Stacie & Jared

The Weekend

2012-01-22T21:22:00.000-08:00

This weekend was actually somewhat eventful for us, considering the fact that we don't usually do anything extravagant. . . some married couples are cool and plan fun dates and all that kind of stuff. . . we are not one of those couples! But this weekend was fun. On Friday we stayed home and watched a movie, Law Abiding Citizen was on TV, that show is crazy! Saturday we slept in a little and we both had school/work stuff to do in the morning, but later in the afternoon we decided to take a drive up to Sundance because it finally snowed and we wanted to test out the skills of the Subi! He ran like a champ until we tried to turn around in a parking lot that had about a foot and a half (that might be a slight exaggeration!) of dense snow on the ground. Luckily some nice people were there and helped pull us out.

Jared got a little wet from trying

to get the car free!

Later that evening we went to dinner at PF Changs, thanks to my parents for the gift card from Christmas! We opened up our fortune cookies and got some pretty good advice

Ironically, we are going out of town this weekend (more on that later), but I wouldn't necessarily call our destination exotic. . . especially in the winter time. Also, we are hoping to get some good news as a result of this trip, so the fortune cookies happened to be spot on this time!

After dinner I got together with some of my friends for a girls night. My friend Emily threatened me until I agreed to let her paint my fingernails. . . which lasted approximately 20 hours or so as I just took the nail polish remover to them about an hour ago, hehe sorry Em! It was good to catch up with the girls, and Jared had a fun time watching some weird zombie movie (28 days or something, it sounded creepy!) while I was gone.

Today our friends Chase and Dana blessed their baby boys, so Jared and I went up to SLC for that. Chase and Dana are some of our closest friends up here, so it was great to be able to share the special day with them and it was fun to meet some of their family! After church we watched football and after getting in our fill of "Axe Men" (my bro-in-law will appreciate that!) we are off to bed. . . a pretty successful weekend by our standards! :)

With Chase and Dana

(observe the nail polish. . . ha)

I'm holding Tate and Dana is holding Porter,

cutest twins in the whole world!

2012

2012-01-02T17:15:00.000-08:00

I was going to post about our holiday activities, but I can't find the camera cord so since I can't post any pics or videos, all I will say is that Christmas with Jared's family was super fun and we were lame and didn't do a whole lot worth reporting for New Years Eve ha! Maybe when I can find the camera cord I'll post about the holidays, but until then I'll post about 2012. I'm not a huge fan of setting "New Year's Resolutions," in fact, I can't even think of a time when I actually sat down at the beginning of a new year and made goals, yep I'm that cool :) This year will be no different, so instead, I'm going to write down a list of things that we "will do" and things that we "want to do" during 2012.

Things we will do. . .

1. We will pay off our student loans, only 4 more months to go baby!
2. I will finish writing my thesis-of-doom and graduate with a Master's Degree!
3. Jared will get a roof rack for the Subi. . . already has half of it now
4. We will pay off my car loan
5. I will continue to make dinner most nights
6. Jared will continue to go on lots of bike rides
7. We will be moving up toward the SLC area, not sure where exactly, but somewhere north of Provo!
8. I will turn 25, the big quarter century year!
9. Jared will turn 28 this year. . . nothing special about 28, other than it sounds old ;)
10. We will watch the rest of the second season of The Walking Dead
11. I will exercise only when I feel like it, which is not often haha!
12. Jared will continue to curse the crappy Utah drivers on his commute to work.
13. We will be watching alot of basketball in the next four months and then alot of summer Olympics after that!
14. I will continue to watch our budget like a hawk because I'm a little OCD when it comes to finances
15. Jared will design some sweet stuff at work and will likely pick up some free lance projects on the side
16. We will spend alot of evenings hanging out and relaxing together, we just aren't the most social people on the planet!

Things we want to do. . .

1. We want to get some new couches, we are thinking a sectional
2. I want to fly back to Cleveland sometime over the summer so that Jared can meet the rest of my extended family back there
3. Jared wants to get fog lights for the Subi
4. We want to see the Hunger Games movie
5. I want to find a new apartment that is big enough to fit my piano
6. Jared wants to find a new apartment that is big enough for all of our biking and camping junk!
7. We want to go on a fun road trip somewhere with friends
8. I want to get a job as an adjunct professor at BYU teaching math (this is a freakin long shot but it would be cool!)
9. Jared wants to get a job at REI Headquarters (another long shot, but this is a list of "wants" people!)
10. We want to go to see a Jazz game when they play Jimmer's team
11. I want to learn how to cook some good German food like schnitzel and spaetzle
12. Jared wants to design a christmas card for us this year (I don't know if he really wants to, but I'm going to make him!)
13. We want to do something cool for our anniversary this year as we've always been too busy with school and family stuff the past couple of years

And last but not least

14. I want to get pregnant. . . totally depends on where we are at toward the end of the year and what I feel like I should be doing with my career at that point in time, but we aren't gettin any younger folks and we want to start having kids sometime in the next couple of years.

So there you have it. . . not a list of resolutions, but a more realistic list of things we will do and a somewhat far fetched list of wants :)

Oh yeah, and I want to get a massage, that sounds pretty amazing to me right now. . .

Sheet Music

2011-12-18T12:36:00.000-08:00

I've been in STG the past couple of days and since I haven't had much school stuff that I've needed to work on, I've been spending alot of time on the piano. My friend Kayla, who I talked about in my previous post, asked me if I would write down the sheet music for a cover version of the Titanic song I made up several years ago. I found a cool program on the internet that lets you create yoru own sheet music so I've been spending the last two days writing the sheet music for the Titanc song and also writing down the sheet music for the song I played in that video. I'm pretty happy to get it written down. Not that I think anybody even cares to have it, but I'll post the sheet music on my post as proof of my skills! :)

Here is my Titanic Remix, had it not taken me forever to get the sheet music program thingy figured out I would have recorded a video of me playing it so you could hear it, but I didn't want to take the time, just trust me when I say it sounds pretty good :)

I called the song Endless. . . don't really remember why, but I did :)

Piano

2011-12-14T15:20:00.000-08:00

This will sound kind of funny but a friend of mine reminded me the other day that I used to write my own songs on the piano back in the day. I took piano lessons for about a year or so when I was 8 or 9, somethin like that, but it didn't last very long because I hated practicing (shocker ha). In high school I picked it up again after I heard this same friend, Kayla, play the Titanic theme song on the piano. I don't know why, but I thought the song was so dang beautiful on the piano and I was determined to learn how. Haha, I was terrible at reading sheet music so she just showed me what to do with my hands and I memorized it by ear. It took me about 3 months to finally get it down but I was really proud of myself when I did! My poor family, that's the only song I knew how to play so they probably wanted to break my hands after hearing it a million times! I learned a couple of others songs that Kayla showed me how to play and then I started just messing around and coming up with my own stuff. I made really crappy recordings of those songs, and it made me laugh going back and listening to them again today because they aren't all that great, when at the time I thought the were awesome :)

I took lessons again for 5 months or so and got better at reading music. I eventually bought my own piano which is currently sitting in my parents basement. I still can't play a ton of songs, and I'm even worse now because the only time I ever play is when I'm in STG, but I seriously love playing the piano. I'm pretty sure God knew I would need some outlet for my emotions so he led me to Kayla, who got me back into playing. I love how when I'm mad I can just slam it and get everything out, and I love how when I am sad I can play it slow and sad. I love how I can play it happy and upbeat, or I can play a hymn and show reverence. Whoever created the instrument is a genius and I'm grateful that I'm able to play, even if I'm not the best and there is no way on this planet I would ever play for a lot of people (I tried that a couple times and it was pretty traumatizing).

The last time I wrote a song was way back in 2008. I've actually got a video of it, which I'm grateful for and part of the reason I'm blogging about it because I don't want to loose it. I've never written any of my songs down on paper, so I've forgotten how to play most of them, but at least I have this video if I ever want to go back and figure it out again.

PS- If you are one of my students and reading this post for some reason, I'll have you know that I had to use proportions to shrink this video down so it would fit in the post, take that!!

In 20 years when we can afford it, I want this piano. . . I'll just keep dreaming until then!

The Past Week

2011-12-11T17:33:00.001-08:00

Well this semester is pretty much over for me. I finished up teaching my class this past week, and now I just have to grade the final. I have to say that this semester has probably been the best semester I've ever had in either my undergraduate or graduate program. I really enjoyed student teaching, but this semester was even better because I only taught two days a week compared to teaching every single day. Plus, it's a heck of alot easier teaching a class full of college girls as compared to teaching a class of hormonal teens!! :) I really did love my students this semester and I am sad to see them move on, but I am excited about my class next semester and to get to know more students. Some things I learned from teaching this semester

- Just because you are teaching at BYU doesn't mean you can't have any fun in class!

- Some lessons seriously suck, but your students forgive you and you do a better job with the next lesson

- Never give candy to your students, especially in an 8 am class. . . they start acting a little crazy by the end of class!

- Be careful when asking about what is happening in the lives of your students, it may turn into an hour conversation about their love lives haha!

- Don't be afraid to make a mistake or laugh at yourself in class, it puts everybody else at ease

- Being genuinely interested in getting to know your students goes a long way in creating a comfortable environment in class

- My drawing skills are freakin terrible and will always be the source of entertainment to my students

- My students are alot smarter than I am, I was constantly blown away by some of the stuff they came up with throughout the semester, it made me proud!

- Alot of other things specifically related to math but nobody wants a to continue reading a boring list like that!

We went to a Christmas party for Jared's work on Thursday and it was actually pretty fun. . . minus the live band, not that they weren't good, but the party was inside of a green house and the band was so loud that you literally had to scream at the person next to you if you wanted to try and talk to them. Next time they should provide an acoustic band or something! We hung out with Jared's friend Kristopher and his wife Chelsey at the party. Jared and Kristopher went to school together and Jared was able to help Kristopher get a job up at Axis 41 a few weeks ago. Kristopher and Chelsey are a really cool couple and I can see Jared and I hanging out with them in the future quite a bit. They live in Lehi, which is where we are looking to move to after this school year so it would be nice to have some friends up there already when we make the move. Everybody at the party got a Blueray player as a gift from the company which we were pretty stoked about, thank you Axis!!

Lets see other random tidbits. . . Jared is still loving his job (although I swear our families don't believe us when we tell them that, I don't think either of us has had a conversation with our parents where they didn't ask us if Jared is still liking his job haha!) He's definitely not loving the commute, but he carpools with Kristopher from Lehi to SLC so I think that is helping. We've paid off $3,000 in student loans. . . only 10K more to go, ugh! I am supposed to write a final paper for this dang 1 credit seminar class that I am taking this semester (last class I ever have to take!) but I can still get a B in the class if I don't write it, so I'm seriously thinking about bagging the paper and taking the B instead! Yesterday Jared decided he was going to replace one of the blinker bulbs in the Subi, turned into quite the project. He had to take off the entire bumper, pull out the headlight and then replace the bulb and put everything back together. I went out and helped him for a while and I was pretty impressed with his handyman skills, nothin more attractive than seeing your man do manly things like fixing the car, ha!

I've still been spending alot of time over at my friend Dana's helping her with her twins. They are getting so big, 2 months old now! She probably thinks I'm crazy for wanting to help her so much, but I have the time and I love hanging out over there. I used to be scared of even holding tiny little babies before helping with the boys, and now I am pretty much pro at feeding, burping, changing diapers, swaddling, holding, and putting them to sleep. Thanks to the twins and Dana I'm gonna be super mom when we have a kid! :)

We are heading up to Washington to Christmas this year. We are excited for the break and to be able to hang out with Jared's family! Only down side is the drive, but well get some books on tape which will help the time pass. During the past couple of weeks my favorite part of the day is right after dinner when we turn on the Christmas tree lights and the side lamp in our living room. It makes our apartment feel so cozy and homey. Most of our nights are really low key around here, but its just how I like it!

Coins for Kids

2011-12-08T08:13:00.001-08:00

I honestly have no idea who even reads my blog, so I'm not exactly sure how far this will reach, but I wanted to spread the word about a non-profit organization called Coins for Kids. The goal of the organization is to provide Christmas for kids in St. George whose families can't afford any gifts. My family has been involved for over 10 years ago, just shopping for kids and helping to wrap and deliver presents. Some of my most favorite Christmas memories are from volunteering with Coins for Kids. A couple years ago Jared and I volunteered to deliver gifts to the families. He dressed up as Santa and I was his Elf, we had to stuff pillows up his shirt to plump him up haha. You can't even imagine the looks of joy on the kids faces when "Santa" knocked on the front door!

My dad is one of the main organizers of Coins for Kids now and he told me this morning that they are about $75,000 short of their goal of $125,000. All of the money that's donated to Coins for Kids goes directly toward providing Christmas for over 2000 kids down in STG. You can donate online at the link below. Please help out if there is any way that you are able to do so, even $5 will go a long way!

http://www.coinsforkids.net/

Just Dance

2011-11-28T20:28:00.001-08:00

I decided that there needed to be an entire post to the amazingness of this game and to the picture and video footage we have from playing it over the break! My dad definitely wins the award for best dance moves. . . too funny!!

My dad and brother shakin it with my

extremely coordinated husband ;)

The video quality is terrible, but my dad was

crackin us all up with his facial expressions

and killer moves!

The girls. . . we all look like fools but oh well!

Haha Drake definitely didn't want anything

to do with the dance party

Thanksgiving. . . STG Style

2011-11-28T19:57:00.001-08:00

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family down in STG. It was a much needed break and we had a blast down there! It was Jared's birthday on Thanksgiving so he opened presents in the morning. He got a pretty sweet watch that was a group gift from me, his parents and my parents, as well as a few different shirts and sweaters so he made out pretty well! After stuffing ourselves later that afternoon, most of the crew went out shooting guns while my mom and I stayed home with the nephew while he took a nap. All of us girls did some door-busting late Thursday night and early Friday morning and later on Friday we had cake for Jared's b-day. Luckily Jared's sister Mikell was in STG with her roommate's family so she came over that night too. His parents had gotten him that "Just Dance" game for the Wii so we played it for a while, probably the most hilarious thing I've seen in a long time! On Saturday, I was able to catch up with some of my best friends from high school which was awesome because we haven't gotten together in a long time! Now we are back to the grind, sadly. . . oh well at least there are only two more weeks till the end of the semester. We put up our Christmas tree tonight so we are officially in Christmas mode around here, I love it!

The cool watch he wanted. It looks like the kind of

watch that a graphic designer would want

Trying to be a gangster. . . and failing. . . haha

Always making a weird face!

My family is the epitome of white trash!!

(Don't worry, the guns weren't loaded for this pic)

A fairly successful family pic, I'm impressed!

This crazy family in our neighborhood always

goes all out with their Christmas lights

I like this blue sweater, a good find huh?!

Adopted Nephews

2011-11-18T16:25:00.001-08:00

Some of our best friends here in Provo, Chase and Dana, just had twin baby boys about six weeks ago. I've spent the past couple of days hanging out over at their apartment helping Dana with the boys and it's been so awesome! Their names are Tate and Porter, and they are the cutest little babies in the world! Dana amazes me, I would definitely not be able to handle having twins, but she is a rockstar mom and every time I go over there I leave even more impressed by her mom skills! I've loved spending time with these boys and appreciate Dana letting me come and help her, it makes me excited for when Jared and I have our own babies. Chase and Dana are moving up to SLC soon, and luckily we will be moving up there eventually too, so we're happy that we will all get to live by each other for now. Can't wait to see Tate and Porter grow up in the next few years, they are going to be little studs!!

Tate (left) and Porter (right)

Seriously, how cute are these boys?!?

I can't tell them apart in this pic,

it looks like Porter on the left and Tate on the right

You might have to correct me Dana! :)

STG Adventures

2011-11-09T21:50:00.000-08:00

Last week I spent a few days down in STG to help watch my nephew. My sister is in the nursing program at Dixie State and her clinicals were a little funky that week so since I only teach my class on Mon. and Wed. I headed down after my class on Wed. and spent the rest of the week there helping out! It was really fun to be able to hang with the little dude, he's a pretty funny kid! On Thursday we went out shopping for Jared's (Bah) birthday. I wanted to try and find him a couple of new shirts. Since Drake doesn't like shopping, I convinced him to go with me by telling him that we were trying to find a "cool guy shirt" for Bah . . . we lasted all of 2 stores haha! We ended up going home and played on his swing set in the backyard, had some intense sword fights with his foam swords and hid from the "bad guys" in the backyard. See, I'm kind of a genius because in order to get away from the bad guys, we had to hide on his bed, so when it was time for a nap, I coerced him into bed by saying we had to hide from the bad guys. . . smart I know, I'll be the best manipulating mom someday haha!

On Friday we went to Costco to eat lunch. The kid can legitimately pound an entire Costco hotdog, it is amazing! He's the pickiest eater on the planet, but for whatever reason he will scarf down the whole hotdog. As we were walking into Costco we had to pass the TV section which happened to have Cars 2 playing on them, so of course we had to stop and watch for a few minutes. . . talk about manipulation, I bet they make a killing off of parents whose kids refuse to take another step unless the parents agree to buy the dang movie! Well I contemplated it, got manipulated and decided to be the cool aunt so I told him that B and Bah had a surprise for him and I got the movie for him. He was pretty excited about it and proceeded to watch it 3 times that day, 4 times the next day and has probably watched it another 12 times since we left on Sunday afternoon!

Here's a couple of videos from our car ride to and from Costco (sorry they are kind of long but my grandma and aunt hardly ever get to see Drake because they live across the country so they like to see pics and videos of the kid!), the things he says are pretty hilarious, he picks up on everything you say now and will repeat everything that comes out of your mouth. One thing he likes to ask all the time is "why??" seriously every other word is "why" so Whit started telling him "Because those are the rules" which he isn't a huge fan of hearing :)

The surprise from B and Bah

This is what you get when you ask for a smile :)

So excited for Cars 2

Drake has a swing set in the back of my parents backyard and later that night they brought home some soft playground chip thingys that you put on the ground to make it softer. Anyway, we all pitched in to help spread them across the swing set area back there. It's seriously a child's fantasy, my parents are saints. . . they'd do anything for that little guy! While we were breaking our backs spreading those things out, Jared was on his way down from Provo on the shuttle so I went and picked him up later that night.

Pops doin his thing. . . You should see

this man when he gets working on a project,

it's a bit intense! ha :)

Classy attire there Whitter Poots

although I'm not one to talk either! haha

On Saturday, I went running errands with my mom while Jared and my Dad took Drake "Bammin" over at Lowes. I guess Lowes and Home Depot do this craft thing for kids every other week where they can get a project and put it together. That's right up Jared's ally so they went and picked up a monster car set and Bah helped Big put it together at home, pretty stinkin cute. Later that night Jared and I took Drake to see Puss in Boots, it was a really good movie! It was kind of fun to play parents for the evening, happy to report there were no major melt downs or potty accidents (he's only been potty trained for about a month now, so I was a little nervous considering some random kid peed on my sister and her husband in a movie theater a couple years ago, true story!!)

Bammin with Bah

Watch your fingers there babe, can't

imagine that a 2 year old has very great aim!

On Sunday we went to church, had family dinner, watched the Patriots play some freakin crappy football, and then drove home. We should have left earlier than we did because we ended up driving through a dang blizzard! The most annoying part was that the roads were totally clear, but it was snowing so hard that we literally couldn't see more than 5 feet in front of our car. Supposedly we need to get fog lights for the Subi, yet another upgrade that Jared wants for the car. . . Let's just add another $400 dollars onto the $900 dollars it will cost us to put a bike rack on the top of the car, no thanks baby!

We tried to get some pics before

church but the kid wasn't havin it!

This is the best face we got

We had slightly more success when it

was just him with Bah and his sword haha

All in all it was a great weekend and it was fun to get away from Provo for a little while! And now we're back to the grind this week. Scary story from today, I almost died this morning as I was driving up to school. Some idiot ran a red light while I was turning left and was about 1 second away from t-boning me. He didn't even slow down, he was probably texting the fool! Seriously scared the daylights out of me! It only strengthens Jared's argument that Provo drivers are the worst drivers out there, and I now I have to agree with him!

Weird Dreams

2011-11-07T14:11:00.000-08:00

I would characterize my blogging as sporadic and little crazy. I try to keep it light because I like remembering the funny things that happen and I like to keep family posted on what's going on in our lives (the other day my mom told me that our blog is like our family history haha). This post is for me though. I guess it's what you would call a "journal" post, which I figure everyone who blogs is entitled to do whenever they want. I don't really care if you read it, and I don't really care if you think it's too much personal stuff to share because I just need to get it out and be done with it. And if this really is my family history, I want my future kids/grandkids to know me, a real part of me. So now you've been warned :)

I have some seriously weird dreams. I've always had really vivid dreams and for the most part they are just random, like the other night I dreamt that I was trying to find the supplies I needed to take to my class the next morning but I couldn't find them, so I had to run around the math building looking for them. Other nights they are more crazy, like me running away from bad guys or other dangerous things. Last night was a depressing one. I dreamt that I was in a doctors office and they told me I had cancer, it was a crappy dream. Sometimes I don't like having such vivid dreams because the emotions and everything seem so real. In the dream last night I felt like I'd gotten punched in the stomach and round-house kicked in the face, Chuck Norris style. Too bad it's a feeling that I'm somewhat familiar with concerning this particular six letter word. I hate cancer, I hate it more than anything else in this world, I freaking hate it so bad. It's something my family has dealt with for the past 10 years and it sucks.

Extremely long story short, we found out my sister had cancer (Desmoid tumors to be exact, if you really care to look it up) when she was 16 or something like that. Even after several surgeries the stupid thing the doctors said was benign kept growing back and spreading. The summer after I graduated high school (2005) we found out she needed to do chemo and all of that nasty stuff. It was a really hard 6 months and even after it was all said and done the cancer is still in there, but luckily it's not growing anymore. It was difficult for everyone in my family, and it messed me up pretty bad. There were times when I straight up thought my sister was going to die, and it was just hard for an 18 year old kid to handle. It honestly took me several years after all the chemo and everything to get to a spot where I was able to deal with all of the emotional baggage. Even now, I can't get the images out of my mind, they are burned in my memory and pop up whenever I hear that stupid word or see movies based on it. There were so many times when it was happening that I wished it was me and not her who was sick. I would have done anything to switch places with her because I didn't want her to hurt. Which is ironic given my dream last night. In it, I remember telling her first before anyone else, but I can't remember what she said.

But what could anybody say to something like this or any other trial you have no control over?? Trials suck, they all suck really bad. I feel like some people almost try to glamorize trials and build them up like it's a privilege to go through crap. Yes, I am grateful for some of the things I learned from that trial, things that took me years to learn. . . but would I ever want my family to do it again?? Hell no. I understand the fact that we grow through our experiences, that we become better and more refined, because of the hard things we go through. I understand that, and I believe it, but I also think it's okay if we struggle through things, if sometimes we get upset about those crappy things we can't control in life, if we have an emotional breakdown every once in a while (which used to happen weekly for me back in the day), or even if we aren't grateful for our dang trials.

We all have unique challenges we have to face; we are tougher than we think and we can get through hard things. But please don't beat yourself up if you feel like you aren't "dealing" with stuff well enough. I spent alot of years hurting because I felt like I needed to "deal" with cancer better and that I should have just been able to get over it. Well guess what. . . it happened to take me years to "get over" cancer and considering this post and some of the feelings I still have towards everything, I may never "get over it" in this lifetime. But just because I may still struggle with it at times does not make me a weak person. Gaining perspective about what's really important in life has helped make me strong. Learning to develop my faith and trusting that God is aware of the hard things I go through has helped make me strong. Continuing to rely on the perspective and faith I have developed while facing other challenges, even if they aren't as huge, has helped make me strong.

I have a favorite scripture that has always helped me through hard things it's Doctrine & Covenants 121:7-8 ". . . peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment. And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high. . ." Endure means to persevere, to do the best that you can. I've been doing the best I can with this trial and that is enough.

I love you Whit, you are the best person I know, and I will always look up to you.

Some professional photographers wanted to take pics of Whit, my mom, and I when she was doing chemo. Whit wore a wig in most of the pictures.

They told us to think about everything

we were going through before they took this pic,

I call it our "screw the world" photo

Jared's Got Real Skills

2011-10-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry about writing so many posts right in a row, but I wanted to let our family members (who don't have facebook) know about a cool accomplishment of Jared's. We just found out that a couple of his projects have been submitted to get recognized in the "new talent annual" of the best graphic design magazine in the country called Graphis. It's also one of the top design magazines in the world, so the fact that some of his projects have been submitted is a pretty big deal. I'm not sure when we will find out if they actually get accepted into the magazine, but if they do get accepted, it will be a HUGE deal! Here are a couple of links so you can see the projects that got submitted.

http://www.graphis.com/cfe/online/newtalentannual2012/?id=6948

http://www.graphis.com/cfe/online/newtalentannual2012/?id=6931

A few of Jared's classmates also had their projects submitted as well and it just goes to show how prestigious BYU's graphic design program is, literally one of the best in the country. I'm really proud of Jared for all the hard work that he put into his schooling and that he was able to progress so much in his program. I think it's been paying off pretty well with his new job too. Right now he's basically in charge of a whole entire rebrand project for a company, which is pretty cool considering he's only been working there for 6 weeks or so. Good job babe!

I've Got Skills!

2011-10-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

I've tried to make dinner rolls several times the past few months and none of the attempts have turn out all that great. I blame it on the fact that our apartment is too freezing cold and prevents the dough from rising properly (our thermostat read a whopping 60 degrees when I woke up this morning and when I came home from campus!). . . but tonight, yeast has never been so nice to me, and I made the most perfect batch of delicious, mouth watering rolls in the whole world, quite possibly the best I've ever eaten! (besides Jared's mom or his Grandma's rolls, nobody can touch those babies, sorry people) I don't usually scream with pleasure after eating stuff that I've made myself, but after tasting these I yelled, "Holy crap these are GOOD!!" Jared thinks I'm crazy, but I am dang proud of myself, I even took a picture! Mom and Carolyn, you'd better be impressed, because who knows if I'll ever be so lucky again :)

Here's the link to the roll recipe if you want it. . . seriously, Mel's Kitchen Cafe is the bomb.com, her recipes have never failed me. I made this awesome clam chowder from the blog as well to go along with the rolls and it was pretty freakin delicious too!

http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2007/12/french-bread-rolls.html

http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2009/10/my-favorite-boston-clam-chowder.html

The Copy Machine Hates Me

2011-10-24T21:43:00.000-07:00

I got in a fight with the department copy machine today, and I lost. . . failed miserably. So I got to school early this morning because I needed to print some things off for my class. Five minutes before class started I realized that I had forgotten to print off a transparency with a couple of definitions on it. I ran down to the copy room and spent a couple minutes trying to find a dang transparency to make the copy on and I couldn't find one! Finally I found a box of more flimsy transparencies (compared to what we usually have) so I grabbed one, shoved it in a tray and ran the copy. Two seconds later the stupid thing jams and I start smelling burnt plastic. . . crap! I opened the thing up but I couldn't see the transparency in there, and not because it's transparent people, I really just couldn't find it! Well I didn't have time to hang around to fix the problem, so I let the department secretary know there was a jam in that part of the copy machine, searched furiously for a regular transparency until I found one, made the copy using a different tray and ran off to class. After my class ended (two hours later mind you) I went back down to the copy room to assess the damage and it still smelled like burnt plastic, bad news. The secretary had tried to pull out the jammed transparency but wasn't able to find it either, so they had to call in some pros to fix the dang thing. I went back to my office to work on my thesis and a couple hours later the secretary swung by to show me the bill. . . 500 dollars later and the thing was fixed!!! Oh my gosh I totally freaked out! The secretary actually thought it was pretty funny because somehow the department has a deal with the service company where the department doesn't have to pay for the service so she was just giving me a hard time because it was really kind of funny, who seriously burns up the copy machine?! Moral of the story? I'm never using a flimsy transparency ever again, piece of junk!

After that drama, I spent the rest of the day in class and then grading exams. I always appreciated it when teachers got my tests graded and handed back quickly so I've been trying to get my students' tests graded fast this semester so I busted them out all in one sitting. But now I'm exhausted and am going to bed. . . peace out

Hair Cut

2011-10-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

Tonight is a milestone in our marriage. . . I successfully cut Jared's hair for the first time ever, and it actually looks pretty good! We were both a little nervous that he might have to buzz it all off if I butched it bad, but luckily it turned out okay!

I think he's pretty cute . . . just sayin :)

Chili, Date Night and other Randomness

2011-10-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I was at church and they sent around a sign up sheet to bring food to a relief society activity. Well I, being the unsuspecting and naive young girl that I am, had no idea that in family wards, they are hardcore about their relief society food. I was totally willing to make a dish and take it, ya know, like rolls, beans or some other easy side dish, so when the sign up sheet came around I put my name on it. Then I watch as the girl next to me lift up the sheet I had just put my name as she signed her name on the "Side Dish" list. How am I supposed to know that family ward relief societies are much more organized than student ward relief societies, not only do they pass out sign up sheets. . . but they pass out individual sign up sheets for A) Main Dish B) Salads C) Side Dishes and D) Desserts and that I am supposed to lift up the front sheet marked "Main Dish" in order to sign up for something less important?! I swear they do this on purpose, put the main dish list on the front page to catch unsuspecting people like me off guard. I probably could have grabbed it back from the girl and erased my name from the main dish list, but then I would have looked like an idiot for not having read the dang sheet more closely! So I was stuck with the task of having to make a main dish. Now this had to be good people, this was my first family ward RS activity and being new in the ward, if I made something crappy, all the old ladies would probably label me as "that sweet thing who attempted to make a main dish. . . " This is a little traumatizing!

So I decided to make some Chili. When we first got married my sister gave me this really good recipe for Chili that I've made quite a bit the past couple of years, so I thought it would be the easiest, fool proof thing to do in this situation. I figured I'd make quite a bit because other people were smart enough to figure out that they needed to sign up on the "side dish" sheet if they wanted to actually make a side dish, so there weren't too many of us who had signed up for the main dish. The night before the activity I made 1.5 batches of the stuff, which is quite a bit for this recipe. The next day rolls around and this lady calls me up to remind me to bring a main dish. I made the mistake of asking her how many people to plan for, she says "Well, there were only a few people who signed up for the main dish and you were the only one who didn't have a question mark by their name. . . so plan for 24." Oh boy, it took all my power to restrain from yelling, "What the crap woman, you make a main dish to serve 24!!" I held my tongue and then proceeded to text Jared about the crazy RS lady who wants me to make chili for 24 people! So I ran home, got more ingredients for the chili and made another whole batch of the stuff. The whole time I was thinking, "First of all, we'll be lucky enough to get 24 people to this activity and second of all, these ladies probably eat like birds so we're probably going to have chili coming out of our ears after this!!" but I was faithful in my sign up and I made more chili. Haha it would have been pure comedy for you to watch me try and lug all that chili into the church building, but I did it. I was right on all counts though. Less than 24 people showed up and the ladies ate like birds. . . so I came home with a butt-load of chili. I'm never signing up to take food to a RS activity ever again! But this randomly brings us to the awesome date night we had with our friends Maddi and Alex.

Maddi let me know that her and Alex got tickets to go see the play Sleepy Hollow and they wanted us to go with them. We decided that sounded like fun, so we got tickets as well. A few days later I had the chili fiasco, so I called Maddi up and asked her if they wanted to come over before the show to have chili with us because we had A TON leftover. They agreed so we made a pretty good dent in the leftovers before going over to the show. It was cool because the play was at an outdoor amphitheater in Provo. I had no idea that this amphitheater existed but it's pretty sweet, it's a replica of a castle, so it worked out well for the play. I had never seen Sleepy Hollow before, I was somewhat familiar with the story, at least the Headless Horseman part, but this particular version seemed more like a love story to me than the scary story I was expecting. It was still good though. . . other than the part where I we sat on hard rocks (this is a "castle" amphitheater mind you) and I couldn't feel my butt by the end of it. . . that wasn't too fun :) After the play we went back to Maddi and Alex's apartment for hot chocolate and to watch the new X-Men. That movie is really good, we highly recommend seeing it! I stole this picture of all four of us from Maddi's blog.

Check out the kid in the skeleton

shirt behind us. . . baha

I found some random pictures and videos on my camera when I went to pull some pics off of it. We'll start with the pics. Jared and I watched our nephew Drake every once in a while when my sister and her husband were living in Orem this past year. One night he decided that he wanted to play hide and seek. So he made Jared "hide" with him while I tried to "find" them. His favorite places of choice 1. On the other side of the bed, 2. Underneath the coffee table (totally hilarious to watch Jared try to "hide" underneath the coffee table haha!) and 3. Underneath the pillows on our bed. Here was the usual dialouge as I went to "find" them.

Stacie: Walking around the kitchen "I wonder where Biggie went. . ."

Drake: "I'm right here!!"

Stacie: Looking underneath over by the bed "Is he under the bed??"

Drake: "NO!"

Stacie: Walking around to the far side of the bed "Is he on this side of the bed??"

Drake: "NO!"

Stacie: Swinging the bedroom door "Is he behind the door??"

Drake: "NO!"

Stacie: Jumping on the bed and smashing him with the pillows "He's under the pillows!!"

Drake: Screaming at the top of his lungs, then "Do it again!"

And the process would repeat several times until Jared and I told him we were too tired to play hide and seek anymore (ha hoping this excuse will work with our own kids, likely it won't, but we can always hope right?!). One day when my parents were in town we were all over at our apt. and Drake wanted to play hide and seek, so him and Jared went and hid under the pillows in our room. Haha, we snapped a few pictures and Whit recorded Grammy (my mom) finding him, so funny!

His little feet sticking out, too priceless!

Hiding with Bah

Drake keeps telling Grammy to "get away!" in this video :) maybe it's the cackle that scares him?? Haha love you mom!

The other videos I found on my camera were from a few months ago when our niece Halle and little nephew Cole came and had a sleep over at our apartment when Jared's parents were in town. Only two main reasons why Halle and Cole wanted to sleep over, first because Grandma and Grandpa were staying at our apartment too and second. . . they wanted to play our Wii (Jared and I probably came in at a close third haha) The kids love playing Mario Kart and it's pretty entertaining to watch them! They would start out on either side of the TV and by the end of the race Cole was usually on the other side of the TV and/or two inches away from the screen, pretty hilarious!

Jared and I have some pretty dang cute nieces and nephews, we love hanging out with them!

Another STG Weekend

2011-10-03T21:31:00.000-07:00

Jared and I went down to STG this past weekend to hang out with my family for conference. We had a really fun time and I actually took pictures and videos, so I'm steppin up my game with this post! We couldn't leave Provo till about 7 pm on Friday night because Jared doesn't usually get back from work till then, but we packed up the car and cruised down the I-15 in the Subi. The minute we walked in the door we were greeted by Biggie (my sister's little boy Drake) who wanted to fight Bah (Jared) with his foam sword. So funny!

The next day Jared got up early to go on a bike ride. When he got back from his ride, Drake decided that he wanted to go bike riding with Bah too so we went out in the driveway for some biking. Haha Drake is wearing "unders" now that he's been potty training, and he had no problem wearing his Dash unders to go biking with Bah.

Here's a video from the sword fight and bike riding...

We watched the morning session of conference and then we decided that we would go over to this trampoline jump warehouse place in STG with Whit, Drake and my little brother Wess (aka Snipes, ya know Wesley Snipes, well Whit starting calling our brother Snipes a few years ago and the nickname stuck). Whit had taken Drake to this tramp place before and I guess he likes playing there. It was also really fun for us adults and we had a good laugh trying to do tricks on the tramps and doing our best "ugly poses." Jared definitely wins the contest for ugliest pose (see video below), we all got a good laugh from his rendition of a salmon trying to swing upstream haha! Snipes move was "the pencil" and Whit did a pretty sweet running man!

Biggie thought it was pretty cool to "bum it"
That's Snipes in the background doing backflips... nbd

Trying to climb up the slide

Don't know what was going on here, but

I still thought it was a pretty cool pic!

Later that night when the boys were at Priesthood, I went and hung out with one of my best friends Nikki who just had the cutest little baby girl a few weeks ago. It was fun to catch up with Niks and to hold her cute little girl! After we all got home we decided to make a fire, which consisted of turning on the gas fire-pit that my parents have on the back deck haha, much better than getting all smokey and gross! Drake loves to "make fire" and cook. . . correction, burn. . . marshmallows so Jared and I humored him until we had burned through most of the bag of mallows.

Doesn't look like there is a flame, but there totally was!

I guess the flash on cameras does some trippy stuff or somethin

I love this little grin, so cute

Progression of the Burn. . .

(These were taken with Jared's phone, so it's got a weird haze goin on!)

Shove the mallow in the flame

After mallow catches fire, fling stick high into air

Yell at Bah to "BLOW IT!"

Replace charred mallow with a fresh one and start cycle over!

Sunday consisted of conference watching and pigging out on chips and homemade salsa, we loved it! Now it's back to the real world, kind of a bummer but it was fun to get away for a couple of days.

Today I graded the first exam that my students took this semester. Overall it was less painful than I had expected, only took me about 4 hours instead of the 6-7 hours I was planning for. I'm still loving my class and being able to teach although half the time I leave class with a whole list of things I wish I would have done differently, but I figure that's just how it will be for the first few years of teaching in general so I can't worry about it too much!

A New Toy!

2011-09-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

We successfully made our first major purchase tonight, found out we both have really good credit and fulfilled Jared's life long dream. . . we got a new (well technically "certified" used according to Jared) car, and not just any car, but a Subaru!! We've made it two and a half years with only one car but now that Jared is commuting back and forth to SLC everyday and given that we'll need another one when I start teaching full-time next year, we decided now was a good time to start looking for a deal! We found the Subi (like Sewbee, pretty original nickname eh?!) this past weekend at a dealership up in Salt Lake, it's a Subaru Impreza Wagon. We both like the look of the hatchback, plus it'll give us more room for all of Jared's mountain man gear. He also likes it because it is a stick shift and he thinks it's pretty cool to go fast through roundabouts and sharp corners, figures. . . Anyway, here's a few pics.

This is the face you get when you

ask for a "cool guy" pose baha

He's so happy!

Demonstrating how the trunk cover thingy works

Ha, this is fitting, we just watched a commercial about a guy who talks about how his Subaru "saved his life" blahblahblah, so Jared looks at me and says, "It's perfect, his Subaru loves him like our Subaru loves us!" haha what are the odds?!

Cute Video

2011-09-14T16:53:00.000-07:00

Wow I've been on a bloggin roll the past couple of weeks!! I was on campus today and I walked passed a little toddler that looked so much like my sister's little son Drake. Whit emailed me this super cute video of him the other day. He's about 2 1/2 years old now and he's been working on saying all of his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles "real" names because he's called most of us by our nicknames. I've always been "B" to him and Jared has always been "Bah" (originating from Whit always calling Jared "Jare-Bear" or just Bear) Anyway, he knows that my first name is Stacie and I'm pretty sure he knows "Bah's" first name is Jared, but he thinks he's pretty funny in calling Jared "Bear" as well!

The beginning of the video is him telling us that he calls their dog a sneaky bugger, haha and that dog totally is a sneaky bugger, pretty sure my bro-in-law wants to drop kick him off their deck!

Today I got observed by my "mentor" faculty lady while I was teaching my class. She's super nice and I really like her, but it's a tad bit intimidating having somebody there watching your every move and you can see her scribbling crap down on her notebook out of the corner of your eye! And my lesson?? Totally did not go how I was originally expecting. Gotta love those times when you have absolutely no idea what the students are saying, I probably looked like an idiot up there but oh well, that's teaching for ya haha!

Another funny note. . . Jared told me that he dreamt he was Harry Potter last night, baha! He went on some mission to kill bad guys and right before he woke up he heard a voice (his reenactment made it sound like a mix between Dumbledore and Snape) say "Well done Harry Potter." haha, so random but hilarious at the same time!

Workin Man

2011-09-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

Jared had his first day of work today! I probably should have packed him a lunch, but lets face it, I'm not a morning person and I had to get to campus early to prep for my class this morning! He had to do some sort of new employee orientation thingy for a while but then got to spend the rest of the day designing, so it was a good day overall. We spent the entire evening filling out a bunch of paperwork for taxes and insurance, but it's kind of fun to do it when you know you will actually be getting steady income from now on, it's pretty awesome!

First time ever having to fill out a W-4 for a real job!

The cool garage clicker he gets so

he doesn't have to pay to park

We got a nice little surprise tonight. We got a check back from SRAM (the company in Colorado Springs that Jared interviewed with) and they reimbursed us $630 dollars for our gas and milage from when we drove out for Jared's interview!!! We had only spent $170 dollars on gas and stayed with family the whole weekend, so we made out pretty well with these people! I might feel about 2 seconds worth of guilt considering he didn't take their offer, but if they're willing to give us that much for driving out there, then I'm more than willing to swing it by the bank and make a big fat deposit into our account. Ha, Jared asked if he could buy something with the money and I said no way considering we are now responsible for paying back a fairly significant amount in student loans, but oh well, at least we don't have to worry about 630 dollars of it!

Some Great News!!

2011-09-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

No people I'm not pregnant let's just get that out of the way right now :) But, we do have some really great news to share. This. . .

Nose Picking. . .

Tent building . . .

(in the family room no less!)

Lego Loving. . .

Hardcore Hiking. . .

Super cute

(I kind of like this picture, so I threw it in there)

dude just accepted his first "real man" job (I like to call it that because it sounds cool)!!!!! He'll be working full-time as a designer at a advertising/design firm called Axis 41 up in SLC. We are seriously so excited and relieved that it all finally came together. This summer has been a tough one for us, we've learned a lot about patience and faith through this whole job hunting battle, but we are grateful that everything always has a way of working out in the way that it needs to. Thank you to everyone for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers, you don't know how much we appreciate it.

For now we will be staying in our apartment here in Provo because I have to be on campus to teach and we only have one car, but we'll probably end up moving further north in either December or the end of the school year.

In other news, teaching has gone great so far this semester. I was super nervous for the first week, but now that I have gotten to know my class it's really been more fun than anything else! I teach a math class that Elementary Ed. majors have to take, so all of my students are girls. I honestly feel more like their friend than their teacher because I'm only a few years older than most of them, but I think I've done a pretty good job in helping them learn the concepts they need to while keeping class enjoyable at the same time.

Anyway, just wanted to fill everybody in on the good news! :)

Things that make me smile. . .

2011-08-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

This pictures makes me laugh!

After yesterday's little rant, I'm in a much better mood today and have decided to compile a list of things that make me smile.

-Having my mom go grocery shopping with me when she's in town, she always buys us junk food that I refuse to buy on my own because I'm too cheap! :)

-Going back to Target and finding the blouse I wanted in the right size, then coming home and modeling the new outfits I could make with that blouse to Jared and having him tell me I'm hott!

-Facebook stalking into a couple who just adopted a baby boy and looking through their pictures from the day he was born.

-Listening to Jared sing in the shower haha!

-Watching Melanie on So You Think You Can Dance, I love this dance as well as this one!

-Being able to talk to my Aunt on the phone, she's the best

-Jared having a job interview with a company that he really likes on Friday morning

-Being able to road trip to Colorado Springs with Jared to said interview!

-Singing this song in my car at the top of my lungs! Haha, gotta love middle school!

-Kickin the crap out of my highest Fruit Ninja score!

I could go on and on, but those are the first things that come to my mind!

Things that bug . . .

2011-08-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

Doesn't this picture just crack you up?! Hahaha

I don't know why, but I am in a pessimistic frame of mind this fine day. . . so I'm letting it all out there on my list of "things that bug," which is a list of things that probably bug other people too, so join me in my little rant! (Disclaimer: None of the following statements are made in real anger, mostly with a smirk and shake of my head at the antics of some people! haha)

-Incompetent professionals who say they are going to call but never do, and who don't have the decency to write you an email to say that they need to reschedule. . . idiots! (Who then email you back several days later to "apologize" and see if they can set up another time to talk. . . thanks but no thanks lady!!)

-Seeing girls in shorts so short that the pockets hang lower than the hem of the short, sorry but I don't want to see your butt cheeks thank you very much!

-Crazy back-to-school shoppers at Walmart, I swear they are out for blood!

-The customer service girl at the Orem Target who tells me the American Fork store has the blouse in the size I need, so I drive up there at 9:30pm only to find out they actually don't have it, and that the customer service girl should have told me they only update inventory in the mornings. . . another incompetent!

-Big boobs and a small waist. . . I could have avoided the whole Target fiasco in the first place if my freakin boobs didn't cause the buttons of the aforementioned blouse to pop open!

-The fact that it took over three weeks to get a paid for one of my jobs. . . don't they know that we are poor?!

-Landlords who bark up our tree if we are a couple days late on our rent (we forgot to pay before we spent a weekend down in STG) but who consistently don't deposit our rent checks until well after the 15th every month!

-All of these college girls who create blogs so that they can post pictures of what they wear every single day, along with where they bought every single piece of clothing in that outfit. Yes you have cute clothes, thank you for bestowing your genius on us lesser folks who have no style!

-(This one's for my sister) Crazy old ladies that live down the street who don't know how to mind their own business, who are a bit mean and nasty, and who take it upon themselves to uphold every single detail of the stupid HOA policies . . . thanks for providing an example of exactly what I DON'T want to be like when I'm in my 70's and losing my mind!

-Provo before the start of a new school year. . . the source of all the insane Walmart shoppers!

-Utah Valley highway construction, thanks for making all of our lives a bit more miserable!

-Overpaid athletes who think they are are the shizz, "I'm not going to sign a contract for only 8 million per year, I'm totally worth at least 12!" Wow, only 8 million a year, cry me a frickin river you fool!

-Spilling a glob of peanut butter on my foot. . . don't ask, not telling!

-Seeing a six year old walking home from school talking on a cell phone, come on people, we have to draw the line somewhere!

Well that's a long enough list for now, I'm feeling much better now :) Hope you were able to get a good laugh, or at least that we are in agreement on some!

Quick Update

2011-08-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

It's been, and will be quite the week. Best news of all though, we have a brand new niece!! Jared's brother Blake and his wife Sheena are now parents to a cute little girl named Hannah Claire, who was born this past Sunday afternoon. We are so excited for them, although somewhat bummed for ourselves because we haven't seen her yet and we don't know when we'll be able to make it up to Seattle to visit! They are going to be the best parents in the world and we can't wait to get to know that little angel. On Monday, Jared was able to get quite a bit of feedback from different studios that he has been in contact with. He has an interview Friday morning with a company called SRAM, they are a company that makes bike parts like brakes and cranks (I don't even know what a crank is, I've just heard Jared toss the term around and I'm assuming they make those, ha!) and other cool parts that I don't know about! Anyway, their marketing team is based in Colorado Springs, which seems like a fun place to live, and we'd take it over NYC or some other big cities, so keep him in your prayers! He is also in contact with a bigger design company that has offices in NYC, Chicago and Minneapolis. A guy who went through Jared's same program a couple years ago works for them in NYC, so he is helping Jared get his foot in the door. They've been looking through his website the past couple of days, so hopefully he gets an email from their hiring team this week, we will keep our fingers crossed! I'm doing well, just working and trying to get ready for this up coming semester. Right now the plan is for me to stay in Provo for at least fall semester regardless of whether or not Jared gets a job elsewhere. We'd save a ton of money on tuition and I actually make really good money teaching on campus, so we think it might be the best option financially for us, but we'll see if we change our minds if the distance actually becomes reality. I got assigned to teach a math course that students have to take if they are in the elementary education program. I think it should be pretty fun! It covers very basic topics, like operations on multidigit numbers, integers, polygons etc. but it goes into alot more detail with each topic. Luckily our department has already created a curriculum for the course, so I won't have to develop my own lesson plans and worksheets from scratch, but I'll be spending quite a bit of time in the next few weeks preparing for to teach it though. A few weeks ago a good friend of mine named Melissa visited Provo and we were able to get together one of our old roommates Kira for dinner. Melis has been in DC the past few years teaching and has made the move out to California to teach out there. She stopped by on her way through and it was great to get together and reminisce about the good ol' Branbury days! This weekend we are going to help my sister and her family move back down to STG. We are sad they are leaving us, but its a good move for their family. Whit is going to be doing the nursing program at Dixie State, so that will be great for her. It's going to be hotter than crap down there, but we are going to stay a few extra days so we can hang out and take a break from job hunting and working. It's been a stressful summer and we are both sick of it! :) I stole these pics from both Sheena's and Melissa's blogs, but I wanted to post them myself too!

Little Hannah

Kira, Melissa and I

Haha, I compared this picture of the three of us to some that we have from when we all lived together and I look so different! These other two ladies are still as gorgeous as ever (although Kira has a little more grey now, I love her grey hair, it's tight!!), but I've grown up alot in the past four years, I don't even look the same anymore!

Hilarious!!

2011-07-25T10:38:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Jared starts randomly singing in the shower. I think its quite funny. Out of nowhere this morning he started belting out the Star Spangled Banner, so I did what any good wife would do. . . grabbed a camera and recorded it! Pretty freakin hilarious! And don't worry, he doesn't like pop out behind the shower curtain or anything in the video, but you have to listen it's so funny!

Soccer Fun

2011-07-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

We've been watching alot of soccer the past month with the USA doing so well in the Women's World Cup, so we were both excited when my parents got all of us siblings tickets to go see a Real Salt Lake game this past weekend. Salt Lake has a pretty good team and it was fun to be able to watch a game live. It was cool too because they also had fireworks after the game for Pioneer Day! Only downside was having to sit behind some ridiculous fans. They were all drunk by the end of the game and we were lucky enough to witness one of the girls give her boyfriend a lap dance during the fireworks. . . so scarred by that image!

Haha, this is the typical face

we get when we try to take his picture!

Caught a smile

These crazy fans played the drums

and some tambourine thing the WHOLE game

they only stopped during halftime!

I guess he thought my lap was comfortable

or something like that, ha

All these people went down on the field after

the game to get a better view of the fireworks

Pretty sure this was his first experience

with fireworks, it was a success!

With Pop-Pop

In other news, Jared has been applying for jobs all over and this weekend he applied for one at Smith Optics. It's the company that makes nice sunglasses and skiing goggles etc. It seems like a pretty sweet job, but the company is located right by Sun Valley Idaho, aka, the middle of nowhere. I didn't know this before yesterday, but I guess Sun Valley is Idaho's version of Park City. Jared would probably love it considering all of the snowboarding he could do in the winter and all the biking he could do in the summer, but I for one, would have to get used to the freezing blizzard of winter doom! Overall though its probably the job he has been most excited about applying for the past couple of weeks, so pray that he will get an interview this week! :)

New Look!

2011-07-06T20:15:00.000-07:00

My husband is pretty cool. . . why, you ask?? Cause he created our amazing blog title header thingy! Isn't it awesome?! That's what a degree in graphic design gets you people, the skills to do cool creative stuff like that! I was getting sick of our brown/green busy blog layout this past week, so I switched over to a more simple design and then begged Jared to make us a sweet header, which he did tonight. I told him he should start a business, I bet people would pay money to have great looking original designs like that compared to some of the stuff out there!

New Suits!

2011-06-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

We happened to run across a buy one get one free deal at Men's Warehouse a couple of weeks ago and decided that it was a good time to get Jared a new suit. He's got such a slim body that we thought a more Euro or modern suit would look better on him than what he has now. We were definitely right! I'm usually not one to brag about how handsome her husband is, but he looks dang good in these suits!! :)

This one is my favorite, I love the color!

Ha, I made him do a model shot! :)

Jared likes this one a little bit better

We still ended up spending quite a bit of money for both, but we figured its a long term investment and something he can have for the next 15 years or so!

Best Baby Shower Ever!

2011-06-22T22:01:00.001-07:00

I have to admit, I am not the biggest fan of baby/bridal showers. I don't mind them, especially when its family members or good friends, but I don't get super excited about them. Anyway, tonight was my old roommate Julia's baby shower (you should check her blog by the way HILARIOUS. . . she's on my friend list "Jules and Sloan") and it was seriously one of the most fun nights I've had in a long time! First of all, Jules makes any get together fun because she's got such a great sense of humor and she tells great stories, second, most of us there used to live in the same apartment complex back in the day so it was awesome to catch up with each other.

The particular apartment that I lived in housed me, Jules, Kira and Marin. We've all gone our separate ways now but we had some seriously great times together when we lived there. Marin couldn't come to Jules' shower but while we were there, the rest of us had a good laugh at some of our old inside jokes. Haha, there was one day a few years ago when I got into a freakin weird mood. We were all hangin out in our living room and I randomly shouted out, "Lets do something crazy... like drive down to Vegas to see the water fountains!!!" haha they all got a kick out of it and Jules replied, in a very fast high pitched nerdy voice, "Stacie's gone wild driving to Vegas to see the water fountains!" Obviously it was way more hilarious to us in the moment, but after that every time I did something remotely funny, or even normal stuff I recieved a, "Stacie's gone wild making dinner in the kitchen!" "Stacie's gone wild picking boogers out of her nose" or my personal favorite that Jules reminded me of today (while we were doing donuts in my car in our parking lot after church one time) "Stacie's gone wild playing chicken with dangerous vehicles!!" LOL oh man I was seriously laughing so hard today, I even got tears in my eyes and that never happens!

Another random moment that came up today was when Marin told us about a time when she was driving up to a family cabin or something, and they passed through a ranch gate that said "Grandpa's Shining Mountain. . . The Laughing Place" For some reason at the time we thought this was so funny and we decided to refer to our apartment as The Laughing Place from then on. At the shower tonight, Jules had little onesies and t-shirts that we could color with fabric pens, so Kira and I got this bright idea to leave our legacy for the next generation. . . hence the extremely ugly onsies and t-shirt that we made for Jules!! To my credit, Kira was responsible for the "Grandpa's Shining Moment" onesie, haha the yellow spray marker paint thingy did not work out so well for her!

Me, Jules and Kira

(Sorry this picture is so grainy looking, bad quality!)

Kira's brilliant work!! Bahaha

Thanks again Kir for putting together the party tonight. Thanks Jules for having a baby so we had an excuse to get together and to Marin for always keeping us entertained when we lived together. You girls are some of the best roommies I've had, love you all!!

True "Zoob"

2011-06-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

For those of you (Te-Te and Oma) who don't know what a "Zoob" is, let me explain. A "Zoob" refers to those BYU students, the ones who have a 4.0 GPA, kids that wear knee length tan cargo shorts (whether they are boys or girls, they still wear um!) with Birkenstocks, the ones who go to all sporting events and now have Jimmer shirts adorning their closests. . . basically it just refers to the stereotypical perfect BYU student. Anyway, one activity that all Zoobs have to participate in is hiking the "Y" (see pic below). I'm well into my fifth year living in Provo and have successfully avoided this typical Zoob activity until last night.

Last night my friend Maddi (who I met when I was her TA last Fall semester, randomness!) invited us to hike the Y with her and her fiance, Alex. We decided that we might as well since I had never done it and we only have so many more days left in P-Town. I have to say, it wasn't as bad as I had thought, considering you basically hike straight up a mountain! It was fun to have our friends there because the conversation passed the time alot more quickly! The view was pretty, even at nightime! Although I don't consider myself to be a Zoob, I'm glad I was able to hike it. . .

Here is the famous "Y"

Quite the little hike

Take 1: Jared is too far away

Take 2: Alex cuts his own head off, ha!

Take 3: That'll have to do! :)

Mountain man as usual... So excited to use his

"enhances your night vision red light" headlamp haha

See Maddi, third group picture, we totally have the same eye color, crazy! No wonder we are both so beautiful! ;)

For a quick update. Jared and I are completely 100% done with taking classes at BYU forever and ever and ever!!! We both finished up our classes this past week and it feels great! Granted we both still have to finish a few things before we are completely done with our programs (Me: Obviously my thesis of doom! Jared: One design project), but we never have to take a real class again which is amazing! Jared is now completely immersed in the dreaded job hunt while working on campus full time, I am only working about 15 hrs a week and spending the rest of my time on that dang thesis I have to finish. We have no clue where we are going to be in three months, but neither of us are worrying about it overly much. It all depends on where Jared can get a job. Prayers are appreciated :)

Recent Events

2011-06-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a crazy past couple of weeks. We were up in Portland/Washington for Brandt's wedding, and this past weekend my mom came into town for my birthday and to help out Whit with Drake since she's in school this term. I've tried to be better about taking pictures, so here is some documentation of the events! By the way, there are quite a few pictures of my nephew on here. My mom, aunt and grandma have been complaining because my sister doesn't update her blog very often (she's busy with school) so I've decided to help them out and take some pics of him for them to look at.

Portland Temple where Crystal and Brandt got married

I love her dress, it was beautiful on her!

At the reception. . . Jared wasn't too happy that he had to wear a tux!

Jared's sisters Heidi and Mikell, our sister-in-law Sheena, then me!

With Jared's grandma, such a sweet lady!

On Memorial Day we decided to go on a hike

up to a cave, it was a pretty hike!

Models?? We've got potential!

The result of the road rash I got a couple weeks ago

it looks about 100 times better than it did at first!

With Meliss and Whit on my birthday

Don't be fooled by my sister. . . she uses fake tanner! :)

I'll be as tan as her one of these days,

it just has to warm up here in P-Town first!

Jared and Drake playing in the sandbox

We decided to go on a little walk with

Whit's dog Odie. Haha, Drake never looks at the camera!

Ha, with a little cake mustache!

I look old in this picture... I'm only 24 promise!

This was at Jared's senior BFA show project thinger up on campus at BYU. This is what he's been working on for the past month or so. It's a play off of ownership where people can take any of the objects in those boxes as long as they leave something of equal or greater value in return. It has been interesting to see what people leave. . . Jared orginially put in some pretty sweet stuff to be exchanged, but as the show has gone on the past week we've decided that alot people are pretty inconsiderate. Some people have been leaving trash, open bottles of Pepto Bismol, used cough syrup cups, nothing etc. Maybe its due to the fact that mostly college students are the ones exchanging objects, but seriously people, grow up! Anyway, so yesterday my mom, Whit and Drake came to see the show and there happened to be a Lightning McQueen car (that grammy put on the shelf) available for Drake to exchange for, he was pretty excited about it!

My birthday was really fun. We went to church in the morning and then had dinner up at Whit's that night, went on a walk, watched some basketball. Mikell was able to come over too which was cool! We are almost done with this spring term now, only one more week! This coming week I have to take my Master's Exam, the test of doom, that all 1st year grad students have to take, shoot me now. They give you a week to write 8 essay responses. Luckily its a pass/fail exam that doesn't have an affect on your grades, but I'm still not looking forward to it. Hope this is enough pics for everybody, I'm going to be MIA for the next couple of weeks, so peace out!

Two Years!

2011-05-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

Then...

Now...

Then...

Now...

Then...

Now... (we've graduated to the Wii ha!)

Then...

Now...

We still look pretty good eh?? :)

Jared and I will celebrate our two year anniversary this coming Monday. Why am I posting about this now and not next week?? Well Jared's older brother Brandt is getting married this weekend so we are headed up to Washington tomorrow and we won't be back until Tuesday. The past few weeks, really the past few months, have been super busy for us, so we decided that after we are both done with school this term, after all the projects, papers, thesis junk etc. is finished, then we are going to really celebrate our anniversary. Maybe we are lame, but that's our plan! Notable things from the past two years...

- We both graduated from college

- I'm doing grad school now

- Lots of mountain biking

- Learned how to cook pretty well

- Camping trip to the Oregon Coast

- Learned how to communicate more effectively with each other

- Road trips to STG and Yakima

- Created some really random nicknames for each other (that I will never repeat on this blog or in the presence of others because they are really weird!)

- Hung out alot with family

- Became addicted to white trash reality TV like Swamp People, Deadliest Catch, The Bachelor(ette), Ax Men etc.

- Jared got an iphone

- I still have my piece of junk flip phone, it's still goin strong!

- Had our car stolen, but then returned

- Watched alot of basketball on TV, I've turned Jared into a fan

- Tons of intramurals for me

- Jared has really progressed with his portfolio, it looks pretty awesome now!

- Lots of laughs

- Some cries

- No kids (much to the disappointment of both our moms) which is everybody's favorite topic to ask us about. It's probably not going to happen for a couple more years people, sorry!

There are alot of other things that have happened since then, but those are the first ones that come to mind. Sometimes it feels like we have been married forever, and other times it seems like it happened yesterday. More than anything though, it is just normal, and I wouldn't have it any other way. We don't live the most exciting lives in the world, but we are happy together in this crazy time of our lives where we are really figuring out who we are and where we are going to end up in the future. Love you babe

Road Rash (and other recent events)

2011-05-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry Climente (Jared's uncle), this post happens to contain no pictures, but that is probably better for everyone considering the only thing worth documenting on camera from the past few weeks is the bad case of road rash I have! Jared and I were riding our bikes a couple of days ago and I crashed pretty bad, which has caused more pain to my body than I can remember in recent history (especially the part where I poured hydrogen peroxide on my open wounds, yeah that sucked)! So now I have some pretty gnarly scrapes on my shin, my upper thigh and my elbow. I seriously feel about 90 years old cause I can't even walk normally, but oh well, it happened and now I just have to wait until it heals up!

The past few weeks have been a little crazy. We are both taking spring classes right now. Jared is taking a required writing class and finishing up his senior projects while I am taking a course on evaluation. I like this class because its an elective that is offered by a different department, so it has been really nice to get away from math ed. people for a little while! Jared got offered a job at a company close to Provo a couple of weeks ago (Xango, for those of you who know the area), but turned it down because it didn't feel right and he still needed to finish up a few things on campus this spring term. It was a little scary turning it down because it really would have been an ideal situation for us considering we could have stayed here while I finish up my program this next year, but it just didn't feel right, so we are hoping that something better opens up in the next couple of months.

Jared's big brother Brandt is getting married next week up in Portland, so we are getting excited for that. It will be really fun to get together with the whole family again, and Brandt's fiance Crystal happens to be pretty dang awesome so it's going to be a great trip! Lets see. . . other things worth noting. . . Jared got an iphone as a graduation present from his parents, I inherited his old ipod as a result, I passed my thesis proposal defense this past week which is a big step I had to go through in my program, we will have been married for two whole years :) this coming May 30th, we had a fun BBQ with my siblings and Mikell this afternoon, Jared is currently watching "Swamp People" and "Hogs Gone Wild" right now (you can only imagine the amazing entertainment these TV shows provide... haha thank you Chris Weaver for turning my husband into a hillbilly!), I've been having really weird dreams the past couple of weeks that random bad guys are trying to get me, we both got sick right around the week of Jared's graduation which was not very fun, and I recently discovered an extremely delicious chocolate chip cookie bar dessert recipe I've made twice this past week! Well that's about all the randomness that is going on in our lives for now, maybe the next post will feature something more exciting like pictures! :)

For those of you who want it, here's a link to those cookie bars, they are seriously amazing!!

http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2010/02/thick-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-bars.html

Graduation Weekend

2011-04-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

This past weekend has been really busy, but really fun as well! Jared's parents and my family were in town for his graduation and so most of the weekend was spent hanging out with family. On Thursday night Jared had a dinner with all of his classmates from their program that we went to. Then on Friday we went to his convocation (where he walked) and then afterward we all went up to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. I don't have any pictures from that, but once Whitney and Jared's sister post them on their blogs, I'll steal them and put them on here. On Saturday morning, Jared's sister Mikell went through the temple for the first time so I went to that. Sadly, Jared got really sick the night before so he wasn't able to make it, but luckily he felt better later that day so we all went out to dinner to celebrate both of Jared's sister's birthdays since they are only about a week apart. For a graduation present, Jared's parents got him an iphone that he's been coveting for the past six months or so. He is pretty excited about it, and has been fiddling with it for the the past two days now. On Sunday we spent Easter with my family up at Whit's house. We had some delicious ham and other goodness.

Now we are back to the grind this week. I have to take one spring class that starts on Wednesday and Jared needs to finish up some of his senior projects before he's officially graduated. Right now he's on his way up to a second interview at Xango which is a pretty big company here in Utah. We are hoping that he can get that job because it would be a good starting place for him to get experience. We'll keep everybody posted in the next couple of days.

In front of the computer that he always used at school

This is the BFA lab, where Jared spent most of

his days in his graphic design program

This is how I would usually find him if I ever visited him at school

minus the gown, white shirt and tie :)

Jared's mom was really enthralled with the graduation speakers. . .

So was my dad, haha!

Congratulations baby, I'm so proud of you!

Playing Parents

2011-04-19T12:06:00.000-07:00

Last night Jared and I got to watch my sister's cute little son Drake (who we call Biggie) for a few hours. We had lots of fun watching "Fast Cars" and the "Prince Show" (aka Tangled), walking to the store for a treat and playing Mario Kart. We love hanging out with this little dude, he's pretty awesome!

The first thing he said when he walked in

"Bah watch Fast Cars!"

(He calls Jared "Bah" and Jared loves the nickname!)

Playing a little Mario Kart

He was pretty into it! Jared always says "Cheapos!" whenever

he gets hit by a shell or something like that on the game

so Biggie kept saying "ah cheapos!" too, pretty hilarious

He really liked climbing all over

our coffee table, I think he was impressed

because he doesn't have one at home he can climb on

This little video is funny, he thought that the race car in Mario Kart looked like Lightning McQueen (who Drake is obsessed with by the way) so he's saying "lightning mcqueen go fast!" He also refers to himself in third person sometimes, haha, so he was saying "funny biggie" too. Sorry about the crappy quality, but oh well!

Updates

2011-04-03T19:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a really long time since we've updated the blog, and when I say "we" I really me "I" considering Jared only posts about once every year. Anyway, here's a quick update on what we've been up to during the past couple of months.

- I've been having fun being a TA for business calculus again this semester

- Jared has been as busy as every trying to get projects finished, he's almost done, just another few months of school left!

- We went down to STG to go mountain biking again with our friends and with Mikell. The weather wasn't the best, but it was still really fun!

- Jared has gone to a couple different portfolio reviews in SLC and he's gotten some really great feedback about his portfolio, everybody says it looks awesome. He won't admit it, but he's one of the best students in his class, and BYU's graphic design program is one of the best in the country, so he's pretty good.

- Speaking of how great Jared is, some of his portfolio pieces got selected into a graphic design show in SLC. The show is sponsored by a design group called AIGA, and every year they do a 100 Show that honors the 100 best graphic design projects that are turned in by professional studios and graphic design students from SLC and surrounding areas. It's a pretty cool accomplishment for Jared!

- I have been working really hard on my thesis this semester. I've finished my thesis proposal (which is about the first 50 pages of a thesis, not the whole thing sadly) and I will defend it in about a month, wish me luck!

- We've been watching alot of basketball lately. It was fun to watch BYU and Jimmer, but sadly the college season will be over tomorrow.

- This past weekend we spent up in Kaysville hanging out with Jared's siblings. We got to meet his brother's fiance for the first time. Her name is Crystal and she's really cool! They are getting married in May and we are exited to go up to the wedding in Portland.

This is all I can think of right now, if I think of anymore I'll add it to the list. Overall, things are really good though. We are in the home stretch of this semester, so in a few more weeks, things will be even better. Jared has been looking around for jobs in the Provo/SLC area as well as out of state, but nothing hasn't gotten an offer anywhere yet. Pray that he can find something in the next couple of months!

I Feel a Need to Clarify

2011-03-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

In response to the comments of my last post, I (Jared) am forced to write a rebuttal on my own behalf.

Firstly, while many may believe yams to be orange and soft when cooked, they are actually most often darker than a regular potato (sometimes almost black). The fleshy parts of the inside vary in color depending on the outside darkness, but are almost never an orange tint. They can even have a purple color. They are also actually much longer than what we in the U.S. think yams are. Here is a picture as an example.

Secondly, there are 3 major varieties of sweet potatoes grown in the United States. The majority are grown in the South, somewhere down in the bayou. One variety is nearly the exact same consistency and color of a regular potato. Another has a slightly yellow color, and the third is orange. Here is a picture of traditional sweet potatoes.

Now you might be telling yourself, "Silly Jared, those are yams, not sweet potatoes." This brings me to my last point. In the South, and other areas, the orange variety of sweet potatoes are commonly referred to as "yams" (even though they actually are not). Because of this, many recipes, cooks, stores, common folk, dogs, cats, and even children refer to them as "yams". So when you go to the grocery store and buy a "yam" you are actually buying a sweet potato. Hence, my post that yams and sweet potatoes are one and the same.

My theory is people started calling them by their real name instead of yams because everyone knows that yams are disgusting, but when you say it is a sweet potato it doesn't sound too bad. Sweet potato fries are delicious, but you might as well call them "yam fries".... mmmmmmmm.

HA, put that in your pipe and smoke it!

My Rare Blog Post

2011-03-04T18:59:00.000-08:00

This will be only the second time that I have ever written a blog post, but this experience needs mentioning. The setting was in the grocery store this evening:

Stacie (after about 5 minutes looking around): I can't find the sweet potatoes.

Jared: They are right there on the end of the aisle.

Stacie: Where? I don't see them... I don't think they have any.

Jared: They are right there, next to the regular potatoes.

Stacie: Those are yams, we need sweet potatoes.

Jared: Ummm... they are the same thing.

Stacie: Really...

The best part was after that Stacie kept trying to tell me yams weren't sweet potatoes and another dude behind her was nodding to me, mouthing the words, "They are the same thing."

On another note. I have successfully fixed three things in our apartment as of late. Our garbage can lid now stays closed without duct tape, our DVD remote works again, and I fixed our onion chopper tonight. I may have the makings for a regular handyman after all.

Snow Shoe(ing) (spelling?!)

2011-02-26T12:34:00.000-08:00

Today we decided to go up Provo Canyon to do some snow shoe(ing) I really don't know how to spell that but oh well! I've never been before, which is crazy since Jared and I have been together for almost three years (dating + marriage time) and he's obsessed with all things snow! It was a perfect day to go, not too cold, fresh snow and good company! Now we are back at home watching the BYU vs. SDSU game and later we are going out to dinner with the sibs and Te-Te (my aunt), so overall a great day!

We had to traverse across this

log-of-doom!

Those ladies in the background were

cross country skiing

I came around the corner and this is what I saw...

He was trying to run during the downhill parts! haha

Hardcore up the hill!

I was a little nervous about crossing over on that log!

Jared's attempt to "jump" down the hill. . . ha

I'm lovin me some Jimmer & Co. they were amazing today, how about those three balls?!?!!!!

Stuff

2011-02-15T20:17:00.000-08:00

Well the past couple of months have been ridiculously busy for both of us trying to keep up with school. This semester has been pretty intense for me the faculty is putting alot of pressure on the grad students to work on our thesis. Run down of the typical school day average of 3 hrs spent on work, 1.5 hrs in class and 4 hrs on thesis with maybe 1 hour of down time if I am lucky. Granted I am getting alot done, but it's burning me out real fast. Jared's schedule isn't much better, typical day for him average of 2 hrs on work, 2 hrs in class and probably 6 hrs on his school projects. Luckily Jared gets done in June and will be on to bigger and better things! We did get a chance to head down to STG a few weeks ago with our good friends Brent and Ashley to go mountain biking. Of course STG is the only place around that can provide you with 70 degree weather in January! Most people are blogging about how great their V-day was, and not that ours wasn't great but we kept it pretty low key. Jared got me a very simple but pretty gold ring a couple of weeks ago, and couldn't wait till V-day to give it to me, so that was the technically the big surprise from him! I am lame and didn't get him anything, but I figured boys don't really expect much. We had a fun night making homemade pizza and just taking a break from school for the night. Hope everybody else had a fun day!

Jared was very excited

The crew

We are hardcore!

Sorry, its a bit blurry

I may have busted a fingernail playing

basketball, who's really surprised about that though?!

And I never really noticed how crooked my fingers are till now!

The Bach

2011-01-31T19:28:00.000-08:00

Make fun of us if you want, but Jared and I started watching the Bachelor(ette) with a few other couples friends this past summer. One couple, Blakely and Lindsey Cragun moved down to Texas in September and we've missed watching it with them this season! Linds says she misses my cynical comments during each episode, so Linds, it's your lucky day because we kept a running commentary tonight! (Chase and Dana weren't feeling good, so we just watched it by ourselves)

-Chantal wears too much blush, blah!

-Poor Emily

-Michelle is a freak show!

-Drive a little faster Britt, you’re going about 15 mph

-The producers are evil for making Emily go on this date

-I’d be forcing a smile too if I were Emily too!

-Poor Brad, feeling like a jerk

-She’s very gracious, I just like her

-You can do it!!

-She’s got guts

-Oh gosh, grow up girls, Emily has just been through a traumatic experience!!

-Wow that Ali girl is sketch, get over yourself!

-Ali, just go home

-All of the girls cry in front of him, Chantal, big deal

-Don’t do it, don’t cry, don’t cry

-Stop complaining!

-Yeah just casually drop the L bomb in there

-Smooth. . .

-Crap she did cry

-Brad: “Don’t cry babe” gag, me!

-Hello Brad, 8 girls on one date, of course they are going to be emotional!

-“They are all psychopaths!” (Jared about all the girls)

-Come on Chantal, have some self-confidence, you don’t need a man to make you feel special!

-Did I already mention that Michelle is a freak show?!

-Michelle: “There are a lot of immature girls here. . . “ Yeah just like you

-“Your’re retarded for liking her (Michelle)” (Jared in reference to Brad)

-“Oh he likes her a lot Stace!” (Jared about Emily)

-Why is he wearing sunglasses inside??

-Nothing speaks romance like swinging around in a circle and having some random man hold you up 20 feet up in the air. . . by your ankle. . . and upside down nonetheless

-“They’re gonna drop on their faces and it’s gonna be funny!” (Jared)

-Ashley S. is a super awkward dancer, I could do better than that!

-Those poor people who have to watch the amateurs during the show

-Ha, is he wearing spandex?

-Just send one home, don’t try to make them feel better before you break it off with one of them!

-“I bet his therapist told him to follow his heart. . .” (Jared)

-It’s okay Ashley S. you’re too young for him anyway

-“He kept the psychopath!” (Jared)

-“I’ll punch you in the stomach, do you want me to punch you in the stomach???” (Jared in reference to Ashley S.)

-“Is she throwing up? Because it sounds like it” (Jared)

-Perfect background music for Ashley S. as she bawls in the limo

-LOL Jared likened Ashley S’s departing throw up sounds to Lloyd’s facial reaction after he sees Harry with Mary on Dumb and Dumber!!

-Of course he calls his therapist, he can’t handle his own dating life, come on Brad, shape up!

-The therapist's lines are scripted, who really talks like that??

-Chantal's hair is greasy, eww! And her bangs need some serious help

-If you don't need drama in your life Brad, then you'd better get rid of at least half those girls!

-There's no way he remembered Ali wore green on the first night! Somebody replayed him the video from the first night!

-Oh crap, is Marissa going to give him a note?? Way to take us all back to the 9th grade!

-Michelle is attacking him!!

-He looks really uncomfortable right now. . .

-"Shut up, I hate her, she's like dominatrix!!" (Jared about Michelle)

-"Gosh, punch her in the face!" (Jared in response to Michelle getting a rose)

-I like Jackie's smile

-Don't cry, he's not worth it

-Uh, you were rejected, of course you are going to feel like that!

What'd you think?! We're rooting for Emily and Jackie, they are the only normal ones in the whole bunch!

Wessy's Birthday!

2011-01-24T17:37:00.000-08:00

I need to give a birthday shout out to my little brother Wess (aka Wessy, Snipes, Snipers, Bubba etc.) who turned the big 22 today! I am blessed to have some awesome siblings, and even more blessed that three out of four of us live in the Provo/Orem area with our spouses. Jared and I love hangin out with our family! Hope it was a great day Wessy, and I hope you did something more fun than studying all day, love you!

Baha, I love this picture! Thanks to Meliss

for posting it on her blog so I could steal it!

Saturday Mornings

2011-01-15T09:17:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling a bit guilty this Saturday morning, well most Saturday mornings I feel a bit guilty, and here's why. . . I get up (after sleeping in a little!), eat some breakfast and then either start working on HW (like this morning) or go grocery shopping. Usually while I participate in these activities, Jared takes it upon himself to clean the apartment, even though he has other things to get done as well. Right now he's deep cleaning our stove. Who lets their husband do that every single Saturday?? I'm lazy. It's not like I don't do my fair share of cleaning throughout the week, but it always seems like Jared spends every Saturday morning doing dishes, sanitizing counters, vacuuming etc. Maybe I should just feel grateful he's 1) a neat freak and 2) willing to clean at all, but right now I just feel bad that I'm being selfish and doing HW instead of helping. Thanks baby for being so considerate each week.

Christmas Break in STG

2011-01-02T21:53:00.000-08:00

Well we are back from our amazing 2 week stay in STG with the family! We had a great time just hangin out and relaxing. We were both pretty burned out from school so it was great to be able to take a break. I've decided to just do a picture post and add details here and there instead of trying to remember everything we did.

This is with Jay and Linda Hammond. I have known them for years and I consider them to be grandparents. They lived on the same street as us when I was growing up and I would always go over and watch/talk sports with them. They used to go and watch me play basketball when I was in high school. Basically I just love them.

Ready to open presents!

Now I can go mountain biking and have a nice cushioned ride with my sweet new biking shorts, thanks Carolyn!

A nice purple dress shirt for Jared, he really likes the color

We've been wanting one of these awesome toys, thanks Mike and Carolyn!

I kind of just love this picture, we are cute eh?

All dressed up in Banana Republic! I saw this sweater in their outlet store in Seattle during our girls weekend and everybody agreed that it looked like a Jared sweater, luckily he thinks so too!

Sportin my new basketball shoes, yes!

Okay, so on Christmas day Drake wanted to play with some cars. . . the boys decided to take over and create the ultimate course which included a jump through a flaming hoop! I'm pretty sure the adults had way more fun with this track than Drake did! (See video below)

And of course they decided they should take the jump out the back door for optimum height and distance, haha!

Drake scored in the present department

A mickey cell phone!

He was super excited about getting that Mickey phone, the kid is seriously OBSESSED with Mickey. I think I watched a good 10 episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while we were down there and I think I am now scarred for life!

Slinky

Playing his favorite game with my brother Nick. Drake loves to "cully" (color)

On New Years Eve we had fondue with my parents and my friend Carrie who came over. It was pretty sweet because I had never done any other type of fondue other than chocolate. We had steak, chicken and veggies that we deep fried in oil, yum!

Jared's extended family owns a farm up in Washington and they specialize in apples. They brought some down for us a few weeks ago and we decided to make some applesauce out of them because there was no way we were going to eat like 50 HUGE apples! They were seriously the size of small pumpkins! My mom showed me how to make and can the applesauce so we now have 12 jars of delicious homemade stuff! By the way, any guesses as to what was going through Jared's mind during this picture?? Haha, his face totally cracks me up!!

This picture sums up the majority of our daytime activity during the past week. . . college football bowl week!

Now we're back in P-Town ready to start a new semester. It will be a challenge to start getting up early again (since we were lazy and slept in late just about every morning down there!) but I think we are both looking forward to our classes and we're excited to be one semester closer to being done with school! Hope everybody had a fun time over the Holidays as well!

Caution: This video is fairly long and may contain some sarcastic Musso humor and bantering between siblings! I mostly just get a kick out of listening to how intense everybody is about making a sweet race track, and all the cheering, so funny!

Girls Weekend

2010-12-15T19:19:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I headed up to Seattle to spend a girls weekend with all my sisters-in-law (sister-in-laws? who knows) and Jared's mom. We had a great time shopping, watching movies and just hanging out together. On Friday night we went downtown to see The Nutcracker which was really great, can't believe people, especially men, can move their bodies so gracefully! I was able to get all of my christmas shopping done, and then I spent more money, which probably is not great for our bank account, but it was alot of fun! I should have taken more pictures, but the only one's I got are from when we went to the ballet, so enjoy. . .

Thanksgiving/Birthday Week

2010-11-29T13:03:00.000-08:00

This past week has been a busy one for Jared and I. Luckily neither of us had classes on Monday and Tuesday, so school was pretty laid back, but we spent tons of time with family, which I for one, am paying for today as I think about all that I need to get done during the next few weeks of the semester! It is crazy how fast the past four months have gone, I can't even believe it! Here's a quick recap of the week. . .

Sunday (11/21)

We went to church then headed up to Whit and Chris's for dinner and football. While there I was chatting with Whit, Liss and Mom about what to get Jared for his birthday which was on Wednesday. I had been trying to decide if I should get him a Wii because he really wanted one, but I was worried that we would both waste too much time on it (my reservations have proven to be true by the way!). They told me to go for it, so I spent the night trying to find a good deal on KSL, no luck.

Monday (11/22)

I was luckily able to find a guy up in SLC who was selling his Wii on KSL. He was selling it with a few games that we wanted plus some other extra accessories for only 250 bucks, which was a pretty dang good deal! I told him that I would pick it up from him the next morning. Monday after school we met up with my family it go see the Harry Potter movie which we both really liked.

Tuesday (11/23)

I used the excuse that I needed to go watch Drake while Whit and my mom went to the fabric store in the morning (I'd really rather die than go to the frickin fabric store!!!) to throw Jared off my tracks while I cruised up to SLC to pick up the Wii. I stopped by Whit's house on the way home and scrubbed off some dust and dirt that was on the Wii and the accessories and then my mom helped me wrap them up. I headed back up to campus to get some things done, but that was cut short by campus being closed at 3 pm because the "blizzard" of the century was bearing down on northern Utah. Jared and I decided to head up to Whit's to hunker down for the night because of the storm. Baha, this is funny. . . It's been a really long time since anybody in my family other than Nick and I have lived in a city that has real winters. So when we get over to Whit's, her and my mom, Wess and Liss were getting the propane tank filled, big jugs of water filled (just in case we would need it to flush the toilets if the water got shut down!) and flashlights rounded up. They were prepared to get snowed in, Jared and I just laughed, they were cute! Anyway, I was so excited about Jared's birthday present that I let him open it that night even though his birthday wasn't till the next day. He was pretty stoked and produced a manly "yeeaahh" when he saw the Wii. I had wrapped it in an Ugg box just to throw him off a bit. He later said that when he first saw the box he though, "I didn't know they made Ugg's for dudes..." haha. I think I deserve a "cool wife award" for getting Jared a sweet birthday present this year! We had a good ol' time playin Mario Cart that night. Drake loved watching us play and constantly yelled, "GO B, GO B!" or "Vroom vroom B!" (He calls Jared and I "B" because our nicknames are affectionately Bird and Bear in my family, don't ask...)

Wednesday (11/24)

When we got up I made Jared some breakfast for his birthday, I even made bacon, which is a pretty big deal for me because I really hate the smell of bacon! We then spent most of the day playing the Wii of course! We headed up to Heidi and Jeff's (Jared's sister and bro-in-law) to hang out for the rest of the week. Jared's parents and brother Brandt came down from Washington and we had pizza and cake and just hung out with the kids which was really fun

Very excited to blow out his candles!

Big breath . . .

And blow!

(Check out that cool shirt, a present from Jared's awesome parents!)

Thursday (11/25)

A pretty awesome Thanksgiving for us! We slept in, helped when needed with food prep and had a delicious feast with great company!

Friday (11/26)

Us girls were up at the crack of dawn (not really, but we tried) so that we could hit some good sales at Macy's and Target. Kell and I scored on some great black coats at Macy's and we all found some good deals at Target after that. We went home around noon for lunch and the rest of the gang, minus Jeff and the kids, headed back out for more shopping. By the time we got back to the house around 6 pm we were all beat! Jared and I headed back home that night.

Saturday (11/27)

I woke up to see our Chirstmas tree assembled in our family room, 10 pts for Jared! I had come down with a cold/flu Friday night when we got home, so I was pretty much out of comission the whole day, but it couldn't stop me from enjoying the BYU vs. Utah game. We had quite the crew come over for the game, basically my whole family cause Whit and Chris didn't get the channel on their Dish. After many complaints about the lack of HD (come on people, we're poor college students who live in a basement aparment) we settled in for a good game, at least until the very last play of the game! Oh well, there's always next year for Heaps & Co.

Sunday (11/28)

I still wasn't feeling very good that morning so I stayed home from church and slept. Jared took good care of me the whole day and even made some delicious creamy chicken soup with red potatoes and everything! He cooked, cleaned, made me rest and drink lots of water. There's nobody else I'd rather have to take care of me, he's a keeper. Our families were able to make it back home to Washington and St. George safely even in crappy weather which capped off the end to a very fun week.

The Game

2010-11-21T10:37:00.000-08:00

Wess and Meliss were so nice to invite us to the BYU vs. New Mexico game last night. . . best part about it was the amazing seats we had. And when I say amazing, I really mean A-MAZING! Melissa's grandparents buy box tickets every season and don't use them very often, so Wess and Meliss invited us to go with them and use their grandparents tickets yesterday, seriously awesome!

Our view from inside the box!

Jared smiling like a crazy person!

He's so pleased with himself of course

A nice cute picture

Wess and Meliss, always cute!

The crew

Thanks again guys, it was pretty sweet!

Some Goodness

2010-11-19T11:30:00.001-08:00

I found this band, Boyce Avenue, last year on itunes and they are way good! They've gotten more popular the past few months and for good reason. They have some original stuff, but they mostly do covers which are all amazing! Here's a few of my favoriate

You should seriously go check them out on youtube or itunes, they are just dang good!

Opinions Please

2010-11-15T15:00:00.000-08:00

This is kind of a different post, but I've been thinking the past few days about being married. It seems like all you ever hear about lately is one broken marriage after another. It makes me wonder what those people were thinking, what could have been so bad, why can't they just work stuff out? But more than anything though it makes me admit to the fact that I probably take my marriage and my husband for granted more than I should. Obviously none of us have perfect marriages, and none of us are perfect people. . . but what can we do to show our spouses that we are grateful for them? Here's some things I've been thinking about, what do you think, what else can we do?

- Say thank you more often when he does the dishes, vacuums and cleans our entire bathrom from top to bottom

- Quit bugging him about how he should do his hair (ha)

- Stop to think before I say things that I'm joking about, because sometimes it can be offensive

- Be more patient with him and not try to coerce him into doing his school projects when all he really wants to do is ride his bike or relax for a while

- Continue to get ready, dress cute and look pretty for him (I haven't "let myself go" or anything, but for some reason I just don't care as much now that I'm married, which is bad!)

- Be slow to get upset but get over things fast

- Continue to tell him that I love him often

Those are just a few things that I could think of off the top of my head, I'm interested to know what others think, or what works for you. And even if you aren't married, still feel free to give suggestions!

Fun Memories

2010-10-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

I was getting bored at school today so I started looking through a bunch of old pictures, they bring back some fun memories!

Hiking Zion in Nov 2008

Sledding in Washington, Dec 2009

The night we took our bridal pics
Mar. 2009

Wedding, May 2009

Awkward dancing, May 2009 :)

Brianhead, June 2009

Cruise, August 2009

Friend's wedding, August 2009

Graduation, April 2010

I hate to admit this, but we are a pretty cute couple I think!

They did it!

2010-10-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

A big congrats to Wess and Melissa!! They got married yesterday, Oct. 9th down in St. George. Jared and I had a fun time at the wedding and we actually managed to snap a few pictures. . .

Brothers

Sisters

All the siblings

At the luncheon

Our personal favorite picture

of the whole weekend! He was a bit

out of it!

Congrats again to Wess and Meliss, we couldn't be happier about the newest addition to the Musso clan!

Milestone!

2010-09-20T13:05:00.001-07:00

My friend Mikell (who happens to be my sister-in-law, but she was my friend first, so I choose to refer to her as my friend!) wrote this funny post about how she just bought her first real purse, which took her like 6 or 7 years to do! (Don't worry friends, I still don't own a real purse, or even a fake purse for that matter!) Anyway, in honor of that great accomplishment, I decided I needed to have one of my own. . . So after 23 years of being a girl, I have finally bought myself. . . .wait for it. . . a curling iron!!! Yep, I am the proud owner of a 1.5 inch diameter legit curling iron. I even kind of know how to curl it by myself too, thanks to my sister's help. I will have to post a picture of my curled hair at some point in the future. . .

I realize I have been a very bad blogger, so here's a run down of things that have happened in the past couple of months

-My little brother got engaged! We all love Melissa and we are excited for the two of them to get married on Oct. 9th!
-We have been making quite a few trips back and forth from STG for holidays and wedding preparations. It has been fun to spend time with my family down there, although the drive is getting a bit old!
-Graduate school is great so far. It's seriously like 50 times easier than my undergrad program. I am only required to take 7 credits a semester, so all that other time I used to spend in class, I now get to spend doing HW, yes!
-Jared's school has been pretty laid back so far, but that won't be lasting long and I'm not looking forward to all of the long nights he will have to put in this semester.
-We found out we will be having a baby this coming summer
-We were able to go mountain biking this past weekend which was so much fun! Biking in STG is way better than the mountainous trails of Provo!
-Haha kidding about the baby. . . just wanted to get a scare out of my mom

Well that's about it, nothing too crazy or exciting. I am going to force myself to take a camera with me down to STG during these next few weekends to document the wedding events, which will make these posts a little bit more interesting!

50 something

2010-08-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

My mom had her 50 something birthday a few weeks ago, and my sister started a list of 50 tid bits about our mom on her blog (click here to get the list), so I decided to finish the list to make it an even 100 tid bits about this wonderful lady we call mom.

51- She used to give me back scratches every night when we were little

52- She made almost all of my prom dresses when I was in high school

53- She always came to all of my basketball/softball games even though she was more nervous for me when I played

54- She is the first person I call when I have a question about cooking

55- She is fiercely defensive of her son-in-laws and future daughter in law, me and my siblings always get in trouble if we even joke around about our spouses in her presence

56- She loves sunrises

57- She loves petrified wood (haha)

56- She always likes to go on a good hike

57- She is a very fast reader

58- She broke her leg skiing several years ago

59- She was always there to listen and comfort me through my awkward high school years

60- She loves having our friends over

61- She drove us across the country to visit our family in Ohio a couple of years after we moved out here to Utah

62- She loves horses

63- She loves those little "precious moment" statues, dad would always buy her a new one if she was having a hard day

64- She played volleyball in college before she moved out to BYU

65- She was completely sold on Jared from the very first time she met him

66- She has the most funny laugh, especially when she's watching movies

67- She supports us in everything that we do

68- She is super savvy with her texting skills

69- She has a very similar relationship with her sister as I do with my own sister

70- She is always so excited to see us, even if its only been a week since being home

71- She can understand a little German

72- She passed both of her Praxis tests, so no more tests for her!

73- She is the voice of reason in our family

74- She always has the answers to my problems it seems

75- Her favorite color is yellow

76- I was the only kid to inherit her green eyes

77- She likes to make good German food

78- She also likes to watch the Animal Planet

79- Her and my dad were "24" junkies for the longest time

80- She can always find the positive in crazy, annoying situations

81- She puts up with my dad :)

82- And loves him despite his wierdness!

83- Even though she wanted me to go on a mission, she was more happy about me getting married

84- She missed my little brother more than anybody while he was in Korea (well not counting Melissa anyway)

85- She is good friends with my mother-in-law, who happens to be just like her

86- She loves her hot chocolate in the winter time

87- She has lots of freckles

88- She is the oldest of three kids

89- She always has a tidy house

90- She gets after us if we are ever being rude or obnoxious

91- She is actually not a huge fan of mother's day

92- She was way sad to leave Whit, Chris and Drake up here after helping them get moved into their new home

93- She can't wait for us to have kids

94- She was very proud of herself when she started wearing mascara

95- She loves The Sound of Music, she thinks Captain Von Trap is hot

96- She likes going to church with Jared and I when she visits

97- She is very good at making people feel comfortable around her

98- She loves to garden

99- She is proud of all her children

100- We are very blessed to have a mom as great as her!

Summer Adventures

2010-08-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

We will let the pictures do the talking because I'm not really in the mood to explain our trips at the moment. . . enjoy

Trip down to Cedar Breaks

View from the top of Brianhead Peak

We went with our friends Adam and Aubrey

Aubrey and I being models :)

Jared was enthralled with the rocks for some reason. . .

We climbed through a cave by the light of our cameras!

Stewart Falls

The rest of these are pics from our Gibbons family

vacation up to the Oregon Coast

Blake and Sheena's puppy Lucy

Andrew needed a bath after playing in the sand!

Our sweet tent!

A cute video

2010-07-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago my family came to visit and we got to hang out the whole weekend. We captured a cute video of Drake "talking on the phone" with his daddy

You're what???

2010-07-09T18:22:00.000-07:00

The latest funny conversation we had right before Jared was walking out the door to go on a bike ride tonight with a friend. . .

Stacie: I might be asleep when you get home

Jared: What?! You can't be asleep when I get home!

Stacie: I've been really tired this whole week. . . I must be pregnant. . .

Jared: Tiredness is not a symptom of being pregnant

Stacie: Yes huh!

Jared: Well crap

Stacie: What if I'm pregnant??

Jared: Maybe you'll have to go get one of those test thingys

Stacie: No, I don't want to be pregnant, I'll get fat

Jared: You'd be a cute pregnant lady

Stacie: No, I'd get fat

Jared: Okay, well I'll see you when I get home

Haha and then he was out the door, kind of made me laugh!

Hardcore!

2010-06-16T21:08:00.001-07:00

We've been planning on going to Moab with some of our ward friends for the past month or so. We had decided to go last weekend with and we were both really stoked about it. . . Enter large thunderstorm of doom that ruined our plans! Well luckily Mikell and Dan are both genius and suggested that we all go to STG instead, so we packed all of our gear up and headed home for the second weekend in a row, yes! Jared was a little bit disappointed because he's been wanting to break in our tent for the past year, and it didn't happen due to the rain. Honestly, I was somewhat relieved we got to go to STG and stay with my parents, I'm not above a real toilet and a nice warm shower! It's not that I don't like camping, but considering the torrential downpour that was bound to happen, I was all for sleeping inside. . . Anyway our friends Blakely and Lindsey Cragun came with us as well as Kell and Dan's-the-Man. We headed down Friday night so we could get a bright and early start on Saturday. We decided to start with the Bearclaw Poppy trail thinger out in Green Valley for our first ride on Saturday. I was a little nervous, given the fact that I've only been mountain biking twice before, and this particular trail has things called "Acid Drops" "Clavicle Hill" and "Three Fingers of Death" incorporated throughout. It ended up being a perfect ride though. The boys (and Kell at times!) did the crazy stuff while Lindsey and I watched and took live video footage for posterity haha!

The second ride was a bit more technical, but it ended up being pretty cool, minus the fact that we got poured on during the last 20 minutes of it. The trail was out in Snow Canyon, and it's seriously so pretty out there! If you've never been to STG I really suggest going sometime soon, well maybe wait for a couple of months until it cools down. I don't know how we got so lucky because it was only around 75 degrees while we were there. . . pretty much unheard of for June in STG, but it worked out great for us!

Anyway, here are some videos of Jared, Blakely and Kell doing sweet things during our first ride. Sorry, but I was too lazy to take pictures. . . besides, nobody wants to see pictures of gross sweaty bikers anyway! (for higher quality videos, you can watch them on my facebook page)

Jared's crazy mountain biking skillllz

Blakely is hardcore!

Kell is amazing!

Birthday Weekend

2010-06-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

Another year has gone by and I don't feel any older to be completely honest! Jared and I went down to STG to hang out with my family last weekend for my birthday. We had a good time just hanging out with and not doing anything crazy. I have a feeling that it will be like this most years anymore because we'll celebrate our anniversary the week before, but I really could care less! We've never made a huge deal out of birthdays in our family. I can't even remember the last birthday party I've had, I think it was my 8th birthday, haha. We just like hanging out together as a family and having dinner, it's the best. Anyway, I am getting a mountain bike as a birthday/graduation/late wedding present! We'll be getting it this week hopefully! Jared's parents got me a sweet sleeping bag which will be put to good use this summer and in the future, my parents donated money to the bike fund, and Jared donated to the bike and also got me a book I've been wanting to read for the past month.

We are really lame and don't take pictures even though we take our camera everywhere. So the only pics I have of this weekend are of Drake of course. The dude is totally cruisin around and talking so much, it's insane, kids grow so fast! He discovered the drawer where my mom stashes her plastic wrap. . . bad news!

He loves sliding down the stairs on his belly

He's so funny!

We played "loves" for like 10 min straight

Playing with plastic wrap

And of course my parents got him a Nascar toy thinger!

Listen to my dad's commentary in the background

it's hilarious!

Anniversary

2010-05-31T14:35:00.000-07:00

It was our big one year anniversary yesterday, so we decided to celebrate it on Saturday since we couldn't do a whole lot on a Sunday. The day started off with breakfast at our apartment. I'm not a huge breakfast eater, but we decided to make biscuits and gravy which ended up being really good so I can't complain too much. Then I had planned a little scavenger hunt kind of thing, but not really that cheesy. . . well maybe it was a little cheesy but whatever. What I did was write a word on an envelop and Jared had to figure out where we were supposed to go. Each word took us to a different part of town that had to do with our relationship, so for example, the first word was "Beginning" and Jared figured out that we had to go to my old apartment which was where we first met. Anyway, we went on our bikes so it was pretty fun. When we got to each place, he got to read the letter that was inside the envelope. I had just written down some memories from each spot, nothin too fancy, but it was fun to remember some of the fun times we had while dating.

"Beginning"

Like mentioned about, this is where we first met

"Opened"

I totally tricked him out here, he thought this would be where he proposed

but I actually opened my mission call at the Provo Temple,

and that's when I realized I really didn't want to go on a mission at all :)

"Tandem"

On the day we dropped the L-Bomb, we had rented a tandem bike

from the BYU outdoor store and gone on a

ride together, and then we went up to Park City which was

where we first said "I love you" to each other, it was cute!

"Promise"

Jared proposed at the gazebo by the Hinckley Center,

he "promised" me that he would always take care of me :)

And now we've been married a whole year!

"Present"

Haha, when he saw the word on the envelope, he thought

I had gotten him a present. I feel bad because I think

he was excited about it, but maybe next year we'll have

more money to blow on presents for each other! This is

our apartment where we presently live

After our little biking excursion we went to lunch at Tucanos, yum!

After that we went to see a movie and just

hung out the rest of the night together, it was really

fun just to be with each other even though we didn't do anything

extremely cool. We figure we have plenty of years to celebrate ahead

so it doesn't matter that this year was a little bit more low key!

This is the black dress I got from Dillards last week, I love love love it!

This is me being weird. . . big surprise!

Yesterday we went and spent the night in Midway with some of our friends. A couple's parents own a house up there so we spent yesterday afternoon and part of today there. It was really fun to get away from Provo and spend some time with our friends who we haven' seen for a while! Anyway, that's the scoop with our anniversary weekend, it was a fun time!

One Year!

2010-05-31T14:30:00.000-07:00

It's crazy how fast the time flies by, it's already been an entire year sine we got married! So here's a run down of the past year...

Well, we got married on May 30th 2009!

It was a pretty fun day, even though it was extremely hot in STG!!!

But even though it was hot we still

had a fun time with our friends and family

And niece and nephews

Jared got a little crazy with the cake!

Such a great day though!

Last summer Jared took his last graphic design pre-requisite

and we both worked on campus. We were lucky enough

to be able to chill with our family alot

In July we went up to Hebgen Lake with Jared siblings,

it was a blast!!!

We missed Blake and Sheena though :(

(We can't wait till the Oregon Coast this summer though!)

In August we went on our amazing cruise!

Scooter!

When we got home from our cruise we found out

that Jared got accepted into the BFA Graphic Design program!!!

(Don't worry people, it's one of the top three graphic design

programs in the whole entire country!)

I learned how to cook some pretty amazing food,

obviously it wasn't that amazing given Jared's face here haha!

I did student teaching last fall, and it was so much fun!

My kids were the best!

You can tell they knew me so well :)

Jared had his 25th birthday in November

and we spent Thanksgiving with my family in STG

We got our first Christmas Tree!

We spent Christmas with Jared's family in Yakima,

it was such a blast!!!

We went to Seattle for New Years!

When school started back up in January Jared

was into his second semester of the BFA program

and I decided to take a few more classes and apply for grad school

This was on Valentine's Day

I made a delicious steak dinner and that's about all we did!

My little brother Wess got home from his mission,

and Jared got to meet him for the first time

I found out that I got into grad school!

I graduated from college!

We completed our first major project together!

May

2010-05-24T18:25:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've done a real post, so here is what we've been up to the past few weeks. I've been working a ton this summer. I have 3 different jobs which combines into full time hours. I'm working for two different professors in the Math Ed department doing research, and I'm also working for another department in the School of Education doing research as well for them. I've been transcribing/coding transcripts for the math department, and I've been doing a literature review and writing pieces of a secondary education behavior manual book thinger for my other job. I know it sounds boring, but I'm getting paid really well (compared to other campus jobs) and it's preparing me for grad school which is all I can ask for right now. Jared is staying busy with his internship in SLC and then working part time on campus as well. It has worked out great because he only has to go to SL on Tuesdays and Thursdays which saves time and gas. He's working for a place called Struck up there. They are a design/advertising agency. I'm pretty sure they are the largest agency in the Salt Lake area, so it's been a good experience for him.

We decided to get crazy and refinish our coffee table. We've had big plans for that thing since we got married last year, but we haven't had enough time to do anything with it until now. I honestly didn't think it was going to be that big of a project, but I was definitely wrong!! It took FOREVER to sand that beast down!! So the first week was completely just sanding. Our fingers were completely ragged by the time we were finished. When we finally got it sanded we went and bought some stain. It was pretty funny because neither of us knew what we were doing so the legs got a tad bit (like alot) saturated with the stain, I was a little nervous that we had ruined them, but we put two coats of stain on the table itself and it ended up looking pretty good. The stain takes forever to dry, and we've had other things happening the past week so it took a few days for us to finally get it done. Today we (and when I say "we" I really mean Jared!) put the last coat of polyurethane on it tonight so by tomorrow we'll have our table back! We want to eventually do the same thing with our end table, but given the horrible sanding experience, it will be a couple of months before we get to it!

Sorry, no "before" pictures, only "after"!

Here is our beauty!

My Vanna pose, baha!

Last week we went and hung out with Heidi and Jeff's family. It was really fun to go and have dinner with them. Mikell came up with her friend Dan and the kids totally loved having us there. It's always fun to see them! We told Kell that her and Dan need to take us rock climbing sometime soon (they are both pro!) so hopefully that story will be soon to come.

Nick came down to Provo and Jared went kayaking down the Provo river with him. I guess they had a pretty good time, but I can't imagine getting anywhere near that freezing cold water! Jared and I got onto an ultimate frisbee team with some friends and we had a game on Friday night. On Friday I went down and visited the kids that I student taught last semester. It was really fun to see them! It was their fitness day down there, so we spent most of the day playing kickball with other classes. The kids were so funny though, they'd see me and be like, "OOOHH it's you!! You're back!!" haha it made me laugh! I'm grateful I was able to have such great students.

Jared was a gem on Saturday and went shopping with me for the whole entire afternoon. I needed a serious wardrobe update, and I had some money from graduation, so I went and splurged. It's been a while since I've been shopping, so I guess I'm out of the loop, but what's the deal with every top being some solid color?? And what's with this new style where every shirt is purposely a little oversized? Some store worker said that it's the new thing to wear baggier shirts with skinny jeans, but come on people, who really wants to look like a boxy tent up top?! I just have to vent here a minute. . . do you know how hard it is to find button up tops that fit me in the waist, but that don't "pop" open in the bust?! Good grief, I'm not that big up top, but I was seriously having the hardest time finding a blouse that fit me right! Anyway, I found some cute outfits, and Jared was actually pretty good at picking things out for me. The best find was a sexy black dress from Dillard's! They didn't have my size at the store so I had to order it, but I'm so excited to get it in a couple of days! I've never had a nice black dress, so it will be cool to have a classic dress that won't ever go out of style. I'll post pics on Sunday if I have it by then!

Anyway this post is longer the usual, but I've been a slacker the past while so I needed to catch up!

Where is Summer?!

2010-05-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

It's May 24th. . . in any normal place in Utah it's nice and warm most years on May 24th, at least 70 degrees right?? But Provo is no typical city. . . it's the devil! Right now it's currently a blizzard here in P-Town, that's right people, a freakin BLIZZARD!!!! It never snowed this hard the entire winter, but curse the weather, its a full blown snow storm today. . . I hate Provo right now, just give me summer dang it!

Our Moms

2010-05-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

Jared and I are both lucky (like everybody I'm sure) to have great moms. The funny thing is, both of our moms are very similar in personality. Actually both of our dads are similar too... except my dad, bless his sweet heart, is way more obnoxious sometimes!! Haha, just kiddin pops I love you and your craziness! Anyway, back to our moms. I know this is a day late, but I wanted them both to know how much we love them. I've been into lists lately, so here are some tidbits about both. Oh and sorry these are the only pictures I could find of them. They are mostly from our wedding, I really need to be better about taking pictures at family get togethers.

Carolyn (Jared's Mom)

1- She makes the BEST cinnamon rolls in the whole wide world!!!

2- She likes to go to garage sales and estate sales

3- She likes to buy lots of cool stuff for her house when she is at said sales (She found a sweet crock-pot for Jared and I that only cost 10 bucks!)

4- She really likes to drink water, best part of dinner

5- She grew up in Centerville Utah

6- She's run the STG Marathon like 2 or 3 times, crazy!!

7- The first time I met her, she said something like, "So I hear you're dating Jared a little bit??" I was like, "Uh...yeah if that's okay." haha she laughed and said "Of course that's cool!" She made us the best homemade lasagna that day and I've loved her ever since! ;)

8- She has a very beautiful alto voice

9- She made all of the food for our open house up in Yakima, those cupcakes were delicious!

10- She can never stay awake during a movie, even if we start it at like 6 pm, haha I'm exactly the same way though!

11- She is really good on the Wii Mario Kart game, baha!

12- She has about a TON of cook books in her kitchen :)

13- She is the grandma of four, and all of those kids adore her

14- She has wiped out pretty bad on her bike

15- Sometimes she makes really funny noises at random moments in the movie theater (Remember Valkarye?!?! Haha!)

16- She likes to go to the craft store (much to mine and Mikell's horror but Heidi and Sheena's delight!)

17- She helped raise 5 awesome kids!

18- She has really amazing hair, I wish I knew how to curl mine like her

19- She'd do anything for anyone

20- Go to this page to read a really funny story about her job!

Kathy (My Mom)

1- I don't think she ever missed going to one of my basketball games in high school

2- She teaches 7th grade science

3- She loves to read

4- She has some pretty sweet Harley gear

5- She played volleyball in high school and college

6- She joined the church when she was at BYU going to school

7- She is a very good listener, and has been on the receiving end of many of my random thoughts

8- She is 18 months older than my dad

9- All of the kids on our street love her and want to play at our house

10- She is the mother of 6 (4 kids and 2 scruffy dogs! Haha!)

11- She is the grammy of one very cut little baby, excuse me, toddler (He is so huge now!)

12- That kid only has eyes for his grammy when she is around!

13- She is appalled by some of the "Musso" dinner conversations, especially by some of the ones we've had in public!

14- She made my wedding cake, my sisters wedding cake, cousins, family friends etc. I know, she's amazing like that!

15- She loves to listen to me play the piano (That goes for Carolyn too!)

16- She worked at the high school I graduated from, I loved being able to go and hang out with her during the school day

17- She has alot of patience (especially given the fact that she's put up with my dad for all these years! ;) baha!)

18- She adores my husband, both my parents were all for him right from the beginning

19- She has a heart of gold

20- She always gives really good advice

We sure love you two ladies, thanks for being amazing! (Caution: Anything listed after 20 would be my husband's handiwork, so if it's weird, you'll know who to blame!)

Random Quotes Part 2

2010-05-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

Jared: I can't stop eating these, they must have cocaine in them! (In reference to the Otter Pops we used to have in our freezer...)

Jared: I did that on my last life, that was under pressure and I handled it! Put that on the blog! (Right after he beat a hard level on Crash Bandicoot)

Stacie: Stupid BYU police, they'll probably give me a ticket for walking the wrong way...

Stacie: I really like you

Jared: Like 700??

Stacie: No like a bajillion!!

Jared: A bajillion???

Stacie: No that's not possible that's not even a word.

Jared: Yes it is, I needed to make copies for work and they told me that I needed to make a bajillion and I was like, "What, I can't make a bajillion" and they told that it was possible so I made a bajillion!

Stacie: Uh... You're kind of a freak show!

Jared: Ginobili is the best basketball player in the world

Stacie: Do not blasphemate in this apartment!!!

Jared: That's not even a word

Stacie: Yes it is!

Jared: Not in the way you used it. . .

Stacie: Fine blasphemer

Blog: Crashed

2010-04-30T15:54:00.001-07:00

I (Jared) just thought I would put this post up because I beat the expert level on minesweeper at work today. I had a few minutes left so I decided to play. Here is a screenshot.

Graduation!

2010-04-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

It's finally over. . . well not quite, but at least my undergraduate degree is totally and completely DONE! No more nasty math classes of doom! Convocation was at 8 in the morning yesterday which was killer. I was supposed to be there at 7:30, yeah didn't walk up till 7 so I was in a scramble to get ready! Luckily my glasses covered the bags under my eyes, and the cap covered my sick hair, haha! Anyway it was fun to walk with my friends and to hang out with family afterward. Here are a few pictures of the event . . .

Haha those gowns make everybody look pregnant!

A little blury, but oh well!

Haha, we both look a little tired!

With some of my best friends from school, Rachel and Tori

Haha, I love this little dude!

We've been trying to get Drake to walk this whole weekend, and the other day he finally took a few real steps. We bribed him with some snicker-doodles I had made, he must have really liked them :) Thanks Carolyn for the great recipe!!

Random Quotes

2010-04-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

The past few days I've started keeping a record of all the weird/random/crazy things that have come out of Jared's mouth. . . Here are a few of my favorites

-You aren't a monkey, you are my beautiful flower

-If I wear sunscreen, you know what that would say about me. . .that I am a wuss, and I'm not a wuss, I'm a man!

-Ow, my weggie just pinched my butt!

-I am not a nerd bomber!!!

-Stace, when do I ever not wear pants??

-I'll super duty your face!

-I'm in good hands, I eat chicken for breakfast!

-What you think I'm weird?? Well I've got news for you, that's too bad because you're married to me!

-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to head-butt you. . .

-Hey nose picker

Don't worry, more to come I'm sure! I tried to get a recording of him singing Lady Gaga in the shower last night but he somehow figured out my plan and refused to cooperate!

A Fun Night

2010-04-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

The past week my little brother Wess has been staying with me and Jared. It has been fun to have him around, and to have Melis around as well. Haha a couple nights ago they got into some random quarrel about spitting on each others' faces or something random like that. (see pics below!) We've had the the past few days off of school, love reading days, so Jared decided to go on a bike ride yesterday. Now it was actually a nice day out, and the poor kid got totally fried on his arms. Pretty nasty sunburn if I do say so myself! Last night Jared and I got to hang out with Whit, Chris, Mr. Big, Wessy and Melis. We went to a good little pizza place where Jared and I shared a huge deep dish BBQ Chicken pizza, it was amazing! We had some great conversation (Musso style. . . meaning it was highly inappropriate at times!) and then headed back to our apt to hang out and watch part of the Jazz game. Too bad they were playing like crap and lost, but oh well! Here are some pictures of the evening, mostly of our nephew cause he is so cute!

Eat pillow Melis!

I think she gave up after this

Yeah that's a pretty nasty tan line!

Hey creeper Jared!

Haha, check out those teeth!

Playin with Melis

He's the cutest ever!

These are a couple of videos from last night as well. Haha, during the second one we were trying to get him to dance a little but he wasn't havin it! He decided that eating crackers with no hands was much more entertaining.

Spring Cleaning. . . bom bom bom

2010-04-01T16:23:00.000-07:00

Please keep an open mind about my post. . . and mom if you are reading this. . . I really am a better wife than this, I promise! So Jared and I were in the kitchen yesterday and he looks down at our linoleum floor and says something like, "Wow our floor is pretty dirty, we should get some more of those swiffer mop thingers." I looked down and had to agree with him. Honestly though, who the heck has time to notice these small things, especially when the lighting in our apartment is not the greatest, and to me the floor always looked a little dingy from the very first week we moved in! Anyway we went to Wal Mart and go some swiffer mop thingys and on the way home Jared gets a call about home-teaching (way to leave it till the very last day of the month baby! ha jk) I proceed to start "mopping" our floor while he's gone. After three swiffer mop pads I knew I was in trouble. . . this floor needed some serious heavy duty scrubbing! So I grabbed a big bowl, filled it with water and a little Comet and used a scrub brush on the whole thing floor. After the first couple of spots I realized just how nasty and dirty our floor was, considering there was a distinct line of brown nasty floor separating the nice pearly white (ha) of the clean floor! Here are the pictures to prove it people. . . I am embarrassed by these, but it's so funny I had to put them on!

Yeah freakin gross I know!

Please, don't judge me! :) To my defense I will point out that I don't think the floors have EVER been this clean, so I honestly didn't realize how bad it was until I started scrubbing. Anyway at least they are white again, just in time for my mom to come into town ;) baha

2 posts in one day!

2010-03-30T19:08:00.000-07:00

I saw this on my friend's blog and I thought it looked kind of fun. You are supposed to use one word to describe each little phrase thingy. . . here goes

Your significant other: Designing.

Your hair color: Chesnut. (haha good one eh? I was proud of my creativity!)

Your mother: Gem.

Your father: Macgyver.

Your favorite thing: Happiness.

Your dream last night: Random.

Your favorite drink: Juice.

Your dream/goal: Teacher.

The room you're in: Living.

Your hobby: Sports.

Your fear: Alone.

Where do you want to be in six years: Family.

Where were you last night: Home.

What you're not: Shy.

Muffins: Tasty.

One of your wish list items: Macbook Pro.

Where you grew up: Hot.

The last thing you did: Eat.

What are you wearing: PJ's.

Your tv: Amazing.

Your pet: NO!

Your computer: Love.

Your life: Crazy.

Your mood: Blah.

Missing someone: Kinda.

Your car: Trust.

Something you're not wearing: Makeup.

Favorite store: Grocery.

Your summer: Please!

Like someone: Yep.

Your favorite color: Green.

When was the last time you laughed: Husband.

Last time you cried: Dunno.