOVING all these amazing pictures I've been able to take so far. I'm going to have quite the collection when I return to the states. Good thing I bought that extra hard drive!!

Dana getting thrown into the fountain!

Me in front of "La carrera de los caballos:" one of the fountains in the gardens. This was actually one of the more boring ones, but still way awesome.

This is me with the statue of Juan Bravo... I had to give a report about him on the bus on the way to Segovia so of course I needed a picture!! We also ran into some missionaries here!
Me at the Palace of La Granja (not sure exactly what that means) but isn't it beautiful?

OK so here's a picture of all the cRaZy Spaniards jumping into the fountain! A bunch of them had swim caps and shorts on and had written Michael Phelps and USA on their bodies. Not quite sure what that was all about, but it was still hilarious.

Oh my heck! Cutest little girl of LIFE! I told Eric that I want to have little Spanish babies... He says he's OK with that! Too bad neither one of us is actually a Spaniard...

Me in front of El Aqueducto. It went on FOREVER!! I couldn't even see the end of it!

I really liked the look of this building next to the aqueduct. So many picturesque scenes here in Spain!

Check out this quaint little street in Segovia...

On one of the lower towers of the castle.

Me on the tallest part of the castle... We climbed up 152 steps to get here. Not that impressive, I know, but it was way cool!

I'm LOVING all the doors here in Spain!! They are so awesome and great for pictures! This was on one of the little, tiny, side streets that we took to get to the castle in Segovia.
Me in front of the castle in Segovia!!

Oi! Mi amor! Es mi "knight in shining armor" que se llama Eric :)

The cute little town known as Segovia. This was the main square.
El Catedral... So cool looking!!

Viva Espana!

2008-08-24T15:58:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm here in Spain!! I've only been here for a couple days, but so far it's been amazing! My host family is AWESOME! They are so nice and luckily for me, they're members of the Church. The dad's name is Javier, and my roommate Dana's dad actually baptized him while he was here in Madrid serving a mission. His wife Helen is super nice and she's British so everyone in the family speaks fluent English. It's nice to have people with whom we can actually communicate. We always speak Spanish in the home, but it's great to be able to ask them what certain things mean.

So far I've had some delicious food! I'm loving the Spanish culture and I'm trying to completely immerse myself in it. We usually eat a small breakfast of a bowl of cereal and some fruit and then we have a large meal around 2 or 3 during the mediodia. Taking a nap after that is completely normal and actually encouraged. I think I was actually supposed to be a Spaniard :) Anyway, then we eat dinner later around 9 or 10. It's a little strange trying to adjust but I think I'm doing ok.

Here are some pictures from my recent adventures into Alcala and Madrid...

My first purchase in Spain! Frozen lemonade! It was delicious and refreshing on a HOT day in Spain... I think it was in the upper 90's when I arrived that day.
This is la Universidad de Alcala... Where I will be attending school this semester!
The whole group in front of what's-his-face's house... I can't remember his name... The guy who wrote Don Quixote.
Me and my AMAZING roommate Dana on one of the cute little streets in Alcala.

The whole BYU group together in Madrid... I can already tell the I'm going to make some really good friends here!

Spanish flag!
We got stopped by some reporters to talk about how the US was going to kick Spain's trash in the Olympic basketball finals! Which we totally did :)
Eating lunch in the park: from left to right: Colton, Minta, Kimber, Me, Dana
Me in front of the headquarters of communication in Madrid.
Eating a Kepab... SO GOOD!! I'm going to be addicted to these!