Easter Fun

Well it's been a great weekend at home for Easter! On Saturday, Dust and I went and looked at some houses in Lethbridge to buy in the fall. We found one we REALLY like! It's brand new, but has an unfinished basement, which is kind of fun cuz we can do it however we want. We're planning on renting the basement out, so we'll see what happens with that.

On Sunday we had dinner with the Hartley fam in Stirling and then headed back out to the Sheen's to watch a movie and have some chips and dip. I'm pretty sure I've gained 10 pounds from being home this weekend... depressing, but so worth it! haha Then today we had a delicious breakfast and went on a horse ride before we left. I'm getting a lot more comfortable on horses. I even climbed a hill and galloped a bit on Shania! It was a lot of fun! I did almost fall off my horse though... haha. We were coming back down this steep hill so I was trying to lean back and apparently Shania lost a few pounds going up the hill cuz all of a sudden my saddle was quickly shifting down the left side of Shania and I could not, for the life of me, get either of my feet out of the stirrups, so my knight in shining armor came and saved the day. I could not stop laughing and poor Shania had no idea what I was doing haha

We had beautiful weather and both Dustin and I can't wait for the nice weather to continue! We're on out way back to Edmonton now. I have two more classes and 4 exams and then I am DONE school FOREVER!! woot woot!

2: Where do I see myself in 10 years?

Well let's see here. Hopefully have 3 kids and settled in our own house somewhere in southern AB. Maybe be coaching an all-star team. We still haven't taken the challenge of figuring out where we're gonna end up. I'm secretly hoping it's Raymond and I'm sure Dustin is hoping it's Cardston. We have talked about making our own town called Rayston where all the wicked awesome athletes all go to. We figure if we can recruit all of our siblings to move there with their families and then get some of our friends with athletic kids to come too. I think it's a brilliant idea :) The colors will still be red and white of course cuz we will take red from Raymond and white from Cardston :) hehe Hopefully Dustin hopefully will be settled in a good job and we'll be continuing our happy life together!!!

He He... Made Ya Wait :)

Ok, ok, ok.. I know I said I was going to blog sooner, but this girl is busy okay!?!? Here we go... today was fantastic! I drove home yesterday for Easter weekend and have been spending my days with my amazing fam! Cars, Kait and I stayed up late last night watching 'Criminal Minds' just enough to freak us out before bed. It didn't help that Cars got 'funny' and decided to come scare us once we were in a beds.. butt face :)

Then today we all slept in... well except mom who is a trooper and got up to go for a run with Auntie Sue. We slowly rolled out of bed and ate a delicious breakfast, skyped with our favorite skyping crew, the Tolmans, then Cars headed out to gopher hunt a lil and Kait and I went for a 4 mile run while mom biked beside us. That's right people... 4 miles. Neither of us thought we'd run more than a mile, but once we got going, we were unstoppable :) It felt great and we found out that Land and I actually run a pretty good pace together :)

Dad got home from work shortly after and we headed back out to hunt some pesty gophers. We all had a great time... well except for maybe Kait's first attempt to shoot a gopher HAHA She couldn't find the gopher in the scope for like 5 minutes while we were all trying to give her advice and support until dad lost a little patience and got her attention. Finally... after we all turned 100 years old, she found the gopher and gave it a shot. Then she wouldn't put the gun away haha. Kait definitely got better and seemed to really enjoy her eagle eye shooting time :)

My hubby finally got here, which was very exciting. Then we had some chimichangas for dinner and settle down to decorate some Easter eggs!

We even made Maddie and Beckam and egg :)

After our Easter egg extravaganza, we watched a documentary on a horse whisperer, Buck, which was pretty fun and now it's bed time!!! Love family time!

Alright... Day 1: My current relationship...

Well this one's easy... I couldn't be happier. I have married an amazing man who couldn't be more perfect for me. He's patient, kind, thoughtful, hard working, funny and loves me more than anything! Of course, our relationship is not perfect, but we make sure that we put effort into talking about things that may be coming between us or little annoyances we may have. I feel so blessed to have a man that loves me and makes sure I know it on a daily basis. I'm excited about the future and look forward to continuing to grow closer and learn more about Dustin and enhancing our relationship together!

Little Reflection on... ME!!!

So I finished writing the last essay I will every have to write in my university education last night, so today requested to be a chill day in my books. Dustin was busy working on an assignment, so I decided to look through some pics and try to figure out how to print my blog into a book. I've been wanting to print my Korean blog off for a while, but just haven't made time to sit down and do it. As I was going through my blog, I decided to continue reading from the point I got home from Korea to now and I came across my 30 day challenge where I did a post daily and posted on a certain question or topic. As I was reading my posts I thought 'dang I'm insightful' haha.

No, but really.. it was neat to re-read some things I had written and reflected on and I thought it was a great way to stay positive and see the good in my days and life. So.... guess what I went searching for... that's right another 30 day challenge... here is the list...

Day 1: Your current relationship

Day 2: Where you'd like to be in 10 years

Day 3: Your top 5 pet peeves

Day 4: Your views on religion

Day 5: Your favorite comfort foods and why

Day 6: Your zodiac sign and if you think it fits your personality

Day 7: Your favorite childhood toys

Day 8: A moment you felt the most satisfied with your life

Day 9: If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?

Day 10: Your guilty pleasure

Day 11: Put your iPod on shuffle and write the first 10 songs that pop up.

Day 12: Biggest fear

Day 13: Somewhere you'd like to move or visit

Day 14: Your earliest memory

Day 15: Write 15 interesting facts about yourself

Day 16: Your views on mainstream music

Day 17: Your highs and lows of this past year

Day 18: A book you could read over and over again and never get sick of

Day 19: Your biggest regret in life

Day 20: How important you think motherhood is

Day 21: one of your favorite TV shows

Day 22: How have you changed the past 2 years?

Day 23: Post 5 pictures of famous people you find attractive

Day 24: Your favorite movie right now and why

Day 25: Someone who fascinates you and why?

Day 26: If you had $1, 000 000 to spend, how would you spend it?

Day 27: A problem you have or have had in the past

Day 28: Something that you miss

Day 29: List 10 people, dead or alive, you would invite to dinner

Day 30: Your goals for the next 30 days

So I will start this shananigans either tonight or tomorrow... so be ready! I will also be incorporating a little gratitude statement for each day too as I feel like it helps me see the great things in my days rather than dwell on the stresses or worries! I'm excited and will try my best to stay on top of doing my posts each day. :) See you soon!

Missing Her... :(

Well tonight I was getting ready to go meet up with Tim and Ashton to rent a movie and hang out for the night and started looking through some pics and came across this one...

Whew and the tears came a tumbling down. To be honest, it's been a few weeks since the thought of not having Granny boo around has hit me so hard. I saw that picture tonight and went to pick up the phone to call her :( Sadly that is not an option of mine anymore, but it made me think of how thankful I am to have had her in my life for the time I did have with her. I feel so incredibly blessed to have had her at my wedding and to have caught such a timeless photo as the one above. When I look at that picture, I feel of her love and am reminded of her sweet smile and loving hugs and kisses I received often. She was my best friend and someone I respected and wanted to be like.

This beautiful lady wasn't afraid of anything and NEVER GAVE UP. There have been times this semester when I have just wanted to quit and be done, but I have put a picture up of her on my mirror in my bedroom and know that I can do anything I set my mind too. I want to continue to do things that will make her proud as she looks down upon me from up above.

I know that I will continue to miss her every day and probably will have many more days of break downs from missing her and wishing I could talk with her just one more time, but I also know that she is always there for me and feel her spirit with me every day! I hope one day I will have people look up to me the way we all did to her and that I will have grandkids who consider me one of their best friends and hero someday :)

Love you Granny Boo!

Birthday Boy

Well my honey bunches turned the big 26 yesterday!!! It wasn't quite the day we had hoped it to be, but we made the best of what we had. This week was a pretty busy one with Luke and Stephanie Walburger and their two kids staying with us on Monday-Thursday and then Ryan Anderson came up Wednesday and stayed over till Thursday night too. Party at the Sheen's house! haha

So I went to my 8 o'clock class and came home to Dustin making breakfast for the guys, which I thought looked wrong. Dustin should not be making breakfast for them, they should be making breakfast for him, so I took over quickly :) Once they had finished breakfast, I just couldn't wait any longer so I gathered up Dust's gifts and organized them neatly in front of him. He LOVED all of his gifts especially the cheese knife! That's right daddio... loved it haha. Dad has been bugging mom about getting him that, but he seriously was sooo excited :) Tyson's gifts, the two lil plastic animals, caused a little confusion and a good laugh.

I think he was least impressed with the Comet shirt haha but I did pack it for him to wear this weekend, so we'll see if he actually wears it lol

Then it was my turn! I got him some sweet new kicks...

a new, bigger book of mormon (he had mentioned he wanted the bigger ones)...

AND my favorite... I got a deck of cards, cute some scrap booking paper and wrote 51 reasons of why I loved him. He got a lil teary eyed, but quickly wiped them away as he had to look tough around his guy friends :) so he saved the reading of those for later, but he said it was his favorite gift, which made me feel really good and glad that he could appreciate a thoughtful gift!

Then we headed out for lunch at Earl's and had some delicious past and bread with spinach dip, which we demolished before we remembered to take pics, but we managed to get a cute one in the car before we left :) (oh and did i mention I am now a brunette and love it!!!!

I feel so blessed to have Dust in my life. He is my best friend and every day I feel closer and more in love with him! He lights up my days with his little hugs, kisses, and words of love and I couldn't ask for a better friend to be with forever!

Gorgeous Lady

When I think of the kind of person I want to be when I'm all grown up (he he), I think of my mommy. It's her birthday today and I decided that seeing as I can't be with her because of the distance, I would do a little tribute to her instead.

My mama is talented at EVERYTHING! Even the things she doesn't think she's good at, she is. She is smart, funny, energetic, goal driven, strong, independent, kind, creative, fabulous cook, good listener, organized, humble, selfless, positive, and a friend you could ride the river with!

Mom has a passion for life and making every minute count. She doesn't let life get her down, but lives it to the fullest! She fulfills her church callings with love and commitment even though she works full time and runs the home too! She is always willing to sacrifice time for herself to help others. She never thinks of herself (although I think she should more often) and give anything to make her family happy!

She loves to dance and be goofy with the girls of the fam and every once in awhile, we get the boys up and moving too! Our dance moves are just too irresistible. She has always been so supportive of me in whatever I am doing in my life and gives advice and direction when I need it.

She makes any circumstance a better and more fun one with her contagious happiness and zest for life. I couldn't ask for a better mother and friend and treasure the time I get to spend with her! She is a gem and deserves all the love and happiness in the world!

Can't wait to come home and see your smiling face! I love you mama!!! Eleventy-four!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Recipes with Good Friends

Hey yo... it's been a while. Here's a quick update. Dustin and I have moved back to Edmonton after finishing my final practicum in Raymond at the elementary with a grade 5 class that I LOVED and miss a ton. I stayed super busy the first few weeks putting my teaching portfolio together for my presentation with the board at Concordia on the 16th. It went really well and it feels great to have that off my chest. One of my closest friends, Ashton, graduated from U of A in December and they sent her off with zero info on how to do and what to put in her portfolio, so I was able to help her as Concordia was all over that :) I feel really blessed to be gaining such a great education at Concordia and feeling like I will be prepared to get into the teaching field right after I graduate rather than feeling like I'm starting from the beginning again.

Dustin is attending the U of L satellite campus up here in business management and he has two more classes next semester and then he graduates too! It's exciting for us to think that we will both be graduated within the next year and that we will be able to move on to the next chapter of our lives!! Whoo hoo! We've moved into a condo in south Edmonton and love our ward! Tim and Ashton are in there and a few other young couples that I'm sure we will get together with every now and then for some fun!

Today we invited Tim and Ashton Whidden over for dinner and I decided to cook up one of our newer recipes. I have found being out on our own as newly weds, I gotta up my game on home cooked meals because spaghetti and soup get old quite fast :) So tonight we are eating brown sugar salmon with veggies and rice. I got the salmon recipe from one of our friends and I dont' think I'll cook salmon any differently from now on.