War Zone

For all you people that think I always have a clean house, here's the proof that I don't.

Seriously it's a war zone in there.

Festival of Colors

The Festival of Colors didn't exactly go as we had planned. We parked really far away (like 2 miles). There were supposed to be shuttles to take us to the temple, but they didn't seem to be running. So we walked and walked and walked. And it may not seem like that would be a big deal, but for a pregnant lady with SPD, it was a big deal. We finally made it there when it was almost over and the chalk was pretty much gone.

So we got some chalk on us, but not a very impressive amount. Maybe we'll get a babysitter for Corby and try again next year.

On the bright side, it was a beautiful day. Yay for Spring!

Cake!

This is last week's cake. It was a lemon cake and it got great reviews from my coworkers.

I'm sure they'll be sad tonight is my last class - meaning that after tomorrow I won't be bringing in a cake for them to eat every Wednesday.

Flashback Friday

We're going WAY back this week. This was my second dance recital ever which would make me 6 or maybe 7. Either way, it was a long time ago.

Two beautiful ballerinas, two best friends. Love you Amber!

(I'm the one on the right.)

Allergic

I am allergic to dogs. VERY allergic to dogs. And it just so happens that the people who owned our house before us had a dog. A VERY big dog. I didn't think it would be a problem because they took the dog with them when they moved. But I didn't take into account one thing - dander. We've vacuumed multiple times, but every time I go over there I start sneezing and coughing. My eyes start to itch and then I feel my airway start to close off.

Last Friday night we were over at our house putting together our bed which involved plenty of kneeling on the ground. Saturday night I put on the same pants I had been wearing on Friday night when we went over to the Pughs to watch BYU play in the NCAA tournament. Soon I started feeling my dog allergy symptoms come back. I couldn't figure out what was going on, but then suddenly it hit me - it's my pants!

So we decided we would have to take more drastic measures to get rid of the dander. This morning we had our carpets cleaned. Pray that it worked, so I don't die when we move into our house this weekend!!

They may be cute, but they're definitely not my best friend.

I'm a Reader

I've never been much of a reader. I enjoy reading when I find a good series (like Harry Potter), but I've never considered reading one of my hobbies. That being said, I think it's important to read to keep that part of my brain functioning properly now that I'm not in school anymore. And when I'm done working (in a short 28 work days), I'll likely have more time for reading.

So when some girls in my ward started a book club (not associated with our ward), I jumped on the opportunity to have a reason to read. Because it isn't associated with our ward, I'll be able to continue to go when we move into our house and we aren't in the ward anymore. And the girls in the book club are some of my favorite people from the ward, so I'm glad I'll have an excuse to get to see them.

At our first book club meeting, Rachel read us a page from The Wednesday Wars (by Gary D. Schmidt). I decided to read that book in addition to The Alchemist (by Paulo Coelho, the book we picked to read to discuss at our next meeting). I finished The Wednesday Wars last night and I loved it! It was a delightful, easy read. And I also learned a lot about the Vietnam war while I was at it. I would definitely recommend it!

I'll probably be posting about the books I read to keep me motivated. Hopefully this won't be boring for you. Maybe it will give you ideas for books to read.

Flashback Friday

With spring comes the start of running season. Everywhere I go I see posters advertising races. It makes me sad that I can't be training, but then I remind myself that it will be worth it when I get to hold my baby for the first time.

So for Flashback Friday I thought I would post a picture from my very first race ever. This was the Cougar Run my freshman year. Staci and I have both gone on to run many more races including marathons and triathlons.

Happy Friday!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Emily and I are taking a Wilton cake decorating class this month. Each week before our class we make a cake and then we decorate it after learning the techniques from that day. On Tuesday I made this beauty using a star tip. It's obviously not perfect, but I was happy with how it turned out.

Double Digits

Yesterday I looked at the baby ticker on our blog and noticed a pleasant surprise, the days to go is now less than 100. That's right people, we're in the double digits! Today I am 26 weeks pregnant and I am definitely looking and feeling pregnant. I feel HUGE already and I still have 14 weeks to go.

I'm working on getting registered at Babies R Us and Target, but it's all so overwhelming to me. I have no idea what I need! So if anyone has any advice about anything related to this topic, please feel free to send it my way!

Working on our House

While my family was here last weekend we put them to work. They were such a huge help! On Saturday my mom and I were going to put together our table and chairs, but the hardware had been left out of our box. We had to call and have them send it to us. So we put together our vacuum and then went to pick out our fridge. We got a great deal on a stainless steel one complete with an ice maker and a water/ice dispenser on the front. Can you say upgrade?!

How many Riries does it take to put together a vacuum? Ha Ha...



While we were gone, the guys (Rog, my dad, and Jared) painted up a storm.

They didn't get it all done, but they made a lot of progress.

On Monday they all went to IKEA while I was at work to pick up a TON of furniture. And on Tuesday/Wednesday they waited at our house for our washer and dryer/fridge to be delivered and installed while we were at work. We were sad to see them go!

So we're just working on putting furniture together and painting whenever we have free time. And we're moving stuff very slowly over there. We sold our contract for April which was a HUGE blessing, so we'll officially be in our house by March 31st.

Flashback Friday

Today the Cougs play UNLV as part of the Mountain West Conference Championship, so this picture seemed fitting.



My freshman year at college I had some of the best roommates. Shannda, Stacey, and I did EvErYtHiNg together! For the BYU vs. Utah Basketball game we had 5th row seats (this was back in the day when you got seats to the big games by going to another game where they passed out tickets). We made these shirts and had a blast!

Also, I wanted to give a shout out to my alma mater - BYU was ranked as the Nation's Most Popular National University (determined by the percentage of students accepted to a school who opt to attend)! You can see the full story here.

One year older and wiser too!

Sorry for my long absence... We've been pretty busy this last week with house stuff, celebrating my birthday, and life in general!

My birthday was GREAT! I took the day off which was a wonderful choice. Rog and I went to see Alice in Wonderland. Before that I'd never seen a movie on the day it came out. I figured that it's not very often a movie comes out on your birthday and especially one you want to see. We both LOVED it!



After the movie we went on a few errands and then met our realtor at our house to get the keys!! That was a pretty good birthday present. :) We went to dinner at Cafe Rio with the Pughs and then came back to our apartment to play games and have cake. My family came up for my little brother's spring break, so they stopped by on their way up to SLC.

My cake was chocolate with cream cheese frosting! So good!

My parents spoiled me with some awesome loot! Lost Cities, a Dyson vacuum, The Tales of Beedle the Bard from Harry Potter, and some cute outfits for Corby!

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so special!

Flashback Friday

For this week's Flashback Friday I thought it would be appropriate to post a birthday picture because today is my birthday! Happy Birthday to me!!

This is from my 21st birthday. I think we both look so young even though it was only 3 years ago.

But the best part of this picture is all the cakes in front of us! I LOVE cake more than anything else, so after I went to class for the day, Diana (my little sis) went on a crazy cooking spree and made me 7 cakes (there is one cake that got cut out of the picture)!! Holy crap that's a lot of cake! It was hilarious and totally made my day!

The Office Baby

Maybe it's because I'm pregnant...

Or because I love Jim and Pam...

Or maybe both.

All I know is I'm so excited for this.

Passion

I always give Rog a hard time because he doesn't have passions. He likes things, but he just doesn't get excited about things like I do. One thing he is passionate about is the Olympics. So these last few weeks he spent a lot of his time like this.

Too bad his passion only comes around every two years.

It was a great Olympics! Our nights are going to be so empty now. Only 878 days until London 2012!