Food, Family, & Football

Well bloggers, I'm back at it. After an extremely stressful week of finals that involved multiple nights of Mountain Dew Code Red, (which is the good stuff for helping me stay awake, reserved only for special occasions) staying up until 6 am to study and waking up at 8 am to go take tests, and having absolutely no time to even think about anything other than studying, I am finally home. And by home I mean Pennsylvania. I haven't been to Pennsylvania since I got married, about a year and 4 months ago. Is it horrible of me to say that the thing I missed most was the food? Cause it's totally true. Other than my family, of course. Since I've been back, we've been making the rounds between all of our favorite restaurants. For all of you out there that are reading, Old Forge, the town next to where I grew up, has THE BEST Italian food and pizza. It's unbelievable and I totally crave it when I have to resort to domino's in Utah. 

Other than food, we've been doing some fun things as a family. Since 5 out of the 6 of us kids are still in college, it's pretty rare when we're all together. This Christmas, we were all able to be in Pennsylvania for the holidays, so it has been pretty fun. We had a family game night a few nights ago, playing one of our favorite games, pegs and jokers, and by the time the game was almost through, we all hated each other haha. We get pretty intense when we play games. We've also kept up with some family Christmas traditions, like going to the movies on Christmas, opening a present on Christmas Eve, having our family Christmas party the day after Christmas, going ice skating, etc. It has been pretty fun so far. The only thing we haven't done that was the only thing I REALLY wanted to do while I was home was go to New York City. I am so bummed about it. I wanted to go see the Christmas lights, go to Serendipity, and go ice skating at Rockefellar Center. Oh well, there's always the next time we're here for Christmas. Hopefully that same year we can go to Times Square for New Years Eve... Crossing my fingers that I can get Taylor on board for that one so I can check it off the bucket list. 

And right now? Well, right now, the hubs, dad, and myself are eating boneless wings and watching the BYU vs Washington football game on tv. Really hoping that BYU comes out on top! Fingers Crossed! Merry Christmas bloggers!

Today I am Thankful

So I know this post is about 2 weeks too late, but better late than never right? I just wanted to share an experience that happened on Black Friday when I was at work. Right after we closed, I was sweeping. Under one of the tables was a notepad with a child's handwriting that said, "I'm thankful for the great life I have and just for breathing." It was just so humbling to me to read those words and know that a child wrote them. For children, it's so simple. I think adults need to have that kind of mindset. How often do we stop and think about the simple things, like being thankful for every breath that we take? If you're like me, a full-time college student, worker of 2 jobs, and a newlywed, probably not very often. Life is busy, but it's important to pause and be grateful for all that we have. So today, I'd like to take the opportunity to list just a few (in a very large list of things) that I'm thankful for.

Freshly fallen snow

Family

Friends

Good books 

Laughter

The sweet boy that I tutor

My amazing husband

Christmas music

The gospel

Oversized sweaters/ shirts

Boots

Scented candles

Netflix & cuddling

Hot Cocoa with marshmallows

What are you thankful for? Happy Monday....Well I guess Tuesday, everyone!

Guess Who's Back?

I'm baaaack. Did you miss me? Don't answer that. So I have totally fallen off the face of the earth for the past few months, sorry bout that. But what can I say, life happens. I cannot believe that tomorrow I'm gonna be starting school again. I am totally dreading the thought of going back to school. However, I am really excited that I'll be taking my major classes that I'm actually interested in. No more generals for this girl, woohoo!

Life has been so busy lately, but I have had an awesome summer. I got the best job ever, working as an ABA Instructor for a 14-year old boy with language impairment. It is honestly the perfect job because I get to be creative in providing rewards/ incentives for when he does an awesome job or when I can tell he's trying really hard. I've only been working with him for about 3 months but I feel like I can already see him improving and it is awesome! He's also probably the sweetest kid you'll ever meet, which makes working with him that much better.

An exciting thing happened a few weeks ago, my best friend/ college roommate Roxanne was in Provo so I got to spend time with her. It had been far too long since we'd seen each other and we had a lot of catching up to do. We went for lunch and then went shopping :) It was nice to actually go shopping with another girl. Taylor despises going shopping, but he's the best and will come with me anyway- as long as I provide him with an incentive (a big Dr. Pepper). Once he has a big gulp in hand, he's like a little kid on Christmas. But Roxanne would actually tell me what she really thought about the clothes I picked out rather than saying, "Yeah that looks great" without actually looking up haha. But it was really nice to see her and remember all the fun things we did our first semester of college together. And the best thing about our friendship is that even though it had been forever since we'd seen each other, it wasn't awkward seeing each other again and finding things to talk about, it's like we were still roommates. That kind of friendship doesn't come around often and I am so blessed that I have a friend like that.

The hubs and I also took a roadtrip to Vegas last weekend to celebrate our (drumroll please) 1 year anniversary! 1 year of wedded bliss with this stud. ---------------->

 I am one lucky gal. :) We've both been so busy this summer that it was nice to just get away for a few days and spend time together. AND we got to see my mom and my sister, so it was a win-win. We saw the Bellagio Fountains, went to an art gallery, went to Count's Kustoms!, saw Caesar's Palace (huuuuge!), went ATV riding (funnest thing ever, check it out- http://americanadventuretours.com/), and Taylor and I got to do a helicopter ride above the vegas strip at night, which was awesome! We also discovered Thai food in Vegas, thanks to my cousin Brooke and her husband Troy, who took us to Lotus of Siam for dinner. Yummmmmy. We were sad to come back to work after such a fun weekend away, but it was definitely a good way to end the summer.

MORE exciting news is that my cousin Abby is now attending BYU and is on their gymnastics team! Woohoo, that is incredibly cool and Taylor and I can't wait to go see her meets! We were able to see her and her family over the last few days as they were moving her into her dorm and I'm so excited for her to be out here, she is going to looooove it and I'm going to love having her out here. :) Catch ya on the flipside!

Truly Inspirational

In the past week, I have been brought to tears more than once by things that have inspired me.
1. I was at the grocery store with the Mr. last week and we were looking through some movies and came across the movie "Fireproof." Taylor had seen the movie before, but I hadn't, so we decided to get it. For the last 30 minutes of the movie, there were continuous streams running down my face, but they weren't tears of sadness. I was so inspired by what the husband in the movie did for his wife, even when it seemed that all was lost. I don't want to say too much and give it away, but I kid you not, whether you are married or not, this is a MUST SEE movie, trust me.

2. Today as I was on Facebook, I came across a video clip that my cousin Janie shared. If you can spare about four minutes of your day to watch the clip, please do. It is so touching and I have included the video below. :) Happy Tuesday!