Monday, June 25, 2012

Our 1st Anniversary!!

We had a fabulous Anniversary!! It will definitely be a year to remember!!

First of all, Bruce planned an amazing date!! No really!! He did!! He PLANNED a DATE!!! All on his own... sort of... (I directed him to The Dating Divas for a little direction... he he). It really was such a great date though!!

I first woke up that morning to this lovely invitation left out on the table. (He actually did this all by himself, no template was used or anything! Impressive... Ha ha)



Basically it was just a fancy way of saying we were going to have a Princess Bride themed movie night. He came home that night and wouldn't let me into the living room while he set up our very own Medieval Dinner for two. We had to eat with only our hands. He picked up King and Queen glass goblet looking things... for like $1 at the D.I.



It was quite the fulfilling meal. We were both stuffed with fried chicken and in our old age when we eat too much we fall asleep.... or at least... Bruce does... Ha ha ha



It was, like, 8:30 and my husband was completely OUT!!! He works soooo hard though (having found a temporary job at the D.I. wears him down!!) But after a quick 30 min. nap or so he woke up so that he wouldn't forget the extra dessert to give me throughout the movie.

When they announced Princess Buttercup we got to eat Reese's peanut buttercups. When Miracle Max creates the chocolate magic pill to wake up Wesley from his dead sleep... we got to eat chocolate covered raisins. And finally when Inigo Montoya found the Six-fingered man, we ate a kit-kat that is conveniently separated into 6 separate bars... ha ha I thought it was hilariously clever and it kept me excited the whole movie to find out what could be coming next.

After the movie, we decided to take a drive up to Tony Grove. It was almost dark but it was nice just to drive out into nature for a couple hours and be able to talk and reconnect. The stars were gorgeous and we saw (and were almost killed by) two dear that were less than a foot from our car. (Absolutely frightening but good memories nonetheless...).

We actually had this date on Thursday night, even though our Anniversary was not until Friday because we had planned a trip to Bear Lake with our good friends Shelby and Adam!

They came up to Logan at around 4:00 in the afternoon. The VERY FIRST THING on our agenda was to see BRAVE!!!! So we made the boys get our dinner while Shelby and I saved spots in line. We got tickets to the 5 o' clock 3D show and we were very, very excited.

The boys went to Costa Vida to get some take out but instead of eating their dinner and bringing ours in so we could go outside to eat while they took our place in line, they just brought it all in. The problem was it was about 4:50, the movie was about to start and we knew they weren't going to let us bring the salads and giant burritos into the theater. Shelby and I went outside to 'scarf' down our dinners while the boys went in to save us seats. As Shelby and I sat outside on the grass, choking our food down, we wished we could eat this delicious food calmly while enjoying the movie.... well....

We're definitely not the rebellious types and even something as simple as sneaking food in a theater stressed us out. Especially because of the amount of food we wanted to sneak in. I'm sure you've seen Costa Vida dishes, those things are not conveniently hidden. Well, somehow we managed to stuff 2 pork salads and 2 pork burritos under jackets and in our purses. We knew we looked ridiculous but went inside anyways. They ripped our tickets and directed us to the right theater. Shelby and I, relieved, started heading in that direction when all of a sudden we heard a "Hey wait a minute, girls, come back!!" We stopped dead in our tracks. We turned around with our overstuffed purses and giant pile of 'jackets', the unmistakable guilt all over our faces. "You forgot your 3D glasses!" Ooooohhhhh!!! Thank goodness!!! We got our glasses and went into the theater. There we giggled and giggled as our husbands looked at us as if we were lunatics. It was like we were Mary Poppins pulling all of this food out of our purses and passing it around to their proper owners. We were able to thoroughly enjoy our dinner while watching one of the best movies I've seen in a while.

Brave was absolutely fantastic!!! I loved it! The previews that they show for it are good because they don't give away anything! After the first bit of the movie I realized I had already seen pretty much everything from the previews and the mystery of the story was so exciting. I won't give it away at all! It was way too fun to watch it all unfold!! I loved it! I want to see it again right now!!!

After the movie we went on our way to Bear Lake. I was able to reserve this lake-side campground that had a fire pit, picnic table, and water spout. We were definitely not alone as there were other sites all around us, but I liked it better that way. I was a little bit more comforted. That night we had to quickly set up our tents before the sun went away. The boys built us a roaring fire and we had S'mores and talked late into the night.

The next morning we woke up with excitement of being able to swim and relax in the warm weather all day. Unfortunately, mother nature decided that severe wind would be a better plan. We had to collapse our tents so they wouldn't break and decided to go to Minnetonka Cave to give the wind some time to die down.

Minnetonka was about an hour drive from our campsite and unfortunately the canyon roads were tiny, long, windy, twisty, and curvy. The perfect recipe for CAR SICKNESS!!!! I was sooooo sick. That's all. You'd think that I'd have learned from the Disneyland experience last February but alas, I was unprepared. At least I didn't hurl. I was definitely weak and exhausted from the drive by the time we got to Minnetonka and was really not sure if I could last for another 888 stairs. But... I did! And I was super proud of myself.

Shelby and I have been to Minnetonka before, but the boys hadn't. We had a really good time! At the end when the tour guide turns out the lights and let's you experience complete darkness we shared a couple smooches while nobody was looking! Ooh! Romantic!! Ha ha Then the tour guide asked if there was someone who had a diamond engagement ring so she could show us a cool trick! I was quick to volunteer and keeping the lights off she shined her red laser pointer into my ring and it shimmered red sparkles all over the cave! It was pretty sweet. Then the tour guide did Shelby's ring, and all the girls lined up to see if their diamonds were real! Ha ha One poor girl went up to see hers shine and the tour guide says "Oh wow, yours is really tiny..." it went silent and she was the last one to go up. Ha ha ha It was kind of funny though...

Anyways!! On our way home we went to find the wind just as miserable as ever. We couldn't relax and play card games, or hardly even eat. We decided to go down by the beach but Shelby and I both weren't feeling the best and ended up just watching our husbands goof off. They both had sand all over their butts as they tried to see who could find the biggest rock/piece of metal debris to skip across the lake. Then Bruce collected a water bottle of seashells for me to go into our Little Mermaid themed house someday. (See?? Isn't he so thoughtful!!) Ha ha

After the sun became too much for us to bear, we headed into town for some famous Raspberry shakes. That night ended with Hobo dinners and many laughs! Ha ha

The next morning we planned on coming home and we were all surprisingly exhausted. We just sat and talked for a couple hours enjoying the calm sun! Then all of a sudden the whirlwind hit out of nowhere and we were scrambling to put away all of our camping items without being blown away! Folding up our tents was the worst!! We literally could use those things as parachutes!! It was crazy!!

Coming home was such just as good as leaving and we said goodbye to Shelby and Adam! We had such an awesome time with them! Honestly I hardly got to see Bruce at all because him and Adam were talking non-stop. They were talking so much they'd just mindlessly make our dinners and clean up while Shelby and I would sit in the tent talking or playing Phase 10. It was nice to have some girl time and also to see how well our husbands were getting along. (Not that we were worried.) We shared many stories and even though the weather was annoying it was quite the therapy we all needed. I'd go again in a heartbeat!!

So all in all, our Anniversary was memorable and I'm so grateful I have such an amazing husband! This first year has really taught us a lot about each other, but I feel we've already made it through some interesting times. I have no doubt we'll stay strong throughout future trials and I can't wait to see what comes our way good and bad! On that note, I start another chapter of my life tomorrow as I start school! I'll be graduated by next March and we'll be ready for even more changes!! I love this stage in life, being newlyweds in love, going to school, barely scraping by. It really teaches you to rely on each other and to rely on God. I'm so grateful that we are so blessed.

Friday, June 1, 2012

The Little Merbabe

You may have some idea of how much I love mermaids.... or you may have absolutely NO IDEA how insane my obsession has lately become. Poor Bruce, I have mermaid decorating plans for, like, every room of our future house! That may or may not happen.... But, the other day Bruce called me his Little Merbabe, and I have started to demand that he address me that from here on out... Yeah... Not weird at all... right...?

Anyways....My Birthday was on Monday (A.K.A. Memorial Day... In memory of... my awesomeness...)! Woo! Officially 21!!

YOU KNOW YOU'RE POOR MARRIED COLLEGE STUDENTS WHEN:

1. Since there's no money in the bank account, your husband steals flowers off of a grave in the Cemetery so you can have a nice birthday surprise. (OK, NOT REALLY!! That's what he TOLD me and I about DIED!!! Then he said he had a coupon for a free bouquet... I'm still not sure what story to believe exactly....)

2. You scramble all over the house, emptying piggy banks, looking in old purses and wallets, moving the couch cushions, and raiding the car to find exactly $6.00 in change so you can do something fun. (We had a buy one get one free admission into Crystal Hot Springs and admission is EXACTLY $6.00!! We paid in 12 quarters, 17 dimes, 10 nickels, 30 pennies and a 50 cent piece.)

3. You get a birthday card in the mail from your Grandma and Grandpa that has $30 dollars in it and you almost cry because it means you'll get to go out to Kneader's for your birthday dinner which is the only thing you really wanted to do anyways. (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Cawley!!)

It was such a fun birthday! At first I was really down about not really having money because Bruce and I didn't know how else to really make it 'special' feeling. We couldn't even buy a cake... or a slice of cake... or a slice of bread.... But I think we really made the best of it! At the end of the day we were both stuffed, sun-burned, relaxed, and exhausted, and ready for a nap!! Which we took on the air mattress that we blew up in the living room, and then when we woke up (3 HOURS LATER!!) we watched the movie What Lies Beneath and I pretty much peed my pants I was so scared. The end.

These will probably be my most favorite memories in the years to come.

GOOD NEWS!!!

Since I'm starting my Esthetics program on June 26 of this year, it apparently falls into the category of the '2011-2012' grant year. July 4th is when it is officially the '2012-2013' grant year. So.... I qualify to get TWO YEARS WORTH OF GRANTS!! Isn't that great?? Especially because Bruce was on his mission and didn't make any money, so when we did our FAFSA for the 2011-2012 year we each qualified for $5,000 in pell-grants!! When we applied for our FAFSA for the 2012-2013 year (this upcoming school year) we were approved for about half of that because Bruce worked part time through-out the school year. We'll still have to take out student loans but not $10,000 anymore!! Probably only HALF that!! I'm sooooo grateful that that worked out! Just another sign that everything's falling into place the way it needs to be.

I also got a job where I will be able to work full-time while going to school full-time. I don't know how I swung it, but a friend of my Mom's works at home as a Record Transcriptionist. She mentioned they were hiring and my Mom got all the information for me. (Thanks Mom!) I got hired and have been working 2 jobs for the past little while. It hasn't been too bad because I'm still in 'training' for the new job so I only have about an hour of work to do a day on my own time. When I'm done training it'll be about 4-5 hours of work to do on my own time. (Which hopefully I can balance). As a record transcriptionist, I just listen to recorded statements (between insurance agents and people who have been in car wrecks or need to file an insurance claim) and I type it out verbatim. That's it. Pretty easy, and it pays well. I'm super happy about that because we can't afford both of us working only part-time.

NOT SO GOOD NEWS....

Bruce has been unemployed for about a month now. It's really stressing him out. He's doing all he can do to get a job. Each morning he gets up same time as I do, gets dressed in suit pants and a tie and takes his resume to every company he can think of. He's probably applied for 50+ jobs and that's not even exaggerating. Every time we think that he'd be perfect for a job or has it in the bag, we find out they hired a friend or relative instead. It's all about who you know here in Logan.

During school Bruce was SUPER on top of things as far as Internships and Scholarships go. He printed off the 5 pages of everyone who was going to be at an Engineering Career Fair, highlighted all the internships he'd be qualified for and printed off separate and custom resumes for each company. When he found out his group of friends (who are all sophomores with him) weren't even going to try for an internship (because sophomores don't normally get them over juniors and seniors) he convinced them all to come with him last minute. I'm so glad he looks out for others, but it ended up all of his friends got internships and not him! :( The same thing happened with Scholarships from the College of Engineering. He convinced them to apply and they all got a scholarship but Bruce didn't. He has said it would be different if he felt these were guys who were way smarter than him, but he feels like they are all pretty equal. I feel bad for him because I know he feels like he's failing somehow, but he is trying so hard, I don't know how that can be counted as failure.

Now we're having the same trouble with just regular summer jobs here in Logan and I just can't wait for him to get busy again. He stays super productive at home (like baking home-made bread, and doing the dishes, and doing the laundry, and cleaning the bathroom, and... wait... maybe I don't want him to get a job...) But I know it drives him crazy knowing that he's not 'doing all he can do'. Which he is, but I understand how he feels.

We just keep trying though. He'll get one eventually, this we KNOW! I mean, we both quit our jobs and felt great about it. So far, it's just worked out for me, but that doesn't mean that those blessings aren't benefiting the both of us. I know he'll get one soon. We're just trying to stay afloat (especially with the Bills) in the meantime. But who hasn't gone through these times, right? We'll make it, and we're having SO much fun while doing it!!