Back to school . . . back to school . . .

"Back to school.  Back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm not a fool.  I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight!  Back to school . . . back to school.  Well, here goes nothing!"

As we get back into the grind of things, we have already started to miss summer break.  Not that it was much of a summer to begin with, but nonetheless, 20 credit quarters and a 20 hour work week is never really anything to look forward to.  Due to the stupidity that is the University of Washington, I am not going to school this quarter, but rather I am working (a lot) to fill the time.  Andrew is a crazy person taking 4 senior classes, and loving them, of course.  Because he has little to no control over what I say here, I'd like to add that he has been on the Dean's list for the past 2 quarters and I am SO proud of him!  We both graduate next year (I know, finally)!  We are looking forward to new adventures to come!

Just to preface the following picture, you all need to know that Andrew whined to me (really, he whined) about not having a 'first day of school' outfit.  Since he only went to 2 of his 4 classes on the technical first day, we *argued (see definition below) about getting TWO first day of school outfits.  He walked out of the store with ONE outfit (we all know who has the final say).  And to preface the preface, my mom used to make us stand in front of the bus every year on the first day of school so she could take our pictures.  I road the bus to school until my junior year of high school . . . need I say more?  So I made Andrew do the same kind of thing.  Please note the cute little lunch box, which had a delicious, healthy lunched packed into it, and his slightly weighted down backpack home to the brand new Macbook Pro.  We are now accepting donations to help pay for the medics I needed when he swiped our card at the Apple store.

. . . "Come on, Andrew, give me a good smile" . . .

Getting into his car 

And because I couldn't leave this face out of a blog post, here's me in my snazzy "no one will EVER see you, but at least you look nice" work attire. I cheated and took the picture today . . . like my new hair cut and glasses?

*"To argue" in this case means to banter lovingly and laugh over how ridiculous the other person is, it by no means has anything in common with the actual definition

A not-so-surprise birthday party

So I'm kind of terrible at keeping secrets.  I actually went nearly 4 weeks without spilling the beans about Andrew's 25th surprise birthday party, but just because it didn't actually come out of my mouth doesn't mean squat.  I'm a rookie!  What can I say?  I invited all of his friends (all the good ones came) and his entire family (they all came, so I suppose they're all good).  Just to list the mistakes I made when planning this event . . .

1. I left the invitation list and addresses out on our computer desk
2. I left the INVITATIONS out on the bathroom counter
3. I was too nonchalant about what he wanted to do for his birthday.  He knew I wouldn't NOT plan anything, so when it was 1 day before his birthday and I still didn't have anything in mind, he just played it off
4. He decided to vacuum one of a whole 5 times since we've been married, and the vacuum caught the handle of the plastic bag under our bed holding all of the decorations
5. I was TOO worried that the cake wouldn't be big enough for the "four" people that were coming over . . . not to mention I was freaking out about having it done before his birthday, even though he insisted I could make it ON the day of his birthday.  Did I mention I made a RED VELVET CHEESECAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING?  It was delicious.

Needless to say, he knew what was going on, but was really sweet in acting surprised when it actually happened.  As a side note, he didn't know the party was going to happen the night of his birthday, but rather the next day.  So when it did, he was a LITTLE surprised.

The big TWENTY FIVE was a great one for Andrew, despite the ruckus.  I am determined to (someday) pull off an awesome surprise party.

He went to this Beastie Boys concert and bought this exact shirt, but it was ruined in the wash the same week he bought it (I won't mention any names), so he was excited to "get it back"  *Notice the Cubs snuggie

A reenactment

A game Andrew's family plays called, "Heavy Heavy Hangover"

Andrew with Chris & April's kids: Skylar, Tanner, and Ainsley

"What do you mean it's a twin?"

Lets start out by admitting that I am not a camping-type person.  Don't get me wrong; I love the outdoors and all of the beautiful things nature offers.  That said, I can't stand being dirty, being eaten alive by mosquitoes, having moths fly in and out of my face, ants and beetles crawling over my feet . . . you get the picture.  All that being said, I still agreed to go camping with my eagle scout.  If you assumed I've never been camping, then you're wrong.  I used to go all of the time whilst growing up, but we had a camper.  I can wind up the top, pull out the beds, and even put it all away again, but hand me a windbreaker and a few poles, and I'll look at you like you're crazy, which is exactly what happened when we arrived.  I've NEVER slept in a tent.  The closest I've come to sleeping outdoors are the summer nights my siblings and I would spend on the trampoline under the stars.

We drove THREE hours to get to the Cascades at the Newhalem campground sites. It was a much needed weekend getaway and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together.  We got to the campgrounds fairly early, with enough time to set up the tent and get dinner started before it got dark.  The fun really started after Andrew and I drove down to the restrooms to blow up the air mattress (really roughing it, I know).  He walked out of the bathroom with a sly grin on his face and held up the mattress we were promised was a queen.  Promise broken . . . it was a twin.  My first thought was "poor Andrew, he had to drive all day and now he has to sleep on the ground tonight."  Turns out when you're cold enough, it is possible to fit two fatties on a twin mattress!  Sleeping arrangements aside, we had a great time.  The drive was worth it.  Even though we came home even more tired than we were when we left, we had made some pretty fun memories.

Here's some proof I actually enjoyed myself . . .

Muscle man!

Beautiful waterfall we saw

Andrew being a little artsy

That's what I call a stud!

He insisted he needed a fanny pack for our .5 mi hike

Poor Madagascar . . . this is why Andrew hates playing games with me

More than a legal document

It's been 2 years since we tied the knot, so I thought I'd make an account of what comes with being married (from a woman's point of view).

1. Tax benefits
2. Not having to worry about STD's
3. Longer lives
4. 2 cars
5. More money (but coincidentally, more bills too)
6. Responsibility
7. Someone you're not too embarrassed to fart around
8. Movie night, every night
9. More friends
10. Weight gain
11. Your own furniture
12. A junk drawer
13. More laundry
14. An X-box, Playstation, and Wii
15. Someone to take you on a date
16. A BBQ'er
17. Endless laughs
18. A study partner
19. Chicago propaganda that takes the form of hats, shirts, posters, blankets, aprons, grill covers, snuggies, license plate covers, and bobble-heads
20. I'm going to get sentimental on you . . . someone to grow old with

There you have it!  If you ever had doubts about getting married, be stilled.

If I had to choose one word to describe the past two years, it would be "I-wouldn't-change-a-thing-about-it!"  We celebrated with a picnic and a day full of stinky, lazy, camera hogging animals at the Seattle zoo!

If there were ever any doubts about evolution . . .

Moto Moto!

We did see non-primate animals, but these were the best pictures

Golden burfday

I have been waiting for this year since I can remember.  I have dreamt what it might feel like to turn 22 on the 22nd.  In case anyone didn't get the pleasure of experiencing this joy, due to young age, pure ignorance of the special day, or any other despicable reason, let me share how awesome it truly was.

To begin my day, I put on my birthday shirt.  It isn't obviously inappropriate, but if you've seen the movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," which happens to be one of our favorite movies, you'll understand that for the sake of keeping this blog PG, I'm not going to release the graphic.  After sulking for a few minutes because Andrew had better things to do (school and work) than spend my glorious day with me, I realized I had better things to think about.  Like . . . CHEESECAKE!  I went upstairs to peak at the cheesecake I made for myself the night before.  My mom and my grandma are the only two people alive I would ever allow to make my birthday cheesecake.  When something tastes THAT good, and you only get it once a year, it has to be perfect.  Several people offered, but I refused.  I wasn't going to let anything happen to that delicious cake-o-cheese.  I also couldn't lose sight of that recipe.  Only 3 people on this earth have copies of this piece of heaven.  The world wouldn't know what to do with themselves if something this lethal was released.  So, I stared with hungry eyes as I dreaded the 10 hours I had to wait before cutting into it.  

The day went by fairly slowly . . . did some laundry, made the bed, you know, normal people stuff.  I went to work, made some $$$, and came home to a pretty low key evening.  I opened presents (which consisted of . . . a dark wood jewelry chest (and some jewelry to fill it, of course), a scale from Ray and Marcia (yeah, I got the hint), some cute pj's from mom, and lots of other great stuff.  The highlight of my day was, obviously, the cheesecake.  It was everything I knew it would be!

The real fun started the next day, with a trip up to Pike's Place market.  Andrew bought me the most beautiful bouquet of flowers.  We also meandered around and ate lots of fresh fruit samples (YUM) and had a wonderful dinner at Buca di Beppos.

All in all, it felt great to get another year under my belt.  I missed my family in Wyoming terribly.  It was my first birthday away from home.  For that reason, I wasn't so sure I liked growing up.  But, I suppose I'm wising up . . . hopefully!

The cheesecake, in all its glory

Opening presents!

More presents

Take me out to the ball game!

So I am really behind.  I'm going to make a few posts and catch up on what we've missed so far.

Back in June (I know) we went to my first Cubs game!  I must mention that I wasn't allowed to go until I had learned at least part of the roster.  If anyone knows anything about Andrew, they'd know he would practically give his life for a Chicago team, and therefore I had to know whom he might become the sacrificial object for.  Andrew had been planning this since the day the new season was posted.  He thought he was going to get to go to all 3 games, but I'm a terrible wife and he only got to go to one.  In my defense, he got ANOTHER Chicago shirt out of the deal, so I guess I'm not that bad, am I?  Cheer as we might, the Cubbies still lost, but we had a great time and chowed down on some of that delicious Safeco Field kettle corn.

I like the clean lines in the baseball field - probably part of my OCD

My new hat, Andrew's new shirt . . .

Andrew's action shot!  He was so excited.

Andrew's brother Erik and our sister-in-law Jenny.  They (bribe-less-ly) sat next to us.  

A breath of fresh air

I thought I was going to be really good about this blog thing, and I could never understand why anyone would give up an opportunity to talk about themselves, but now I understand.  Life happens.  I'm sitting here with an open Psychology book (can you believe I will have read over 700 pages of textbook by the end of this class?!?!), procrastinating as always.  I have mastered *new term here people* "quality minimal effort."  I have found my calling as a student.

In between work, school, and homework we found some time to visit with our good friends Tony and Jamie, who were in Washington to visit Tony's family.  It was so nice to just be able to smell the Utah air on their jackets, and spend time with some "old" friends.  We took them to Pike's Place Market, where we (in fashion of poor college students everywhere) walked a lot.  I think there was fish and chips and some delicious ice cream in there somewhere, but leave it to the four of us to have fun whilst doing absolutely nothing. 

I love her!

And if he so happens to be reading this . . . Tony, you win, you were right about the shoes (picture posted for proof).

Other than that, nothing new has happened.  We promise to be a little more exciting this summer!