Zach and Ashley Smart

Recap 2011 and Resolutions 2012

2012-01-03T14:38:00.000-08:00

What a year. This year, more than ever in my life, my faith and patience has been pushed. We have stretched and grown together a lot this year. It has helped me to realize that my fears and concerns are always addressed when we put our trust in the Lord.

Last year at this time I was in my last semester of nursing school. I was about to start my preceptorship in the Oncology unit at LDS Hospital. I had just started as a tech at Primary Children's. I was terrified. I didn't know how I was going to handle my last semester and had NO idea what I was going to do after graduation. Zach was starting to think about the LSAT and still had a year and a half left of his undergrad.

Since then I tackled my preceptorship with success, graduated, and started as an RN on the Surgical unit at Primary's. I can honestly say I have my dream job. How lucky am I to be a pediatric nurse and love going to work every single day. So many blessings have come from this job.

Since then Zach KILLED the LSAT and we are done applying to schools. We have been accepted to 5 schools so far and Zach has a big interview at another tomorrow. He is starting his final semester of his undergrad at the U. I will be a proud little wife to get to see him walk at graduation this spring.

What a year we have ahead of us. This summer we will realize so many things that we have been planning, discussing, thinking about for the past 5 years. In a few short months we will be packing up our little condo (which we adore! I might cry a little bit!) and heading off for a 3 year adventure. It could be in Boston, MA or Provo, UT but we are excited for the next year and all of its possibilities.

I did pretty well with my resolutions last year. I'm a much better flosser, we go to the temple a little more, and I passed the NCLEX. I don't blog very much but that's a work in progress. In 2012 I want to:

1. Be a better wife, daughter, sister, aunt, friend. I want to be more present. I want to be there for my family more. I adore them. With not knowing where we will be for the next three years I need to make time count.

2. Read my scriptures. I'm already doing better with this one but not good enough. Even if it's just a verse some days, I need to squeeze it in.

3. Lose some weight. Working those 12 hour graveyard shifts make me snacky. I just want my jeans to fit me a little better.

4. Think about being a mom. We're getting there.

5. Cook more. I love to cook but I don't make enough time for it. It'll help us lose those extra pounds too.

6. Go to the temple more. Still not where I'd like us to be.

Whew! I CAN DO THIS! See 2011 resolutions here.

The Tree

2011-12-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

The tree is up! It officially feels like Christmas.

Thanksgiving and Toothaches

2011-12-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

Where do I begin with Thanksgiving?

This year was a little different. My Grandma Broderick (my mom's mom) passed away the day before Thanksgiving. My mom was with her as she passed away and even though we have been expecting this, it hasn't been easy. I have lots of pictures from the funeral and that deserves its own post for later and so I won't say much more about that for now.

Despite missing my grandma and feeling a loss for her, we still managed to enjoy being together as a family. I look forward to cooking with my mom every year and it was nice to be with her during this hard time. We cooked up a feast all morning and ate with the Garrick family around noon. My aunt and uncle on the Garrick side, and my aunt and uncle on the Broderick side had Thanksgiving with us also. It was so fun seeing everyone and feeling the closeness of family. We ate in the playroom (hence many toys in the background). After dinner (or lunch, however you look at it), we headed over to the Smart's to have dessert and watch football. What's Thanksgiving without a football game?

Jenn and baby Spencier

Aunt Judy and Uncle Boyd

Ireland, Logan, and Justin

The Coburn Fam (Ryan, Trish, Alex, Brad, and Ethan)

The girly table- my gorgeous nieces

And then, for an unexpected holiday surprise, Zach got an emergency root canal yesterday. So much for a flat screen for Christmas-- our insurance doesn't start until January 1st!!

While he has been a good sport about it, I'm trying not to be a Grinch.

Rockin' it.

2011-11-17T19:30:00.001-08:00

1. We have applied to 19 law schools at this point, and we ARE DONE. Ahh, it feels nice. Now to sit around and wait for schools to show us some love. We have already been accepted to two schools so at least we know we're going somewhere!

2. Today was my first shift on my own as a nurse at Primary Children's. It really could not have gone better. I had two patients and it was only a half shift so it went really fast and my kids were great. As one of my coworkers says, it really is a bragging right to work at PCMC and I feel incredibly lucky to be where I'm at.

3. We went to the New Found Glory concert on 11/11/11. When Zach and I were dating, Ally Bott Bennett bought her and I tickets to the NFG concert for my birthday. On our way down to Salt Lake for the show, I won two more tickets on the radio. I called Zach up and told him to drive down and bring a friend. The four of us went to the show and it was SO awesome!! We've been wanting to see them again ever since. The Wonder Years opened for them, and they are one of Zach's favorite bands so that was a fun as well. We chilled in the back on a platform so we were higher than everyone else and didn't get moshed or sweated on. Concerts are stinky places and we're too old to get crazy in the crowd. Some photos:

4. Someone stole my burlap wreath. I'm pissed.

My Cute Fall Burlap Wreath

2011-09-28T22:15:00.001-07:00

I was feeling crafty and pinning my life away on Pinterest when I came across this wreath to buy on Etsy. I thought, "Hey, I'm gonna buy that!" Until I saw that it was $59.00. $59.00!!! With $14.00 shipping!

Nope. I decided to make it. And I'm in love with it. It cost me $5.99 for my burlap at Hobby Lobby (would have been even cheaper with a coupon), and then a free wicker grapevine type wreath from my craft partner in crime, Summ. I cut the burlap into 1" strips or so (no one was measuring here) and tied them closely all over the wicker. Tied with a Halloween bow and bam! Dressed up my door! I have a shiny red ribbon to swap out when Halloween is over so I can keep it out through November.

The Past Couple Months and Looking Ahead

2011-09-22T20:01:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy couple months!

First, our anniversary. We had such a fun one. This was our four year anniversary and we took it easy this year. We went and saw The Help (LOVE!) and ate at El Farol which is a Smart family favorite. I got some be-yootiful flowers from my sweet hubby. I think for our five year we might actually stay somewhere. We were just content to spend some time together NOT filling out law school applications.

A little blast from the past. This was taken on our Spring Break when we were dating. March 2007.

Also, here is a link from my first blog post when we were first married. We look like kids!

Next, my birthday. Zach and I had one of the funnest dates we have had in a long time. We went to Joe Morley's and got ribs (my fav!!) and Zach got brisket. After we went to see Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. We dearly love scary movies and it was SUCH a fun one to see. I screamed out loud in the theater. And I got a gorgeous watch. With my family, we went to lunch at Sawadee (If you haven't been there, go. A reasonably priced Thai restaurant that is delicious and a fun atmosphere. We love it.) and then shopping/pedicures with my mom. Tonight we went to Macaroni Grill with Zach's parents and the waitress brought me chocolate cake and then slipped in an entire loaf of bread with my leftovers. Bless this girl. I can't wait to eat it for lunch tomorrow.

In other news, we are applying to law schools. We are still hoping to get into BYU but these are the other schools we are also applying to:
Arizona State
U of Washington
Cal Berkeley
UC Davis
BYU
Utah
U of Texas
U of Alabama
U of Georgia
Notre Dame
Ohio State
U of North Carolina
Vanderbilt

Boston University
Boston College

Florida State University

Emory University

University of Virginia

University of Southern California

We are hoping to know by Christmas. Any of these will do. I could definitely do Boston or Texas. Those would be SUPER fun. And you would come to visit, right?

I also start as an RN tomorrow on my own unit (which is the Surgical Unit) at Primary Children's. I dearly love it there and the people that I work with. I can't wait to get started, but I will also miss being a tech.

Zach is in his last year of his undergrad (HOORAY!!!) and we feel like we are moving quickly into exciting but scary times. We keep trying to remind ourselves that we will look back on this time of our lives as something that was a crossroads but so exciting and fun. We just can't wait to see what the future holds and where we will end up!

Mini Cherry Pies

2011-07-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

I know that a lot of people out there are not cherry pie people. Or even pie people. But I love pie. Especially warm cherry pie with vanilla ice cream. I bought a ton of cherries, because they looked delish at the store and they are on sale everywhere for cheap right now. My cherries were starting to get soft and I knew we wouldn't eat them in time, so I thought....pie? Don't mind if I do.

Here's where I'm proud of myself. I used Our Best Bites pie crust and crumbly topping, but I made up my own filling and technique. I am such a Betty Crocker these days. :)

I didn't have a pie tin/plate to bake a pie in. I thought about doing the pie in a jar, but I only had two tiny jars. So I decided...why not in a muffin tin?

Here's the filling that I made:

3 Cups of Bing Cherries, Pitted (awesome tutorial for pitting cherries here)

You use a skewer or chopstick and pop it right out! Easy as pie! Ha!

3 Tablespoons of Flour

3 Tablespoons of Sugar

2 Tablespoons of Butter

A capful of Vanilla Extract

A Few Shakes of Cinnamon

I mashed up my cherries just a little as I mixed all of these together.

Then after rolling out my pie crust, I used a glass and cut out circles. I pushed the crust circles down into each muffin cup with my fingers. Then, filled with my filling and topped with the crumbly topping. I baked them for 40 minutes on 350 and the crust was PERFECT and FLAKY! The best part about pie to me, is having lots of crust. Doing them in the muffin tins makes for a good crust to filling ratio.

Easy and so good with vanilla bean ice cream. Mmmm.

Bee's Game and a Camping Mishap

2011-07-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

It all started when my fam decided to go camping. This is always a little sketchy. Remember this? I hesitate to participate whenever the motor home is brought along. Any who, Zach and I were planning on coming up a day late, do to work/school/stuff. We got some directions and Google Mapped Cleveland Reservoir. We were only going up for one night but stopped and got some delicious treats, lunch from Rich's Bagels, and off we went for the 2.5 hour drive. We. Never. Found. It. So we stopped at the Mammoth Discovery Sight and drove the 2.5 hours back home. We chalked it up to a good day trip in the car together with some good tunes. Good thing the night ended in playing games with the Darrell Smart family. We always have a blast with them and get excited when they come to town. Oh. And the motor home broke down on the way home.

The Mammoth Discovery sight at Cleveland Reservoir

Blurry, but fun. I heart his sunglasses.

On Monday the 25th we got to go to the Bee's game. We try to do this every year for the 4th or 24th because they put on a fantastic fireworks show after the game. Plus, we love a good baseball game. We got to do just that but it POURED rain almost the entire game. We were so nervous that they weren't going to do fireworks, but they did not disappoint! Wanted to get some pics of the fireworks but my camera died after two pictures.

Fish and Wings for the Big 2-6.

2011-07-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

My fella had a birthday. We celebrated a little early- it's actually on the 13th. He got some pretty good loot if you ask me:

These,

and these,

and this,

and this. We're going through a gray phase right now.

Anyway, after he was spoiled to death by his awesome wife, we headed to Joe Morley's for a brisket sandwich for lunch. We didn't take any pics but went straight over to the aquarium in Sandy and took PLENTY of pics there.

The jellyfish are my favorite! Amazing!

A cool fish

Petting the stingrays. You can tell how I feel about it.

They had some really cool little tide pools that you could touch the starfish, urchins, crabs, etc.

The piranha tank... scary little guys

This is a little hard to see, but behind Zach is a huge anaconda whose whole body was as big as my thigh.

By the fish tank

The best dressed stingray in the place

A cute little waxy frog

After the aquarium, we were pooped, so we took a little nap and then got wings for dinner. Which was, of course, my husband's choice.

We tried a new little place called the Wing Coop. Now get this- I ordered 6 wings. Like, with the bones in them. As in, not boneless wings or chicken tenders. AND I ATE THEM. In fact I ate one of Zach's too. And I liked it. I don't know if Zach's ever been so proud, even after graduating college. It made his birthday. We will be back for 60 cent wings on Monday and Thursday nights!

To finish off the night, we went to see a movie and were the ONLY ones in the theater. Hence, it being dark and me trying to take a picture of the empty seats. You can't see it really, but I was pretty excited. So we laughed and talked as loud as we wanted and it was the perfect finish to a pretty awesome day.

I can't believe my husband's 26. We're getting old.

Oh, and here are the penguins. I could have watched the penguins all day.

The LSAT

2011-07-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

Be warned that this post is a little mushy, because it's all about ZJ Smart.

For anyone who doesn't know, the LSAT is the Law School Admission Test. It basically determines your future. No pressure or anything. It is weighed heavily by all law schools in consideration for admission. So it's kinda important.

Last year in June he took the LSAT for the first time and ended up cancelling his score. He just didn't feel so good about it. This means that you don't get to see your score and it's a chance to just get rid of that test altogether.

So last month (a year later), he gave it a go again. This is kind of our last opportunity for him to take it before we have to start applying so we had to make it count. He finished his finals at the beginning of May and immediately got to work studying for the LSAT to be able to take it June 6th. This is a month. One month. Lots of people study for a year, or years.

All I need to say is that my husband is ridiculous. As in, ridiculously smart. We waited THREE WEEKS for him to get his score back and it did not disappoint. We had to read and re-read his score when we got it because he ROCKED IT made it into the 92nd percentile. This means we now have a shot to get into pretty much any of the schools we were looking at, including BYU.

I am a proud wife.

Also, his summer Albert Einstein math class started on June 26th and he started a new job at Educator's Mutual Insurance.

He's amazing and I had to say it. Through all of this, he has been extremely supportive of me finishing nursing school, taking the NCLEX and trying to find an RN job. He never lets me down, and even does the dishes when I'm not around.

My husband's a rock star. We're so excited to see where the next year takes us. Lots of changes around the Smart home.

Girl's Day Out

2011-06-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

Lately us girls have been seeing a little more of each other. Maybe it has to do with all the babies everyone's been having???...

I mean, seriously. Look at these little cuties. I wish I could say they belong to me, but I still claim them a little as my own.

The gals came over to swim at our condo and it was such a gorgeous day!!

Heather with her little guy Easton

Ally and baby girl Kami

Kristin with adventurous Annie (it was all she could do to keep her from jumping in the pool by herself)

Whitt and her mom Vicki with Whitt's TWO girlies, Emery and Kinsley

It is so fun to see these kiddos grow up! And I get so baby hungry!!

I had such a blast ladies! Let's do it again very soon!

Got My License and Five Alls

2011-06-09T19:24:00.001-07:00

Tonight Zach's parents took us out to dinner to celebrate my graduation. Have you ever been to Five Alls? Zach and I had never been, but we will be back. Oh yes.

But only when we find a few extra pennies in the couch, cause that place is pricey.

Randy and Nancy

Randy's Halibut

Zach's Filet Oscar

My Filet Roquefort (oh my oh my oh my....sooo good)

Nance's Prime Rib

Oh, and I got my license in the mail. I am a bonafide Registered Nurse, peeps. :)

Our Little House.

2011-05-28T21:22:00.001-07:00

Okay, it's not actually a house, it's a condo. But we call it our house. And we LOVE it. We moved to Murray on April 30th and have been busy at work getting everything put together the way we want it since then.

I have never refinished or refurbished anything before and this was the perfect opportunity to give it a try. I have had so much fun doing it and it saved us tons of money. We got a kitchen table and chairs on KSL for $40 and I'm totally in love with it. We went out to pick up the chairs, and then when we got there the lady asked us if we wanted the table with it for free. HECK YES we did!!! It is kind of shabby chic (which is what I love about it) but the top needed a new coat of paint. We also had an old dresser from my grandparents. It was ugly. But I rescued it.

Ugly dresser before

And after (I had to store it in the shed on risers until we moved)

The last thing I re-did was this bookcase/shelf that my mom was going to throw away and Zach HATED it. I told him to trust me and see what it looked like when I finished it. I had a vision and got just what I wanted out of it. I wish so badly that I would have remembered to take a before picture of this thing so that you could appreciate it's transformation. Just imagine it being moldy, light particle board-ish, and falling apart. All it took was some paint and new scrapbook paper to go in the back of the squares. Now it's one of my favorite things in the house. I just need to buy some square baskets to slide inside some of the shelves.

Our condo has two bedrooms, an open family room/dining area, a kitchen and one bathroom. It has been the perfect size for just the two of us. We have learned a lot about how to fix things, put stuff together, and have had plenty of DIY moments. Also, since we only used our wedding presents for about 8 months and then packed them away, it was like getting all new stuff again. Here are some pictures of our house.

The bathroom was hard to get a pic of, but this is when you walk in.

And this is when you turn to the right.

I'm really loving gray and brown together right now (especially gray paint) and I love how our bedroom turned out.

This is to the right when you walk in the front door. Our cute little family room. (The dining table is where the chairs are poking out.)

I couldn't get the whole kitchen in the picture but this is the left side.

And this is the right side.

This is what you see to the left when you walk in.

And this is what we see when we look out our window. We're really excited about this part.

There's still a few things we need to finish, like making pillows for the couch/chair and bed, and hang up some more stuff. Other than that we are loving having our own place!!

Graduated.

2011-05-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

It finally happened. I am a college graduate; the first in my family actually. I made it through nursing school. I never thought I would be able to say these words- it seems like yesterday I was posting THIS.

It was a wonderful day. Zach and my parents were at the commencement ceremony where I walked in my BEAUTIFUL purple cap and gown. :) This is sarcasm by the way- I am NOT a fan of purple. It seemed appropriate though, after spending two years in an atrocious purple uniform. It was fun to be with my nursing friends and spend one last day with them, feeling very accomplished. I only got a few pictures and am hoping to get some more from other students.

After walking at graduation, my family took me to dinner. We went to Mandarin, which might be my VERY favorite restaurant. My whole family was there. As my parents came in they brought some gorgeous flowers. I have a picture on my mom's camera, but they were white stargazer lilies and white iris, which are two of my favorites. After we stuffed ourselves to the brim, we headed home and my parents surprised me with an overly generous graduation gift- a laptop! From start to finish, the day was perfect. The only thing standing between me and being a nurse is taking the NCLEX board exam, which I will do (hopefully) at the end of May.

That week We also got some great news that we would be able to move into a condo in Murray. We were thrilled that we would be able to live on our own, so we have been hard at work getting the condo the way we want it. Post and pictures of that to come. :)

Nursing Career Map

2011-04-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

For one of my final projects for school, I had to make a map of what I wanted my nursing career to look like. We could use our creativity and pretty much do whatever we wanted to. I decided to make a (very) small scrapbook. I was surprised that I liked how it turned out. I don't know if I get it back or not, so I decided to post it just in case.

This was my acceptance letter of getting into the nursing program.

This page represents the program. I really needed about 100 pages to represent the program but one would have to do. :)

This is the graduation page. Since this isn't until next Friday (YEA, one week!!), I don't have any pictures, but this is the patch that I wore on my scrubs.

I had to show what my dream job would look like. It says: Primary Children's Hospital, health/dental insurance, at least $21 an hour, full time hours, night or day shifts, maternity/vacation/sick leave. I'm obviously very picky. Not.

This shows my five year plan. It says: Move out, make at least $25/hr, work at Primary's, and have 2 kids.

And my ten year plan: Have 5 kids, be able to be a charge nurse (I have no desire to do administration- I would rather be told what to do at work), buy a house with my hard-earned money, and go back for my bachelor's degree.

I actually learned a lot about what I want for myself. Now if I can just pass the NCLEX and get a job!! :)

Moustache March: The Final Chapter

2011-03-31T20:01:00.000-07:00

So it is the last day of March. Zach was so excited to shave his moustache even though it has been a fun month. Here is the final pic up close and personal.

And the side by side comparisons of the month-long progression

While it's been fun, I'm so glad it's finally April.

Moustache March: Week 2

2011-03-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

I would just like to update everyone on the moustache situation, since I know you've all been waiting by the computer for week 2 of Moustache March.

I present "The Close Up"

Okay, last post the moustache was barely noticeable, but it's starting to fill out a little bit and thicken up. Also sporting green for St. Patty's. Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!! And Happy March Madness! We filled out our brackets this morning. I based mine off of whose mascot could take whose. It's getting exciting around here!

My husband's a goof. :)

Moustache March: Week 1

2011-03-09T11:33:00.000-08:00

Zach is a fan of facial hair. He usually only shaves his scruff on Sunday for church. Now that March is here, it is a perfect excuse for him to see what his moustache can do when fully grown. Every week we will post updates of this fantastic feat and see how it all pans out.

Here is some of our favorite inspiration:

And here are this weeks pics:

Don't worry. We know it's awesomely disgusting. Or disgustingly awesome, however you choose to look at it.

Sigh of Relief

2011-02-05T22:56:00.001-08:00

Some people blog about their kids, crafts, or cooking. I have school. That's what I blog about, and the two people that read my blog are probably sick of reading about my boring milestones. Well here's another one.

I finished my preceptorship.

A preceptorship is where you are with the same nurse for 135 hours and at first you shadow her, but by the end she is following you around to make sure you are ready to graduate and not kill people.

I have to say that at first I was extremely nervous about this. I asked to be assigned to pediatrics or OB because those are the two areas of nursing that I am interested in. I didn't care what rotation I was in, day or night shift, or which hospital. I just wanted to do ANYTHING in either of those areas.

I got Oncology.

I was terrified. This seemed like a very overwhelming and intense area to be followed around instead of doing the following. I honestly did not know if I was capable of this kind of work.

All I can say is that over the four weeks that I was on the Bone Marrow Unit, I grew and stretched more than I ever thought possible. Every single day I felt out of my comfort zone. Zach reminds me that the more we are out of our comfort zone, the more we are progressing. I did things I didn't know that I could do and I am a stronger person and will hopefully be a better nurse for it. It helped me put my life in perspective. The patients there are so grateful for everything you do for them. They are all in a fight for their lives and it is so inspiring simply to be around them.

I tried to keep track of some of the things that I did there for myself to remember. At first it was learning the ropes, getting used to pumps, getting familiar with central lines, charting, and orienting myself to the unit. As I progressed, my nurse was great to teach and guide me through passing medications (and there are A LOT, especially IV piggybacks), learning cap changes, drawing labs every morning, severe nosebleeds, hanging platelets, giving report, chart checks, central line dressing changes, and lots of TLC.

Oh, and I got really good at giving popsicles.

The best part about the entire experience is that at the end you have a giant sigh of relief. Not just because you are finally finished, but because you realize that maybe you can do the whole nurse thing and that it's not totally impossible.

I also finished all of my psychology clinicals which were an adventure by themselves, but I can now officially retire my Weber scrubs. Yea!!! One step closer and about 50 days to go.

One more pic of the burlap sack otherwise known as my uniform, before I pass it on to the next nursing student

Me, Amy, and Callie in freezing Wyoming at the Wyoming State Hospital. Good times.

New Year's Resolutions

2011-01-06T00:49:00.000-08:00

Since I tend to NOT take my New Year's Resolutions too far into the new year, my New Year's resolution is to stick to my New Year's Resolutions. And I've decided on a few more. I feel like if you write them down (or type them) somewhere you are more responsible for them somehow. Like more committed to them maybe? Anyway, here they are:

1. Floss. Gross I know, but I hate flossing. HATE. Zach gets so mad at me because he is such a great flosser. I am a very good brusher at least. I can't believe I am admitting this but because I would like to be able to not have dentures and keep my own teeth when I'm old, I will floss once a day.

2. Read my scriptures. Once again, something Zach is fantastic at, and me not so much. I do well for a while and then I'm back to being a slacker. Once a day. I can do this.

3. Go to the temple. This is a great one that we can work on together. How hard can it possibly be to go to the temple once a month? Apparently hard, because we let several months go inbetween.

4. Study for the NCLEX. This isn't one that will be a resolution for too long because I will take it in May, but the NCLEX is the nursing board exams to get your license. I want to study for a half-hour a day. Oh, and PASS the NCLEX the first time. That would be nice.

5. Plan a date once a month for me and Zach. He is pretty good about instigating a date night but I would like to do the planning one out of four weeks each month. This way I get to do fun things for him and he gets to just come and have fun.

6. Simplify. I really have a lot of clutter in my life. Literally and figuratively. The apostles have told us to simplify and I also think this is a great way to destress. I am not one of those people who doesn't throw things away either, so this shouldn't be too difficult.

7. Blog more. I'm not setting a number or goal for this one. Just doing it more would be good. This is kind of my scrapbooking/journaling so I need to make it count.

What are your New Year's Resolutions for 2011? It's going to be a great year.

Christmas and a Semester to Come

2011-01-02T01:57:00.001-08:00

Loved Christmas Break. Loved.

Not loving school on Monday.

We really really needed this wonderful break of ours and I felt like we put it to good use, especially the past week. We got to spend so much time together and enjoyed every minute of it. We spent Christmas Eve at Nona's house and won prizes in Grandpa's store. Zach won some splash bombs and I won a Planet Hollywood game. Always good times in Grandpa's store. We spent Christmas Day at the Garrick's and got some good loot as we tend to do. Just and Jen and the babes had their own Christmas this year so we went to see them and what Santa brought. We just found out that they will be adopting their 4th baby in May and will find out soon after Christmas if it is a boy or girl. We are so thrilled for them! Can't wait to have a new niece or nephew! Christmas Day evening we headed to the Smart's for gifts and hanging out, which included a sweet BYU snuggie. Awesome. Pictures to come of that. We were so incredibly spoiled, as we always are. I have felt so blessed to be surrounded by our families and being able to enjoy this time with them.

I go back to the grind on Monday and this will be my last semester. Hurray!!! With that comes a lot of stress. I have what is called my "preceptorship" from January 10-February 6. This is a shadow of sorts, but I will be with one nurse working 36 hours a week and she will be shadowing ME to make sure I am actually qualified to be out in the world as a nurse. I will be at LDS hospital in the Oncology Bone Marrow unit. I requested anything in OB or Pediatrics but ended up here so it should be an interesting experience. During this time, I will also squeeze in class, working at Primary Children's, the Flower Patch, and two psych clinical days in Evanston, Wyoming. Ugh. Once I get to February 6th, life will slow down a lot so lets hope I make it until then. I am loving Primary's though, and feel more and more adjusted everytime I work.

Zach has one more week before starting school again. He so deserves it. This is going to be a crazy semester for him as well and he constantly amazes me with his smarty-pantsness. Come on, Electrical Engineering?? Yikes, I'm so glad it's not me. After this next semester, he will start studying for the LSAT and get it OUT OF THE WAY in June! We will start picking law schools to apply for this summer. A year from now, we will be preparing to pick up and move (maybe out of state?), and Zach will be in HIS last semester of his undergrad. Who knows what 2011 will bring.

It's getting exciting, folks.

3 Semesters Down, 1 To Go

2010-12-06T20:52:00.000-08:00

So, finals are over.

Hallelujah is all I have to say.

At the end of the semester I like to look back at the

time I spent and how I spent it:

2 Classes (Medical/Surgical Nursing and Pharmacology): 28 hours
Lab: 40 hours
Clinicals at McKay-Dee Hospital: 110 hours
30 Assignments were handed in
10 Quizzes were taken
11 Tests were painstakingly studied for
2 Presentations were presented

Lots of IV's, dressings, IV fluids, PICC dressing change, perform assessments, hang blood, helped access a port-a-cath, watch a code, help a family through the code, pull foley catheters, give meds, take a patient's family member down to the ER, assess patient after cardiac catherization, monitor heart strips, and charting.

I'm sure there were lots more done thatI can't remember (it was a LONG 15 weeks) but I wanted to at least put some of it down to look back on. I think I grew the most this semester.

It makes me nervous and excited to think that I only have 15 weeks left and I will

be a nurse.

These were the gals in my clinical group and advisor at McKay. You spend a lot of time with these peeps so you become pretty close. I love these girls.

Nona's 80th

2010-11-30T17:39:00.000-08:00

Zach's cute Grandma had her 80th Birthday! We can't believe she's 80- she's more active than most 30 year olds we know. Nona is Grandma in Italian and it's become her nickname. We thought it was a pretty special occasion and Zach's family worked so hard to throw a surprise party for her. It was so great to see lots of Zach's fam from out of town and visit with everyone. We managed to get a family picture with everybody in it (which NEVER happens) and I had to share. Check out all those cute nieces and nephews!

Happy 80th Nona! We love ya!

Busy, and I just got busier.

2010-11-22T19:03:00.000-08:00

I feel bad. I was reading some of my old posts and really loving that I actually used to blog and it made me feel bad. I never post anymore.

Since my last post, we celebrated my 24th birthday, Halloween, and have been trudging through a hard semester of school. Zach is kicking butt as always and I feel like I have grown leaps and bounds in Nursing (I'm an IV champ!). Needless to say, we are really looking forward to the Holiday season this year and a break from school.

My birthday flowers from Z.J. Smart...Gorgeous!

Getting my eyebrows "threaded" at the mall for my birthday, courtesy of Mom.

Me with my peanut butter pie and birthday sign from my party at the Patch

This last week I got a job at Primary Children's on the Surgical Unit for a Patient Care Tech position!!! Today was orientation and it made me very excited and blessed for an opportunity to work there- this is truly a dream job. I only hope they have an RN position open when I graduate! This will help me to get my foot in the door and that is what I am the most grateful for. It is the answer to many prayers. I can't wait to get started!

We have had terrible colds this past week as well so that wasn't the best. Both of us being sick means a lot of hanging out on the couch together, eating popsicles, and watching football/movies so at least we got in some good quality family time.

This time in our lives we are really making some big decisions and I'm very excited to see how everything works itself out, because it always does. The next 6 months will be very uncertain and I am loving it, but at times it's hard not to have a definite plan.

Sorry if you are reading this and it is just a rambling mess, but all-in-all are very happy with our crazy life and will try harder to keep up with documenting it. Here is a sweet picture that I didn't get around to posting at Halloween of us at My Soul to Take 3D. We are awesome.

Anniversary #3 and "Family Pictures"

2010-08-19T16:35:00.001-07:00

ell, yesterday we celebrated our third anniversary the cheap way. Zach made me dinner (All by himself!! I didn't help with anything!), and it was delicious chimichurri steak with feijoada. Feijoada is a brazilian rice and beans dish and I will just say it was so good, I ate myself sick. I made him a card. That's all. But it was a great one and we realized we don't have to do anything too expensive or crazy to have a wonderful anniversary.

We just had some family pictures taken recently and I haven't had time to post them, but I thought I would post some of my favorites in celebration of having our family for three years. Summer Green with Summer Green Photography took them and we LOVED them. I would recommend her for wedding or family pics. She's so great!

End of Summer Vacations

2010-08-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

For the last week, we feel like we've been in a vacation whirlwind.

*First we headed up to Park City with the Garrick fam (Even though we were going to go camping in the first place. No motor home, remember??). We mostly vegged out and relaxed, which was SO wonderful. We ate delicious food, saw Dinner for Schmucks, and went shopping. Remind me not to take Zach to the Outlets anymore.... Needless to say, it was

much needed relaxation.

*We got home, I worked for a day, and we were off to St. George with the Smart's.

*St. George was sunny and beautiful, as always. It was fun having the nieces and nephews around- they are so fun. We swam our hearts out, played some tennis, pigged out on more delicious food, and played games late into the night every night. We also went and saw Karate Kid in the dollar theater. It was hard to come home knowing we start school in TWO WEEKS.

*I didn't get any pics from Park City, but managed to snag a few in St. George. These are of the us getting shakes in Iceberg. Me and Zach ordered Blueberry Cheesecake. I don't know for sure what it was that they made us, but it was not Blueberry Cheesecake. I'm thinking it was Raspberry Caramel.

Cute kids, big bites.

Zach's oldest bro, Ryan and wife Tara

Corben on the far left always has to give the peace sign.

This one is outside of the Pizza Factory in the old fire engine. Yep, check out the peace sign again.

Thank you so much families! We loved getting to hang out before life gets really crazy again!!

When the Motor Home's a-Flamin'....

2010-07-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

Most peeps have heard this story already, but it's a good one so I thought I would share.

My parents have been looking for an old, refurbished motor home to buy for a couple weeks. They found three in the Logan area so they went up one night to check them out. They fell in love with one of them and paid $1800 for it, but really got a steal because so much of it was redone and there were brand new tires. They called our fantastic insurance agent (and stake president) at 9:50 P.M. to insure it. After figuring out all the details, they headed home. When passing through Brigham City, the hood started smoking

so they pulled over to find a fire under there. My little bro had brought a 2-liter of soda with him so they grabbed that and dumped it all on the fire and it was still burning. My older bro jumped out with my dad and they tried to smother it with dirt as fast as possible and still nothing- the fire just kept getting bigger. The fire spread to the front seat where my mom was sitting so she jumped out just as the entire thing was engulfed in flames. This is when my mom called us in a complete panic and asked me to call and let our insurance agent know. When I gave him a call it was 11:47 P.M. We hadn't even owned it for two hours. They stood on the side of the freeway and watched it burn to the ground until a fire engine and ambulance came. Other than burns on my dad and bro's hands, everyone was okay. It was also such a blessing that they insured it before they got on the road.

We are now able to laugh at it although my parents are heartbroken that they didn't get the motor home afterall. Only the Garrick's.... :)

Happy 25th Birthday, ZJ Smart!

2010-07-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

For Zach's big 25th birthday this year, he got 25 things.

He opened them up the night before his birthday- he couldn't wait any longer (he hates surprises).

This is him opening his last present- a new Oakley backpack. He's been using the same backpack since 9th grade so I thought it was time for a new one. It will get some good use since he's still going to need it for 5 more years.

These ones are at Lagoon. We haven't been since we were engaged. I love me some Skee-Ball! We won some friendship bracelets.

Zach likes to do this every time we come but then he wants to do it a million times until he knocks every single one over.

This is up on the Sky Ride going to the other side of the park.

After we went on all the rides we wanted to (Wicked, Spider, the Rocket, Colossus, White Rollercoaster), we went to El Farol for dinner. Zach's fam has been going there for years and we love it! We got stuffed!!! We were pretty exhausted after that so we headed home and crashed! It was such a fun day.

Zach was really nervous to take the LSAT in June and although he studied NIGHT and DAY for weeks, we decided that if he felt good about it, he would keep his score and if he felt like he blew it then he would just cancel the test afterward. He ended up blowing his best section so he cancelled it. The biggest bummer is that we won't ever get to know his score, but he did get a great practice run in by taking it. He is back to studying like a madman and will take it again in October. Thanks for everyone's support and concern about it. I'll be excited when he is done and we know where we can go to school! Just a few more months!

Silver Lake with the Perry's

2010-07-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we headed up to Silver Lake. I've posted about going up there before (here and here and here). It is so gorgeous this time of the year and the snow has melted. It is such a good time to just take a walk around the boardwalk up and get some fresh air in your hair. We went up with the Perry's and also went to dinner. We had tons of fun with them as always and Emmy is such a cutie pie! She is about 7 1/2 months here and looks just like her mom.

A moose ran right through the marsh while we were there! I was too nervous to get too close to it but Chriff and Em were a little more adventurous. (She was trying to get a look:)

Love this little girl!

LSAT

2010-06-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

ZJ Smart takes the LSAT on Monday. That's the Law School Admissions Test. You know the one that Elle Woods takes on Legally Blonde? The one that she blows off Greek Week to study for and miraculously gets 1 point away from perfect score? That's the one. I'm so nervous for him that I get butterflies every time I think about it. It could mean the difference between getting into his dream school or one that no one has ever heard of. Just for the halibut, I am going to wishful think out loud.

Right now, these are in consideration:

Texas, UCLA, BYU, Washington, and North Carolina.

I think about paying as much for a house in Austin as I would rent in Bountiful.

I dream of taking up residence in sunny Pasadena and having beachbum babies.

I picture dressing up little ones in BYU onesies and teaching them to say "Go Cougars!" (even if it does mean living in Happyville) But lets be honest. This will happen whether we are going to BYU or not.

I am reminded by Zach almost weekly of how much he loves rainy weather and that we would have familiar faces in WA (AKA the Super Smarts :)

I can't help but hope to have kiddos taking up a south eastern accent and eating delicious food in the barbeque capitol of the world.

A week from Monday, we hope to be as excited as Elle- heck, we'd take a 179.

But truly, if we end up in Nowhere's Ville, Nebraska I will be a happy girl. Because it means we are in law school. And we made it. But until then, I will wishful think all I want.

Halfway

2010-04-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

I am halfway through with nursing school.

A year from now I will be graduating.

Totaling everything up I spent:

63 clinical hours at South Davis Community Hospital
63 clinical hours at Ogden Regional Medical Center
36 OB clinical hours at Davis Hospital (MY FAVORITE!)
70 hours in Med/Surg class and OB class

I took:

14 tests, 2 finals, a final practicum, a pediatric simulation, and 4 ATI tests

I got to:

pass meds in every way possible
perform wound care (I almost passed out!)
suction tracheostomies
perform a straight male catheter
watch a cardiac catherization
perform LOTS of assessments (including postpartum and newborn)
take health histories
watch 2 vaginal deliveries and 1 cesarean section (life changing, I cried)
watch a spinal and an epidural
give a newborn a Hep B shot
take care of a newborn straight from birth (he peed on me! the parents thought it was hilarious!)
feed babies, change babies, burp babies, take babies to moms
feel a fundus
see what a cervix looks like (or many cervixes...cervices??)
watch IUD's be put in
watch ultrasounds
give shots
watch someone be brought back from cardiac arrest

and probably a lot more that I can't even remember.

Doing my OB clinicals completely reaffirmed to myself that it is why I am in nursing school. Watching deliveries and caring for brand new babies was truly a life changing experience and I know for a fact that it is what I want to do when I graduate.

Now I get to hang out until August 23rd. Bring on summer!

Zachary James, Smarty Pants.

2010-02-20T09:29:00.001-08:00

The other night Zach spent the evening trying to build a circuit. I should have taken a picture of him hunched over his little table with piles of colored wires and a wrinkled forehead, trying to make a light turn on with one little switch (Are you picturing it??). He was up several hours after me and got up earlier the next day to make it to class to try and finish it up and pass it off with his instructor. He was very frustrated with it and had gone to bed with it unfinished, hoping he could get it figured out at school. When he did get it done, he turned on the switch and nothing happened. He was so mad he tore out every single wire and STARTED OVER. I felt so bad!! He completely rebuilt it in an hour and half. He took it up to his instructor as he was leaving, hoping as he tried it out for the first time that it would work. There were three switches and they all had to turn on a light on their own but if any two were on together the light should stay off. If all three switches were on, the light was also supposed to go on. He flipped each switch successfully and each two stayed off! He was so relieved and brought it home to show me.

See him flipping the switches? The glowy thing on the left is the light turning on.

(I love how organized and color coded it is. That's my husband.)

I am constantly amazed at Zach. He is ridiculously smart and would never admit to it. He is in the electrical engineering major and it has been a huge stress for him because he doesn't really have an interest in it, but it is the best major for him to go into patent law afterward. I am so grateful that he is so motivated with school and has the desire to keep going and work so hard.

Valentine's Day. Always Glad to See it Go.

2010-02-16T13:25:00.000-08:00

Every year I dread Valentine's. When you work in a flower shop it is pure madness and no celebrating, however we always manage to have fun at the Patch. Maybe a little too much fun.
Me and Whitters

Jessica and Ann cracking under the pressure
The empty cooler a.k.a. the aftermath

Cassie was so ready to take this picture

Jess is such an angel

The best part of the day. I came out to the car after I got off work and these were on my seat. What a sneaky Valentine I've got.

......Until next year girlies...... :)

The Empathy Belly

2010-01-28T14:55:00.000-08:00

In my OB class, we get credit for wearing the Empathy Belly. It was my turn on Wednesday. A band goes around your ribs and the belly goes over the top. It weighs 33 pounds and has a ball that rolls around and presses on your bladder. Very lifelike. I wore it for an hour during class and had backpain for the rest of the day. I am reconsidering the baby hunger......

Christmas Break...Yes, I know we're halfway through January. Oh well.

2010-01-20T12:07:00.000-08:00

Christmas break was wonderful. So wonderful in fact, I didn't think about blogging once.
We stayed up late and slept in.
We ate delicious food.
We hung out with our families a bunch.
I crafted and cooked.
Zach watched many a bowl game.
We got a new niece!!

Her name is Ireland Amelia. Isn't she gorgeous?!? She has the softest, most beautiful curly locks I've ever seen on a baby. Her older sister, Logan is in the above picture. Our family was blessed to have them both adopted into our family in the last year. We just love them! Noah, their older brother was also very excited and I wish I would have gotten a picture of him with them. Congrats, Just and Jen!!

I managed to get one picture of us on Christmas Day. Wearin' my new boots!!

A couple days before Christmas we went to the Las Vegas Bowl with Zach's parents. We had a fabulous trip! We ate at the Rainforest Cafe, had some delicious steak and prime rib, and stopped at a pastry shop in the Paris hotel. I had the most delicious and beautiful tiramisu I've ever had. The pain au chocolat was also delish. The best part of course, was the game. We killed 'em! And good thing too because the fierce winds nearly froze us to death. Our seats were awesome and we got to see a lot of the action up close! These are some of the best pictures of the trip.

I had to include this picture even though it is blurry. See the fluffy blue and orange? Those are showgirls that are traditionally at the Vegas Bowl coin toss. It had to be posted because those poor gals stood out there in practically nothing in 40 mile an hour winds. As soon as the coin was tossed they bee lined it off the field!! The final score was 44 to 20.

And now spring semester is underway. It has been hard to get back into the swing of things after such a relaxing break. It's crazy to think that a year from now, we will be deciding which law schools to apply to and I will be in my last semester. Oh, how time flies!

Rafe and Emery

2009-12-20T19:44:00.000-08:00

Zach finished his finals on Friday! Yea! Now Christmas break can really begin. We were glad to have this semester behind us. In the meantime I have been hanging out with these two. Two of my best friends had kids and I have soaked up all the baby holding and cuddling to fill the baby hunger.

This is Rafe Green. His parents are Summer and Creighton. He weighed 8 lb. 11 oz. and was born December 9th and 9:29 A.M.

This is Emery Perry. Her parents are Whittney and Chriff. She weighed 8 lb. 6 oz. and was born on November 29th and I forget what time. :(

On Monday we are heading down to Vegas to watch the Cougs against Oregon State. We are so excited!! Pictures to come of the trip....

GO COUGARS!!

First Semester Finished

2009-12-11T11:35:00.000-08:00

Well, I made it though my first semester. I am officially 1/4 of the way through nursing school. 80 hours of clinicals, 150 hours in classes and labs, 15 tests, 3 finals, and a partridge in a pear tree. I got to do some awesome stuff this semester: a cardioversion where I got to shock someone's heart, help with colonoscopies and EGD's, give shots, pass meds, clean wounds, perform assessments, and watch gallbladder and colon surgeries. Here is a picture of my beloved clinical group at Wingers for our last post-conference. I was in same-day surgery this day so I didn't wear my scrubs because you wear surgical ones when you get there. I will be getting a new clinical group next semester and I am so sad about it. I love these peeps. Now for 3 wonderful weeks of Christmas relaxation and fun. If only Zach were done with his finals too.

From left to right: Kelly, Angela, Mandi, Callie, Amy, Abbie, me, Joslyn (my instructor), Amber, Mary, and Josh.

Our Morph Baby

2009-12-07T11:47:00.000-08:00

In light of everyone else having a baby, I thought I would morph our pictures together to see what ours will look like one day.

I'm a little freaked out, cause I can kind of see it.....

Halloween and Longboarding

2009-11-02T13:27:00.000-08:00

This halloween was the first Halloween that we had together that one (or both) of us didn't have to work. We had a little dinner party with Creighton and Summer and had a scary movie-athon. We were in the mood to dress up, so we came as white trash. I only snagged a couple pictures, but I need to post them for memory's sake.

Also, I got my birthday present in the mail the other day. Zach got me a longboard! I've been wanting one for a while and we got a great deal on it. It's so cute. I love it. I wish I were better at riding it. But here are some pictures of my first skating experience.

(Oh, and those are paper cigarettes and root beer bottles, by the way.)

BYU vs. TCU

2009-10-29T14:02:00.001-07:00

Zach's parents trying to stay dry
Zach and his bros and their reactions to the scoreboard (actually it was their digust that I wanted to take a picture of them).

Us in our tent-like ponchos

This was before the game started (hence the smiles on our faces).

I hesitated posting this because it was a pretty miserable experience, but I had such cute pictures that I decided to do it anyway. Everyone knows how the game turned out so I don't need to revisit it. Hopefully the Cougars pull it out or we're in big trouble.

Mid-Term, Semester 1

2009-10-21T11:18:00.000-07:00

I made it to Week 9. Last week was my busiest week so far in nursing and it was supposed to be fall break. So, while I was going crazy with mid term practicum, preparing my osteoporosis presentation for my clinical group, studying for fundamentals test 4, and doing my entire death and dying packet, Zach was enjoying AN ENTIRE WEEK OFF.

I have to say that I do feel great about my success so far. I feel like I have a knack for this and I will enjoy being a nurse. Every milestone feels like an accomplishment. So far, I have passed 7 exams, 9 weeks of classes, and 5 clinicals at McKay-Dee. The first week one of my teachers said, "You know, it's the funniest thing. Students are just dying to get into the program, and as soon as they're in, they're dying to get out." I'm trying my hardest not to have this attitude. I'm trying to remember that this is only for 4 semesters of my life and that I will look back on this with great memories. I am doing my best to enjoy the journey.

It's just that I would really like to graduate, make some money, and have a baby and our own place to live. :)

My (Late) Birthday- Party for 2

2009-10-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

Zach and I celebrated my b-day last night. Apparently your birthday ends up being a month late when you're both going crazy with school. We went to P.F. Changs (a birthday tradition) and tried the scallops, which we've been wanted to do for ages after watching 4 seasons of Top Chef. We also got the pot-stickers and wok-charred beef and it was all delicious as always. We were going to go to a haunted house but their website refused to let us by tickets on it. So we boycotted that and went and saw Step-father instead. It was really intense! We dug on it! I only managed to take one picture but I'm trying to get better. Here's hoping all my birthdays last a month!

BYU v. UNLV

2009-10-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Riley Nelson and J.J. DiLuigi chest bump

I heart Harvey

Luke Ashworth diving for the ball

Last weekend, Zach's parents were nice enough to take us with them to Vegas for the BYU game. We had SO much fun. I forgot my camera at the game and then when I remembered to get it out it died before I could take one picture. So I just wanted to add a little post to my blog to remember the trip.

We left on Saturday morning and got home Sunday night so it was just a quick little trip but we packed a lot in. Once we got downtown we checked in to our hotel and then headed out to the strip. We went on the New York, New York rollercoaster, which I had never done before- I can't remember the last time I've had such bad butterflies! That is a fun ride! After we were all shaken up we went to the fabulous buffet at Treasure Island and stuffed our faces with ribs, crab, shrimp, salad, fajitas, sushi, and a wonderful dessert bar that had creme brulee and cotton candy!!

Then we headed for Sam Boyd Stadium and sat on the 9th row. We could see the players so closeup that we could hear what they were saying and so many cool plays happened right in front of us. It made the 59-21 win even better. We crashed after the game at our hotel and then had a free and yummy breakfast in the morning before getting on the road. Hopefully we will get to go back with them in 2011. GO COUGARS!!

Feeling Fall-y

2009-10-05T15:45:00.001-07:00

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am SO excited that fall is in full swing. I felt bad at first letting go of our delayed and short-sheeted summer, but now that leaves are turning and football season is here I am excited to welcome it in.

*I love getting out the fall wardrobe. It is so fun to trade in my capris and a t-shirt for my favorite skirt, leggins, boots, and a scarf. I love to be snuggly warm. Can you believe it snowed yesterday?? These are on my fall wishlist this year from Target, Forever 21, and American Eagle. I wish I were wearing them right now, sipping Stephen's hot chocolate, and reading a good book at the park.

*Everyone knows at the Smart household, fall=football season. It's been so much fun to cheer for the Cougars this year (they are doing great!) and you know it is fall when you sit in LaVell Edwards stadium and share a cougar tail with your father in law. I can't wait for the BYU/UNLV game this Saturday- we will be there at Sam Boyd Stadium to cheer for 'em!

*I have had such a craving for the pumpkin-y smells and flavors that are autumn. So Zach and I have made about 4 of these this week. Delicious. I got the recipe here at Our Best Bites. I get excited just thinking about making one after dinner. I also lit our oil-burner today with the yummiest cinnamon and pumpkin smell that fills the entire upstairs. *Having a fall birthday is the best. Ask anyone who has a fall birthday- guaranteed that they love it as much as I do. I also love stretching my birthday out as long as humanly possible and this year I have really succeeded. We went out with Zach's family to Joe's Crab Shack on Friday night before Priesthood session of Conference to celebrate. I should have taken more pictures but I was pretty preoccupied with the steampot of crab I was scarfing down. Don't worry, Zach still needs to celebrate my birthday so it's still not over yet. I will have managed to make it last longer than a month this year.

What's up with the Smarts

2009-09-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in over a month. I feel bad. But we have had SO much going on.

I started the nursing program at Weber! Yea! So far I have really liked it. I have had classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and a Lab on Friday and today I went to my first clinical which I will now have on Mondays. I have been so nervous with it coming up because I am at McKay-Dee Hospital and they start at 5:00 A.M. Yep, I have to get up at 3:15 and then they go for about 8 hours. I have been so anxious not knowing what to expect and worried that I would do something stupid, but today was so much fun!! I was in the Gastrointestinal Lab and got to see some awesome procedures like colonoscopies and endoscopies (where they stick a camera down your throat or up your bottom and look for any abnormalities). The doctor and nurses that I worked with were so patient and really took the time to teach me and help me have the best experience possible. I got to see some super cool stuff. And yes, this is my stack of books. My $878.00 stack of books. Uh.

On a happier note, Zach received his acceptance into the Electrical Engineering program at the U. His classes are really challenging this semester because he is now taking classes in his major, but he is doing great (he's like the smartest person I know). We are excited because it's just one step closer toward finishing school. It's probably his hardest semester so far but he is such a hard worker and pushes through. I am so grateful that he has such initiative and drive to do well so that one day I will get to stay home with the kids!

We are both still working away at the Flower Patch when we can and are excited that it is football season so we can go to the BYU games on Saturdays! I had my birthday on the 13th and we had a family get together with sweet pork tacos and watching 17 Again. Zach and I have yet to celebrate it but plans are in the works. Weekends are occupied by football and week days are taken over by homework so the birthday is taking a back seat.

This has been kind of a boring update, but we have accepted that we are boring married people that just study all the time. We are doing our best to find joy in the journey and can't wait for Christmas break already!

The Best Two Years

2009-08-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

It truly is a wonder how fast the years fly when you are married, yet it seems like you've known your spouse for forever! I can't believe it has really been two years. That. is. crazy.

To celebrate, we slept in and made ourselves a delicious french toast breakfast. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I woke up to someone knocking at my door bringing me these lovely things. Our room has smelled like a meadow ever since.

Then we grabbed our swimmin' suits and headed to Raging Waters for the day. We were like little kids running around that place with our tubes in tow! Since we went on a Tuesday, it was hardly populated and the weather was nice and warm without scorchin us.

When we got good and worn out, we came back and got ready and got us some Pei Wei. The honey-seared chicken? To die for. I scarfed it down. Next was the amaretto gelato at Belissimo. It might have had to do with the fact that after you swim all day and are out in the sun, you become ravenous, but everything was SO GOOD. Like, twice as delicious as normal.

After dessert, we used some movie passes and saw 500 Days of Summer. Zach wasn't the biggest fan of it but we liked it for being different. Plus Zooey Deschanel is one of my favorite actresses right now. The show is clever and the soundtrack is wonderful. I will be making that purchase very soon.

It was a magical day.

Happy Anniversary, Love.

It's been a fabulous two years and I can't wait for 80 more.

Silver Lake

2009-08-11T12:25:00.000-07:00

Up Big Cottonwood Canyon is a little lake surrounded by beautiful trees and mountains called Silver Lake. There is a little boardwalk around the lake so you can walk around and see everything. There are little fishes, ducks, and wildlife in the lake and it is so pretty up there. Ah, the great outdoors. We took a Cafe Rio picnic up there and then walked around. Here are a few pics of our little outing. It's nice to get some fresh air!!

Calling All Coupon Clippers

2009-07-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

In times like these, when money is tight and it helps to pinch pennies, I would love to learn how to become a coupon queen.

Does anyone have any good coupon websites, advise, or anything of the like that works, and would be kind enough to pass it along? Because I am tired of spending a billion dollars everytime I go to the grocery store!

Please share your thoughts!

The Big 2-4 and a Birthday Getaway

2009-07-19T16:25:00.000-07:00

Zach's birthday was on the 13th, and he got his gifts and we went to dinner. But I told him his real birthday was this weekend. It was supposed to be a surprise but I mentioned it in a conversation with someone else without thinking, and of course he heard me say it. I was SO mad at myself for spoiling it.

Anywho, I planned a weekend in Logan (Yes I just said Logan. Give us a break, we love it up there!) and we had a fabulous time! Since we are still (and will be for quite some time) poor students, it was cheap and not too far away. It may have been our honeymoon since the last time we went somewhere together for a getaway all by our lonesomes and we had so much fun. Here are some pictures from the mini-trip.

This is the place where we met and decided that we kind of liked each other. We lived across the hall from each other until we started hanging out and then he basically lived in my apartment. We have so many fun memories of living here in the Pineview Apartments.

Sitting on the steps of Old Main. This is where our Sociology 1010 class was that we had together when we had just met.

Ah, Adam's Park. This is the site of our first kiss on the night before Halloween.

Classy. Our first apartment after we were married. We have some pretty interesting stories we took away from this place including some noisy newlywed neighbors, and a bong found on the top shelf in the kitchen when we were moving things in.

Me in front of Fredrico's Pizza. We had heard great things but had never been so after we tired out of taking pictures and wandering around town, we tried it out. It was delicious! Not to mention darling on the outside! After dinner, we decided to head back to the hotel with a sonic creamslush and jump in the hot tub. We've become such exciting married people.

The next day, we headed up to Bear Lake and swam around for a bit. It was such a gorgeous day and the drive was nice and relaxing.

On the way back we saw this little cave with a natural spring coming from inside in called Rick's Spring. The water was FREEZING but we had to get a close up look it. When you get closer, it is purple and deep blue and quite astonishing that it bubbles up out of nowhere. We climbed up inside of the cave but there were freaky cave spiders, so we quickly climbed back out.
These are just some other random pics from the trip. This was my first apartment when I moved to Logan as a freshman. I had a blast at Summit Hall. Don't mind my scrunchie face. The sun was exceptionally bright while we were out taking pictures.

Peace, Love, Q2. Leah, Taryn, Megan, Breanne, and I had some crazy good times here in my second year at USU.

This is the only place Zach requested to go up on campus during our little trip. The Merrill-Cazier library. Are you surprised? This is where he spent the majority of his time at USU. He loving calls it "The Lib".

I laugh every time I see his face in this picture. I married a goof.

I'm pretty sure this is what he was actually doing at the library all those times he said he was studying.

We ended up having a fabulous time visiting all the places we have so many memories at. It made us kind of sad actually because we LOVED being up there, not to mention it being where we met and lived our first year of marriage, but it made for a great birthday celebration and we are excited to head up there again soon.

Ally Jane Bennett's Wedding Happenings

2009-07-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

I have become such a blog slacker, but I have a pretty good excuse if you ask me.

When your BFF gets married, it is important that you are present to every possible event and help her plan each detail. Here are a smattering of photos from her bridals, doing her flowers at the patch, luau, shower, the wedding day, and others.

She looked absolutely fab on the big day. The location was gorgeous, the desserts delicious, and the groom a total sweetheart. I love you girl! Congrats, you're an old married woman!

Coke and Crabs

2009-06-25T17:32:00.000-07:00

I had a mad craving for crab the other night and didn't want to pay $25 for less than a pound at Joe's or McGrath's, so we called around grocery stores and found a deal at Albertson's for $6.99/lb!!! We got each of us a pound of crab and headed to the Green's house. We boiled them up and dipped them in butter and lemon and washed them down with Coke.... oh.....my.... what a perfect pair. Yep, this will be a once-a-month occurence.

Workin on it
Creighton and Zach giving the camera the "crab finger"

Me and Sum just like the crabs.
Two pounds of crab and a pound of butter. Demolished.

Lawn Flamingos

2009-06-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

This is for reals. I'm looking for some LaWn FLaMiNgoS. Ideally, I would just like to borrow some for one night for a shower. Anyone have a grandma or a kooky mom that would let me use their flamingos? It would be greatly appreciated!

Park City Weekend

2009-06-09T15:37:00.000-07:00

Zach and I went with my family over the weekend for a little getaway to beautiful Park City. Despite the rainy weather, we had a blast! Lots of eating, swimming, napping, shopping and relaxing!! Our condo had 5 bedrooms and a big kitchen/living area....it was huge! We of course made a trip to Baja Cantina just outside the condos for dinner. It's a tradition and it is delicious! I recommend the chicken flautas....mmm... I wish I would have got more action photos but here's a few from the trip.

Get a load of this kid's eyelashes! Ridiculous! Like a baby giraffe!

See the resemblance?

Grandma and Logan caught with a huge grin.... I could eat her up!

Noah with his
"bestest buddy" in his new lifejacket

Jenn and Logan

The triplets (a.k.a. my older brothers and dad)

Noah took this picture.... after which he looked at it and said, "Crazy Ashley".Noah also took this picture. Such a good little photographer.

Seriously could she be any cuter???

Hangin' at the pool

Dad and Landon soakin' it up

Project #1

2009-05-27T23:37:00.000-07:00

Summer and I decided we needed to improve upon our rusty craft skills (Really just mine. Summer's always crafty.....the girl beads, sews, and does photography for goodness sake!) and so we hope to do a project every week! Our first project was a stretched canvas wall hanging. We got the idea from a darling little blog called Trey and Lucy. Click here for her tutorial. We got our frames from Hobby Lobby and fabric from JoAnn's. They turned out fabulously! Now I need to find the perfect place to hang it......

I know what you're thinking.... totally fab, right??

Mini Golf at Cherry Hill

2009-05-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love miniature golf?? It's so much fun and Cherry Hill has an awesome course, so we took some free passes (Thanks Creighton and Summer!) and had some fun putting away! I am horrible so I knew I would lose, bless my heart. Someone has to.... right?

Notice Summer and I have matching capris on and Van's slip-ons. We're cool like that to match on accident.

We're dorks. It's fine.

All Grown Up

2009-04-23T22:01:00.000-07:00

I can't believe all of the wonderful changes that are going on around me! It is so exciting to see where life takes you and the many blessings that happen in the process. I went to lunch with my two best friends the other day and we were discussing Ally's wedding plans. She got engaged on April 17th and we are so thrilled for her and can't believe she's going to be a married woman in less than 3 months!! As we were sitting there chatting, Whittney informed us that after lunch she was headed to her first ultrasound!! She is due the day after Thanksgiving! We were completely shocked and ecstactic! Soon I'll be headed to nursing school and I couldn't be more grateful to have that under my belt and finally see a light at the end of the tunnel with school. This year has been so great for all three of us and I can't believe how fast life moves and changes. I love these girls so much and can't wait for Al to marry such a great guy and for Whitters to have a little one!The gorgeous ring

The little peanutThe old days

Zach loves wings.

2009-04-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

Every so often, Wingers does their all you can eat wings for about ten bucks. This is one of Zach's FAVORITE things in the whole world. He makes the waitress promise she will keep them coming.Basically he would have wings everyday if he could, so we have to go when they have this going on. I don't love them so I go along for the sticky fingers. His record is 24 wings. Two nights ago he ate 20. The thought alone gives me heartburn. (Which he did wake up with the next morning, by the way). Anyway, I thought I would share with everyone a Smart tradition in the making.

(Notice my mom's sympathetic face in the background)

Does anyone else's husbands do this? :)

Jenn's shower

2009-04-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

The shower went really well on Saturday- thanks everyone for coming- even on conference weekend! It was great to see you and your little babes. Here are just a few pictures. I wish I would have gotten one of Russ, Mindy's little guy.Jenn and Logan

Kristy's baby Issac

Noah writing his little sister's name on the chalkboard

We had delicious food and it was fun to just chat with the girls in the fam. We never get to do that! Thanks for the love and support!

Night Out on the Town

2009-04-05T11:12:00.000-07:00

On Friday night after work, Zach took me out to celebrate me getting into the nursing program. It was all supposed to be a surprise, so he left work a little early to set up the tables and chairs for my sister-in-law's baby shower for the next day. When I came home he was getting all dressed up and had a bouquet of flowers for me! (Whittney was so sneaky. She was putting together this gorgeous bouquet and I asked who they were for. She told me they were for her mother-in-law's birthday. I thought they were SO pretty...but they were actually for me!!!)

Zach wrote a cute little card to go with them and it made me cry. So we finished getting ready and went to the the Mandarin-- my VERY favorite! We got the potstickers, orange chicken, and honey walnut shrimp.

After dinner we headed to the theater to see a movie, but ended up walking out and renting from redbox instead. We spent the rest of the night drinking rockstars, eating mint oreo shakes, cuddling and watching Lakeview Terrace and Bolt. It was so much fun to spend some time alone together and realized we really need to make it more of a routine to do so. I'm thinking date night Friday a lot more often...... and I definitely have the cutest husband ever.

Gotcha.

2009-04-02T08:57:00.001-07:00

April Fools.

As you may have guessed, we are in fact NOT pregnant. But that was a good one, huh? Except now nobody's going to believe me when I really am. Maybe it wasn't such a good one afterall....

Our little surprise....

2009-04-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

So guess what we found out today................

OOps.... not so planned, but we are SO excited!!!!!!!

Spouse Tag

2009-03-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

♥ What are your middle names?
Zach's is James and Mine is Elizabeth. One day one of our little boys will have his middle name- I love it!

♥ How long have you been together?
We have been married 2 years in August, but starting dating the December before that.

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
We became fast best friends for four months before dating (two months before the first kiss, though)

♥ Who asked who out?
Zach asked me out, although we were basically spending every second together anyway.

♥ How old are each of you?
Zach is 23 and I'm 22. We both have birthday's on the 13th of the month.

♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most?
Probably mine- we do live with some of them. :)

♥ Do you have any children together?
Not yet :( it'll probably be a while.

♥What about pets?
Zach wishes he had a bull dog like Meaty on Rob & Big, but I stand by the fact that we are a no pet family. He promised me before we got married so I hold him to that.

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Probably deciding which family's house to go to on the weekends. Yikes. Or the fact that Zach has the total logical argumentation to be an attorney and pretty soon I can't remember what made me think I was right. Good thing that's what he is going to be!

♥ Did you go to the same school?
Nope. He went Hillcrest and I went to Bountiful. Go Braves!

♥ Are you from the same home town?
Nope, I'm from B-Town and he's from Sandy.

♥Who is smarter?
Oh for sure Zach. Anyone who knows him, knows he is a smarty pants, but I'm so grateful.

♥ Who is more sensitive?
I think I am, but he can be a pretty sensitive guy.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
Cafe Rio and Five Guys (Now that we have one in Bountiful.....YESSS!)

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Washington D.C. when we went to visit Chad and Mareille.

♥ Who has the craziest exes?
Oh dear. This is probably a toss up.

♥ Who has the worst temper?
I would say me. I'm kind of a control freak. I'm working on it.

♥ Who does the cooking?
I do. Other wise it's Cafe Rio or Five Guys!

♥Who is more social?
We are probably sixes on this one. He is very charming and I am pretty outgoing.

♥ Who is the neat-freak?
We both are in different ways. He hates a dirty car and I hate a dirty house.

♥ Who is more stubborn?
Zach. He is too smart to not get his point across.

♥ Who hogs the bed?
That would be me. I'm more of a blanket hog than a space hog.

♥ Who wakes up earlier?
He usually has to get up early for school. Bless his heart.

♥ Where was your first date?
The official first date was to Costa Vida and then to play games with Creighton and his blind date K.P. at my apartment in Logan, but one of my favorites was the Gallery Walk in Logan around Christmas time when we first started dating. We had to go into a ring store to see some of the art and the guy talked me into trying some rings on! I'm sure Zach was ready to head for the hills at that point!

♥ Who has the bigger family?
Zach does. He has more siblings, more in-laws, and more nieces and nephews. They are so much fun!

♥ Do you get flowers often?
Zach is really great with getting me flowers. It helps that we work at the Flower Patch :)

♥ How do you spend the holidays?
With both our families. Its nice to be so close to both.

♥ Who is more jealous?
I am for sure. He is always so easy-going.

♥ How long did it take to get serious?
For me... I knew almost right away that I wanted to marry him. It took him a little longer.... I told you he was charming!

♥Who eats more?
If it's sweets, it's me. If it's food, it's him.

♥ Who does/ did the laundry?
That's me!

♥ Who’s better with the computer?
Zach is way better. I'm always asking him stupid questions!

♥ Who drives when you are together?
I would rather he always drove and he would rather I drove. He is usually the gentleman and lets me have my way.

I tag now... Summer, Bayly, Terri, Tara, Mareille, and anyone else that feels like doing it!

Thanks girlies!

2009-03-30T20:09:00.001-07:00

I am really excited to make crafts for Brighton Walker, Cori Crandall, and Brooke Coon! Thanks for commenting gals! It's gonna be great!!

Pay It Forward

2009-03-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I have decided to start my "pay it forward project" that I inherited from Abby Roberts in order to expand and develop my crafty side. The deal is that I am going to make a homemade craft/gift thingy that will go to the first three people that comment on this post. The catch is that you don't know what it's going to be (But it will be cool. Cause I'm making it.) and that YOU also have to pay it forward to three other people. Anyways.... if you are the first three to comment, please include your favorite colors so I can personalize it a little more. It will be fun to get a surprise and also to be crafty yourself. So try it! Ready, Set, Go!

Some Rather Good News

2009-03-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

I have been ACCEPTED into the Nursing Program at Weber State!!!! Wa-hoo!!

(Notice the bolded word on this page....it was the first thing my eyes skipped to)

I have been waiting for this for a really long time and didn't expect my letter to come in the mail until the middle of April. It came almost a month early on March 19th and I will be starting in the fall! Zach has been so supportive of me doing nursing and finishing school, so he was almost as excited as I was when it came. Besides being a wife and a mother, I have always wanted to finish school and be a nurse. I can now begin the countdown to FiNaLLy being done with school......

(This might be the goofiest picture of both of us, but you have to capture the moment, right?)

Logan Kaylie Garrick

2009-01-31T12:05:00.000-08:00

Our niece was finally able to come home! My brother Justin and sister-in-law Jenn were able to adopt a gorgeous baby girl from Washington and they flew home yesterday. She was 6 pounds 4 ounces and 19 inches long with dark slightly-curly hair, born on January 21st. She also has really girly pink lips. She's adorable! I have more pictures to come when I find my camera card. My mom happened to plan her cruise at the exact same time Just and Jen got back from Washington so this post is mostly for her so she can see some pictures and pretend like she was there. We're so excited to have Logan in our family! Welcome, baby!

Confessions of a Shopaholic

2009-01-23T22:34:00.000-08:00

I have been so excited for this movie to come out, so I decided to read the book first by Sophie Kinsella. I was really disappointed at first because the book kind of drags, but then out of nowhere, it really picks up and brings the whole thing together. I was surprised at the swearing in the book, but if you can get past that the story is so funny and cute. It will be interesting to see the movie because a lot of the previews did not happen in the book. It was a nice and easy read after the last deep and serious book I read.

On to.....the Bourne series.

P.F. Chang's Date Night

2009-01-21T20:58:00.000-08:00

P.F. Chang's is an absolute treat for Zach and I, so we were so excited to go out with our friends Chriff and Whittney, and Dan and Ally last Saturday night. We had delicious Mongolian beef, orange chicken, lettuce wraps (of course), egg drop soup, tiramisu for me, and cheesecake for Zach. We were STUFFED! We only go for special occasions like my birthday or if Zach gets a 4.0 so we have to make it count when we go. We had a blast laughing and talking all night. Afterward we went to Zach's parents house and watched Kung Fu Panda, so it turned out to be Chinese-themed night. It was so much fun and I can't wait until we do it again!

If you like to read....

2009-01-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

I just finished an amazing book this morning referred to me by my sister-in-law, Mareille. If you like to read I highly recommend it, but warn you it starts out very sad. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. It is called A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It's really better if I don't tell you a lot about it so that I don't spoil it for anyone, but I will tell you it is a novel with true historical events about the culture in Afghanistan, more specifically how women live and are treated. It really opened my eyes to the Islamic culture and how different the women's lives are from mine. There is also a darling LOVE STORY to the book, which I always enjoy. Amazing, I tell you, amazing. I cried and cried-good tears and sad tears. One of the best books I've ever read. Also, if you have read it I want to hear what you thought of it.

If anyone wants to borrow it from me, let me know because I am on to the next book on my list. It had to be a light and airy book because the last one was so deep. I have been wanting to read Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella ever since I saw the preview for the movie they are making with Isla Fisher (Who I love! She is so cute!). I wanted to read it before the movie comes out, so I bought it on usedisbetter.com for a penny!!

If anyone has a good book they would like to recommend to me, I would LOVE to hear about it. I am thoroughly enjoying not going to school this semester and want to read as many books as possible before nursing school takes over my life next fall.

Christmas Break... WARNING- this post is very long, you may want to skim or only look at the pictures!.....

2009-01-04T14:44:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful and relaxing break we have had for the last couple weeks. It is our second Christmas being married and we enjoyed every moment of it. We did a lot of fun things with our families and friends. Christmas Eve is spent every year with Zach's whole family. Cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, everyone gets together at Grandma Smart's house. We all eat, play games, and read Christmas stories. Then we do Grandpa's Store. Zach has a really neat tradition in his family from his Grandpa Smart. Grandpa Smart passed away when Zach was on his mission, so I never had the chance to meet him, but he would collect all kinds of gifts all year long and then on Christmas he puts them all in one room. Everyone plays a game to see who gets to go in the store first and pick out a present. It's so much fun and everyone is so competitive to get into the store. Zach's Grandma has carried it on and we played a Christmas trivia game and Bingo to see who gets to go into the store and I WON! I got a really cool fairy tale book that has a puzzle on each page. I also got a pair of sparring gloves. Zach got a super cool blow up basketball hoop to play in a pool.... spring break maybe? Zach's uncle and aunt (Jeff and Kim's family) came into town to put together Krystal's wedding for the 27th. It's been so fun to get to know them! I felt so lucky to get to be a part of it when they asked me to do the centerpieces. I'm not extremely experienced but love to make flower arrangements and I think they turned out okay. We were invited to the temple and it was so neat to hear all the wonderful promises that are made there. The ceremony was awesome and the reception turned out beautifully! Congrats Brad and Krystal!

Christmas morning we spent at my house. We were so spoiled! We got lots of clothes and toys including a new iPod for me and a shuffle for Zach. Mine's been broken and Zach was so excited to get one to take snowboarding. Zach's parents gave us a fun game and money- which is always so nice!! My sister and brother-in-law had us for Christmas and got us all of the classic children's Christmas storybooks! We were so excited and decided we would get one and add to our collection every year so that when we have kids we will be able to have a Christmas book to read every night leading up to it. Me and Zach made Christmas breakfast and we decided to do German pancakes because that's something even my picky little bro will eat! We did hashbrowns with them and they turned out DELICIOUS! They are so easy too! The recipe is below if you decide to try them- I highly recommend it! They're really weird looking when they come out of the oven, but don't worry, it's normal. They are the best with hot syrup and a little powdered sugar.

GERMAN PANCAKES

Mix in a blender:

1 cup milk

4 eggs

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt 1 cube of butter in a 9X13 glass pan in the oven. When the butter is sizzling, add above blended ingredients to the pan and put back in oven for 20 minutes. Serves 8.

* We like to eat these with tater tots to balance the sweet with some salty.

After breakfast and opening presents, we heard a weird sound. I thought it was coming from the TV but we followed it to the fireplace. Two birds were stuck up inside the floo! We couldn't believe it. I think they were woodpeckers because they kept pecking at a piece of coal and their beaks were really long and skinny.

A couple nights ago we went skiing with Creighton and Summer. Other than my bumped head and sore muscles the next day, it went fairly well and it all came back to me. We always have so much fun with them even though they totally showed us up with their skills. It was great to go snowboarding since we haven't been since we took a class up at Beaver Mountain when we were going to Utah State. We had a blast!

We don't have any pictures of this but we went with Zach's family to Spaghetti Factory and I had the Managers Special- it was so good! I love their creamy pesto dressing and the spumoni at the end! We spend the evening at his house playing the Wii and watching movies, and I did get a New Year's kiss! We spent the night and had prime rib for lunch which is a tradition in Zach's family to have it on New Year's Day. It was so yummy! The girls also got to go on a little shopping trip to Old Navy and leave the kids with the fellas.

These past few weeks have been so relaxing that I feel bad that Zach has to go back to school next week! We hope every Christmas is as magical as this one has been for us and that everyone else has had a wonderful vacation from school and a happy holiday!

Temple Square

2008-12-23T08:24:00.000-08:00

Last night we went on a date! We ate at California Pizza Kitchen and went to see the lights at temple square with our good friends Rory and Mandi. Zach and Rory grew up together and Mandi is such a doll! They closed the gates before we got there but it was still fun to walk around Downtown and see the lights that were outside of the square. I really like Downtown around Christmas time. It is so busy and everyone is bustling around to get ready for the holidays. It was fun to go out on the town and just do something fun together.

Finals are over!

2008-12-18T20:01:00.000-08:00

My finals are over!! Yea!!

I got my Associates!! Yea!!

I even finished my ridiculous history class with a "B"! Can you believe it?

I finally got to start reading and it has consumed my life (as a good book tends to do) so I haven't sat down to blog in a while. Can you guess what I'm reading??.....

I have read all but the fourth book of the Twilight series, and have tried very hard not to hear the gossip going around about it until I could get a chance to read it myself. I started a couple days ago and I am half-way finished. It is SO good so far! No one spoil the ending!

This is the next book I plan on reading....

The FINAL stretch....

2008-12-08T18:59:00.000-08:00

It is officially finals week. I am so. ready. to be done. I have two finals left and one I am very nervous about as it is my comprehensive Pathophysiology final. This is the hardest of the nursing prerequisites. I know many people (including myself) who have put it off and put it off until absolutely necessary to suffer through it. Each unit, I looked at the learning objectives and typed (or at the beginning when I was naive and stupid and wrote them out by hand) up my own study guide. I finally dug them all out to go over them for the final and was blown away by how big the stack was. I have accumulated enough paper to have saved a small forest. So I took a picture of them for you to see. I also included in the picture my enormous Physiology textbook so that you would be able to feel of my disparity. I think by taking a picture of the madness, I feel better about letting it go and throwing my hard work in the garbage.

The madness spread for your viewing pleasure

A side profile. It really doesn't do it justice.

And this is me. Okay, it's not really me. But this is how I feel at this moment.

I don't know why it says CD Bank. Weird.

I just need to hold on for two more finals and I am home free until Nursing school!! Good luck to everyone on their finals!!

I heart the Cougars

2008-11-22T22:14:00.000-08:00

My Cougars lost tonight. My heart hurts for them. We have had a great season and I'm really proud of how well my cougars played. No worries, Max. We still love you!
10-2!!!

P.S. I still believe magic happens.

Ode to the Cougs

2008-11-22T10:07:00.000-08:00

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO COUGARS!!!

The Things I Intend To Do

2008-11-16T20:33:00.000-08:00

The semester is over for me in about three weeks and I won't be going back to school until I get into the nursing program. The soonest this could be is next fall.....SOOO.....

I have given A LOT of thought as to what I'm going to do with my time starting in December.

1. Work. Still gotta pay the bills. I do love The Patch, however- it's the best job!
2. Read. My long lost love. I never get to read anything but a textbook these days and I have a mental list starting with the fourth Twilight- Breaking Dawn. I feel so losery when people talk about it or when asked if I have read it. I want to join in on the Twilight gossip!
3. Pick up my guitar. I used to play at least fifteen minutes a day and learn songs constantly. I miss it so much and I guarantee some strings are going to have to be replaced since it's been it its case for so long. The first songs I want to learn are "Thunder" by Boys Like Girls and "Our Song" by Taylor Swift.
4. Scrapbook. This is a new hobby I discovered when I made my sign-in book for our wedding. I am almost done with a scrapbook of when we were engaged and I've been dying to finish it up. I also want to put all my wedding photos in one book. I'm going to scrapbook at least one hour a week. Anyone want to come over and scrapbook with me??
5. Zach and Ashley nights. We are always doing homework and running here or there. I miss date nights and even just sitting in the same room together at the same time.
6. Cooking. I really do love to cook but never want to at the end of the day. I WILL cook more and try a new recipe once a week. I welcome any that have been tried and loved if anyone has some they would like to share. I will also share my good ones!
7. Work out. This will be the least fun on the list. I don't like working out unless I have a treadmill, good magazine, and my iPod. Something must be done with my muffin tops so I am going to have to settle for a good run around the neighborhood or my mom's Sweatin' to the Oldies with Richard Simmonds video tape.

I just need to vent for a sec...

2008-11-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

I feel like my brain is going to explode! School is killing me right now and I feel like I am buried in homework and constantly studying for the next test. My stupid history class might hold me back from getting my associate degree this semester and then there's no way I'll be able to get in the accelerated nursing program at Weber. All I have to do is pass, but the teacher is so awful, and all I can do is wait to see if I can just pull a "C" out of it. So many students in my class are struggling too and whenever someone emails him he just says, "I've done everything I'm going to do to help you succeed in this class. If you're not doing well, it's because you're not studying enough." I kill myself to study for his tests and my scores are just not consistent! I cannot wait until December 6th!!

Thanks for letting me get that out.

Election Day

2008-11-04T10:25:00.000-08:00

Happy Voting Day!! Go McCain!

Mr. and Mrs. Incredible

2008-11-02T09:13:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween!!!

Well, we did not have a fabulous Halloween, in fact work was the highlight. After work, we ate dinner and did homework all night (I had a test in the morning). We did dress up, and I am really proud to say I made these costumes in one hour, other than the red drill team dance pants and black swimsuit bottoms we already had. They turned out great! We had been watching The Incredibles this last week and I thought they would be perfect!

I surprised Zach with the costume, and sadly, it was not his favorite. He was still a great sport to wear it to make all of his deliveries! Look at the other cute costumes of my co-workers. Patti was a darling witch, Whitters was a parrot, and Heather was a cat!

Everyone hail to the pumpkin song!

2008-10-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

The Green's and us decided to carve pumpkins this year and we had so much fun doing it, we decided to make it a tradition. Zach was kind of a bum and did homework the whole time. His pumpkin remained a pumpkin and never evolved to the jack-o-lantern stage. Creighton's pumpkin became Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas (I LOVE that movie!), mine had sweet sunglasses, and Summer's was just cute as could be!

Zach is a goof.

2008-10-27T19:22:00.000-07:00

I have a hilarious story to tell everybody. At least I think it is hilarious- I still laugh when I rethink it in my head.

The other morning we had to get up pretty early to help my mom clean out her pantry and still make it in time to the BYU game. I was in the closet getting dressed when Zach was just starting to wake up. It was still dark in our room and all of a sudden, I hear Zach mumbling.

I thought he was just sleep-talking until I noticed he was saying, "What's on my head?" over and over. I finally looked and saw that there was a hood on his head.

"It's just the hood of your sweatshirt."

"But I'm wearing a t-shirt."

So I flip on the light only to see his head INSIDE his pillowcase. I had to snap a photo. It was too funny not to share with everyone. Love you Zachy! You make me laugh!

Girl's Night!

2008-10-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

Whitney came home to visit.... yea!! It was so fun hanging out- I forget how much fun we used to have together! We made a stop at Dee's for some cheese fries and hot chocolate, but then found out that the hot chocolate doesn't have any free refills (are you kidding me?) and so we just went with the cheese fries. And we devoured them. Mmmm... Delicioso!

Whitney was so confused about why anyone would pay $4.99 for five melted cheeses and fries. I kindly explained that it was actually a grilled cheese and fries and sounded kind of good. A Dr. Pepper also sounded kind of good.... so I got one.

...And then we were on to our next adventure...

We stopped in to Walgreens for a candy bar and found Halloween tattoos!

In the picture below, we decided we were going to spell something with our hands. We decided to spell "cat" (I'm not sure why cat.... black cat.... for Halloween maybe??) so Whit is spelling a "c" (she did good), Roch is supposed to be spelling an "a" and I'm supposed to be doing the "t". I don't know sign language and someone told me how to do a "t". I'm pretty sure I'm actually making a "k" and Roch is doing a peace sign. We are obviously extremely sign language literate. Fun picture, though.

Don't we look so hardcore? The tats turned out great! What a fun night- I had a blast girls!

I'm not super political, but....

2008-10-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, Leslie had this on her blog, but I thought it was so funny I had to spread it around and share it with people who haven't seen it. Happy voting!

I LOVE winning stuff on the radio....

2008-10-18T11:14:00.001-07:00

A couple months ago, I rolled out of bed and ran to Dominoes to get a pizza for my mom's daycare kids. I jumped in the car, flipped on the radio and they said to be caller 7 to win Rock Band Live tickets that hadn't even gone on sale yet. I called and won- I was sooo excited!! This is the 4th time I've won stuff on the radio including New Found Glory/Cartel/Early November concert tickets, a $20 gift card to the mall, and $100.
Me and Ally took the tickets and went for her birthday. The Cab opened for everyone, and I had never heard of them before but I thought they were pretty good. I want to get their CD and listen to them when I can understand the lyrics a little better.

Next up was Plain White T's. Although I'm not a fan of their new CD that just came out, they performed really well. My favorite song of theirs was the closing song, Hate is a Strong Word, but I Really Don't Like You.

Third was Dashboard Confessional, which I was most excited for. Chris Carrabba is a doll and the funniest part of his concert was his cover of Pink's, "So What, I'm Still a Rock Star!" song. It was hilarious. He is better live than on CD.

Lastly was Panic! at the Disco. I could not believe how unbelievably amazing the lead singer is. His voice is phenomenal! He also played the guitar, piano, and drums at some point during the concert. I was truly impressed by their talent. Overall the concert was awesome, but we did get spilled on with beer and there was a sick couple in front of us all over each other. There was also some creepy 50-something year old dude dancing around all by himself and singing the words to the Panic songs. Ally couldn't take her eyes off this ridiculous group of kids out in GA that were swing dancing and doing crazy egyptian moves. A true concert experience!

Rise and shout... the Cougars are out!!

2008-10-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we went to the BYU/New Mexico game, which was the 4th home game this year and I can't believe there are only 2 left! I love going to the games with Zach's fam, and I love seeing the Cougars win!! Two of our nieces and nephew came to the game with us and they had a blast drinking hot chocolate, cheering (Pyper said, "Guess what Ashley, I'm cheering for the Cougars!!"), and running around the Cougar Club room. They are so cute! Despite the frigid temperatures, BYU won 21 to 3 and we stayed at 8 and 9 in the polls for this week. BCS here we come!

HaPpY BiRthDaY tO Me!!

2008-09-28T22:30:00.000-07:00

My birthday was actually on the thirteenth of September, and we celebrated that day with my fam, but Zach and I hadn't gotten a chance to go on our birthday date until the 27th. Oh how I look forward to my birthday! It is my favorite thing. Zach teases me that I don't actually have a birthday but rather a birth month. When September rolls around, I feel like it is my right to demand things and justify it with, "Please! It's my birthday!". It usually works. The only thing it didn't really work with is asking him to brush my teeth for me when I was too tired to get out of bed. He denied me that one. Probably for the best.

The morning was rough and started out with taking a history test on a Saturday morning at nine, followed by a busy day at work, but knowing what was coming made the day fantastic. We met the Greens at P.F. Chang's (which we have made an Ashley's birthday tradition) and we got orange chicken, mongolian beef (my new favorite entree), pan fried noodles with pork, and lettuce wraps. I finished it off with Pina Colada ice cream which my bro-in-law suggested, and it was WONDERFUL. I left stuffed!!! We went and saw Eagle Eye, which I really liked. Shia LaBoeuf is a really good actor.

What a great birthday I had this year. Zach always puts on a fun bday celebration, and we still need to go out to Park City to buy some lime-green Nike's I've had my eye on.

Fun with old friends.... and some new ones too!

2008-09-24T19:20:00.000-07:00

Last night we got a call from my old friend Chad to go to dinner with him and his wife, Nate and his wife, Jordan and his date, Brynne, and Al-squad. We used to all hang out, but I hadn't seen them in over a year- since Chad and Brooke's wedding!! It was so fun to get to know Brooke and Janae, and I can' t believe how much Chad's baby Addison looks like him! I hope another year doesn't pass before we do it again!

One Year Already??

2008-09-03T12:41:00.000-07:00

On August 18th, we had our one year anniversary, and I am still in disbelief! Where has the time gone?? It feels like we are still baby newlyweds and yet it feels like we've known each other always. My favorite memory of the past year has probably been when we lived in our tiny cardboard box of an apartment in Logan. It was fun to be away together and really depend on each other for everything and know that we can make it. Zach's favorite memory was our first Christmas together- I almost didn't get work off!! It was fun to decorate our very own Christmas Tree and trudge through the crazy Logan snow.

For our anniversary, we decided to just take a day off to spend in our PJ's. I got to read a lot, which is one of my favorite things that I never have time for anymore. Zach spent time reading up on BYU. We got to each lunch in bed and watch movies. Around dinner time we got cleaned up and went to Mandarin- we both LOVE Chinese food. We got the potstickers, Mongolian beef, and orange peel chicken. MMMMM.... Afterward, we went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Silver Lake. It was fun to walk around and chat and just spend time alone. It is so beautiful up there! We took some goofy pictures of us in front of the fish and wildlife sign. Don't judge us. On our way back home we got Yogurt Stop and a movie. It was such a relaxing nice day and I came home to beautiful flowers!!

It's really weird to think about where we were even a year ago- planning a wedding and moving our stuff up to Logan. So much has already changed and all for the better. I feel so blessed to be married to such a wonderful person who is so patient with all my crazy ideas and recklessness. Zach really is my best friend and I am so excited for many more anniversaries to come.

Summer in Review

2008-09-02T23:58:00.001-07:00

I have been SO frustrated for the last month with my blog. For some reason it has been refusing to upload my pictures, so I haven't posted since July. I am attempting, yet again, to make it work and compiling all the things I didn't get to blog from the summer.

BYU Women's Clinic

At the end of July, Me, Ally, and two of my sister-in-laws went to the annual BYU Women's Clinic. This was my second year going. It's a really fun little fundraiser the team does and it starts out with a tour of their facilities, then you eat and get your shirt. The players and coaches answer any questions you have and Bronco gives a little talk. Afterward you go out on to the field in Lavell Edward's Stadium and run drills with the players. David Nixon was my official favorite from the clinic this year. Last year's favorite was Vic So'oto. The best part about this clinic is that Zach doesn't get to go, so I get bombarded with questions when I get home.

Max Hall, the Mountain West Conferences best quarterback.

Ally running a drill

Harvey Unga (and that's pronounced OOOng Uh!)-- He is so incredibly good.

Zach's Birthday

I love birthdays. Not only my own, but Zach's too, and EVERYTHING has to be a surprise- it's part of the fun! So to start it off, Creighton and Summer came with us to Raging Waters. Zach's been wanting to go swimming all summer so it was perfect. He even talked the tube girl into giving us all free tubes as his birthday present (this is where his natural arguing and point-making abilities come in handy.... he's going to make a great lawyer one day....). After we all got cleaned up, the next stop was Settebello. It's a great little Italian pizza restaurant Downtown and Zach's family loved it so he was really excited to try it out. I wasn't the hugest fan, but Zach LOVED it and that's all that mattered. My last surprise were tickets to see The Dark Knight, which was cool because it was the day it opened and he has been so excited for it to come out all summer. This was sneaky on my part because I had to pretend to be surprised and confused about when it came out so that he wouldn't have a clue. When we got home, he opened his presents. He got cologne, a football, and some really cute Pumas. To my surprise, he loved the shoes. It was so much fun to spend the day together and celebrate.

Zach and all the free tubes- notice the sign next to him. I wish I could take credit for that.

Zach and Creighton

Lava Hot Springs

In July, we got to go with Zach's fam to Lava and stay in the School House Inn (at least I think that's what it's called). It's an Inn that used was first a school, then an LDS church, and last a vacation spot. We played games, went to the swimming pool, and went down the river, which was my favorite part. It was so fun hanging with the Smarts, and the nieces and nephews had a blast roasting marshmellows and starbursts, and playing in the big gym. Some were even brave enough to go down the river!

Roasting Marshmellows and Starbursts

Playing at the pool

Down the river

We almost couldn't carry all the tubes!

Bee's Game Tradition

When we were engaged, we decided we would make it a family tradition to go see a Bee's game for either the fourth or twenty-fourth of July every year and watch the fireworks display. This year we went with some of Zach's friends, Romney and Jake, Ally, Cindy, Kim, and Wendy. The fireworks were especially good this year, but I was kind of bummed they wouldn't let us down onto the field. After the game, we went to sconecutters and watched Be Kind, Rewind. I love the summer holidays!

I love this pic

The girls with Romney in the background

Park City

In August, we went to Park City with my family. It was a fun little getaway- we got to go swimming and watch the Olympics. This was kind of the first vacation Zach had been on with my family so it was great to get to do that. We did something really cool that I had never done in Park City. After we shopped on Main Street, we went up the ski lift for an hour-long ride. The city is so beautiful, I couldn't believe it. We ate at delicious Baja Cantina, which we always do when in Park City. I also love to shop at the Outlets and get a caramel apple at Rocky Mountain.

Main Street

From the Ski-lift

Pretty City

Going Brown!!

In all my craziness, I decided it was time for a change, so I dyed my hair. Kind of different!

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER!!

This really has been such a great summer- we have had a blast working together at the Patch, going on vacations and just hanging out; but we're really ready for the fall and school to start. Football season's up next!

John Mayer: Guitarist, singer, love of my heart.

2008-08-02T07:47:00.000-07:00

On July 21st, one of my lifelong dreams came true. John Mayer came to USANA and Ally and I went to see him. I've realized that most people either love John Mayer and know absolutely everything or could care less that he were alive. I am definitely on the side of knowing as much as possible and loving it all. Colbie Caillat opened for him and she was actually really awesome. There was only one song that I didn't recognize at the show and it must have been from his trio CD because that's the only one that I don't know by heart. He played Vultures, Belief, that trio song, Daughters, Neon, a Free Falling cover, I'm Gonna Find Another You, Stitched Up, Waiting on the World to Change, Good Love is On the Way, Gravity, Say, a George Harrison cover, and he finished with Bigger Than My Body. Fantastic. The only complaint I had was that he didn't play any of my top five songs which are: St. Patrick's Day, Clarity, Dreaming with a Broken Heart, 3X 5, and Comfortable. I loved every minute of the show and we got sweet shirts to commemorate our first JM experience. We vowed to next time to actually sit in the seats and not on the lawn.

Zach's Favorite Things

2008-07-04T01:28:00.000-07:00

1. Shoes, hats, and watches. An ongoing love. Zach is almost a girl in these categories. He has more shoes than I do. He absolutely loves Nixon watches and has three, and he thinks he needs to buy a hat every time he sees one.

2. Pimp My Ride. We’ve been watching this lately especially when there’s nothing else on. We think it’s strangely fascinating and Zach thinks Xzhibit is awesome.

3. Heroes. We are on the last disk—finally! And like I posted before, it is SO GOOD. Me and Zach would both choose to have Claire’s power of spontaneous generation, or I guess Peter’s power, and then you basically could have anyone’s powers.

4. If you haven’t ever had gelato you live in a cave. This is what we discovered. Belissimo Gelato just opened recently in West Bountiful and it is delicious, but before we had one close to us we go with Zach’s parents to Citta Gelato in Sandy. Zach always gets one with berries in it. I think coconut is the best.

5. Wings and ribs. Zach would eat buffalo wings and ribs for every meal. He craves Winger’s wing sauce and Frank’s sauce nightly. He loves to have Wing Friday and pull out the deep frier and make our own. His next aspiration is to perfect his rib making skills on the grill. The other day we were talking about what we would love to have the other surprise us with. I said things like flowers, a clean house, clothes, girly things like that. He said wings and ribs.

6. If you know Zach, you know he loves BYU football. I had to throw this one in because it consumes his life. If you have seen the movie Fever Pitch, then you feel my pain. Jimmy Fallon with the Red Sox is Zach with BYU football. (If this confuses you, see the movie. It's actually a really good show.) My engagement present from Zach’s parents was my own season ticket. We went to every home game last year and three away games. If Zach isn’t watching a game, he’s watching a recording of an old game. If neither of those are available, he’s on cougar board or total blue, or watching highlights of a recruit, or reading an article. He updates me everyday on the new guys that have committed.

7. If you haven’t been to Paradise Café yet, you definitely have to get over and try the Tomato Basil soup. Zach always gets the chicken artichoke panini and I get the half paradise club and tomato soup and he eats half my bowl of soup. (At the Citta Gelato they make tomato basil bisque that he also loves, it's also delicious and just a little spicier.) The best part about it is that all I heard for the first eight months we were married is that soup is gross. He wouldn’t step foot in Paradise Café because he thought it was chick food, but I finally got him to go with me when it was my choice for lunch and now he can’t get enough. The best part- they give you a cookie for dessert with your meal.

8. Zach loves the fourth of July. He looks forward to it more than Christmas I think. He is very patriotic- I guess that's what living in a foreign third-world country for two years does to you.

9. He said I need to be on his favorite things list. How cute is that. Now I feel bad I didn't put him on mine.

These are a few of my favorite things....

2008-06-27T00:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while and I thought to myself... do I have to post only about our vacations? This is my blog! I forget that I can post whatever I want, even if it is random. So here are some of the things we are really into lately....

Ashley:

1. Turtle pecan cluster Blizzards from Dairy Queen. You have to get it with the extra stuff even if it does cost an extra 50 cents. I promised Zach that I would limit myself to twice a week. I already went last night and tonight. Does this mean I have to wait until next Wednesday for one??

2. Treats in general. I always feel like a treat. Rainbows from Pace's, Red Vines, cookies from subway, anything will do.

3. Heroes. If you haven't seen it, borrow it from somebody, rent it, buy it if you have to- it is that good. Zach has been done with the fifth disk for some time now and has been waiting for me to catch up so we can move on to the sixth disk together, but I haven't had a lot of time. Zach is out cold and I am watching it as we speak.

4. FHE and Office Nights with friends. I found myself really missing have family home evening with everyone when we were in Lava. I am excited for Whitters to give the lesson next Monday. Tonight at Ben's was so much fun. We played Imaginiff and Guitar Hero. Everytime we all get together it's a blast and I laugh the entire night.

5. So You Think You Can Dance and The Bachelorette. I have a confession to make. Reality TV shows are my guilty pleasure. I love almost all of them at least a little bit. Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights are the best though, because my favorites are on. I am fascinated by the choices DeAnna makes every week and that Jesse is still around. I am pretty sad she got rid of Graham... he was a looker! SYTYCD is on two nights a week! Are you kidding me?? I love that. I was really mad that Chelsi got voted off this week; I love her! I was hoping she would be around longer. Will is my favorite guy dancer. He blows me away everytime he moves and he is incredible at everything. The two Chelsie's are my favorite girls. I hope the other Chelsie stays on for a bit. Katee surprises me more and more every week.

6. Maddox Restaurant in Brigham City. I haven't been there in probably 4 years and we went on the way home from Lava. Oh. My. Gosh. I got a top sirloin steak, baked potato, and salad, but the best part is the raspberry honey butter and rolls. I lost count with how many I ate. I am planning a date night there very soon.

7. Back scratches. Or rather back tickles. Zach has been a saint lately when I ask him to tickle my back. He will do it for half an hour sometimes. Pure heaven. What a wonderful man.

St.George Sunshine

2008-06-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

Zach's parents have a timeshare in St. George and they weren't able to use it so we excitedly took the opportunity. It was the first time we have been able to go since we have been married. We went down by ourselves and spent the first day watching Heroes (which is our new favorite show... so good!), swimming, and doing a whole lot of nothing. It was awesome! Creighton and Summer came up the next night and said they had drove through a snowstorm! We couldn't believe it. It is June after all! We got a lot of time to lay by the pool and I learned that I have a new favorite hobby. I absolutely love tennis. Who would have guessed. We also ate at In-N-Out twice, went shopping at the Outlets, and went skimboarding with Zach's new self-given birthday skimboard. Creighton and Summer got new boards too; I have one at home so I didn't get one. We were out on the river skim'n until we were exausted and dehydrated. We were sad to leave as usually happens with the end of a vaca but we were so glad we got some time away to play in the sun, especially since it was so rainy back at home.

Wedding Photo Slideshow. August 18, 2007.

2008-05-27T19:44:00.001-07:00

Washington D.C.

2008-05-23T23:38:00.000-07:00

So, we are officially moved back to Bountiful with the Parentals. We are having a good attitude about it and so are my parents. It will be interesting to see how things pan out and how we all adjust to having 6 people under one roof.

Right after moving in, we jumped an allnighter plane to Washington D.C. to visit Zach's sister Mareille and her darling family. The flight was, needless to say, the worst ever. We left at 11:15 at night and didn't get there until 10:30 the next morning because it was 4 hours to New York, a 4 hour layover, and another hour and a half flight to Virginia. We were exhausted. On the plane they gave us these awesome "shut-eye kits" which we took advantage of as you can see in the picture. Once we got there we took a two hour nap and got straight to sight-seeing. We saw the Holocaust Memorial Museum. We were too tired to do much else. We got up early the next morning and went to the National Archives (where the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are), the Vietnam War Monument, WWII Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial. My favorite of the day was the National Archives. I felt like I was straight out of "National Treasure" and I was going to see Nicholas Cage any moment. Later that night we went to the Arlington Cemetary where JFK is buried and there is the tomb of the unknown soldier. It was so cool to walk around and see the millions of graves. After all the walking around, we ate at this really good burger place where all burgers are half-off on Monday nights and I got delicioius onion rings with it. So good. Mareille and Chad eat there all the time on Mondays. Mareille and I decided we had to get some shopping in while we could and we went to the mall while Chad and Zach went to see Iron Man. I got some sweet sunglasses.

Tuesday morning Mareille and I got up super early to get tickets for the Bureau of Printing and Engraving to see how money is made, and tickets to go to the top of the Washington Monument. As we were going in to the money place, I saw a million signs saying they would confiscate your camera and film and basically lock you up if you took any pictures. Somehow though, halfway through the tour I forgot that bit of information and snapped a pic of Mareille, Ella, and Lukers. All of a sudden the tour guide started yelling at me on her microphone in front of the entire tour to delete my photo. I looked down into the glass windows below and three men were running toward me and pointing at me. I thought I was going to be taken away in handcuffs for sure. I immediately deleted it and they let me off. It was the scariest thing ever! After we went and got Potbelly's which is a good little sandwich place and ate at the Washington Monument. We went to the top of it and saw the entire city. Since we were going home the next day, we had to see the last monument so we got some dinner at Five Guys, which is a lot like In-N-Out Burger and we are getting one in Utah soon, and then they dropped me and Zach off together at the Jefferson Memorial. The sun was setting and it is right on the Patomac River. It was so beautiful and by far our favorite part of the whole trip. We loved it.

In the morning we ran up to the Capitol but missed the tickets so we just walked around a bit. We had lunch in Old Alexandria and fed the ducks with Luke and Ella. Ella kept spitting at the ducks and chasing them- it was so hilarious. We needed to be back for Mother's Day at the Flower Patch so it was time to go home. The flight home was a lot better because it wasn't all night long. We came home to a messy, unpacked room and it was back to real life. It was a really fun, packed together trip and I'm so glad we went. It was totally worth it.

Mesquite Getaway

2008-05-14T21:50:00.000-07:00

So it was decided randomly, that for Spring Break, we would road trip it to Mesquite with our good friends Creighton and Summer to soak up some sun. You can't beat the proximity to home and low prices on hotels ($30 a night!). I spent as much time in the sun as possible, as it was hard to come by back in Logan. Zach was busy being a square and doing a lot of homework. He likes to be a smarty pants. He got really excited about the 25 cent buffalo wings in the Oasis with 8 different sauces, so we stopped by to try them out. (I got the boneless chicken wings.) They turned out to be really good and we will be sure to get them next time we're out. It was so much fun to just get away and Creighton and Summer are a blast to hang with. This is a pic of Zach and Creighton with plastic halloween teeth. They went to the store by themselves to get some pool toys and came back with the teeth. Apparently that's what happens when we let the guys do the shopping.

2008-01-18T14:52:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of me and Zach at Silver Lake at night. (That's why you can't see the background.) This was taken while we were engaged.