Kissaversary

Just FYI, we had our first kiss 6 years ago today! It all began Feb. 7, 2004, outside Joe's house. We know this thanks to journal entries. We also know, from said journal entries, that it was super cheesy and awkward! We were made for each other.

Happy Pancakes!

So I thought I'd post a small blog this morning because I made some delicious apple cinnamon pancakes and Rachel and I thought they were so very delectable! This is great, because I'm not a huge fan of regular/bland pancakes. Sorry, no photos, we were hungry. Also sorry, no recipe, I just throw a bunch of ingredients together and figure it out myself (I think I get that from Mom). But, you'll have to trust me, they were scrumptious.

On other news, we don't really have any. Rachel is working hard at her job. It's really rewarding for her. Her job recently began requiring certain trainings to be completed by the PSR workers (that's what she is). Today she was required to get defense/restraint training. I guess some of these kids can be really aggressive? I don't know. She doesn't get paid for this day of training, which sucks, but at the same time if she had to pay for it herself it would cost around $2000. So she's happy to do it with the rest of her co-workers today.

I'm in my last semester. It's going well. I'm taking Genetics, Old Testament (Joshua-Malachi), Fit for Life and Anatomy and Physiology. I'll try to say something interesting about each class (I said try).
1. Genetics is interesting. It's all about inheritance patterns. A simple way of putting it would be, "How'd you get red hair, when both of your parents have brown hair?" It gets so much more complicated than that. For example, how do Calico cats get their strange fur patterns? Various chromosomes in their "color" cells are inactivated, so they display multi-colored coats. It's much more complicated than I can explain in a blog. You might get bored.
2. I'm studying the second half of the Old Testament this semester. Last semester I studied the Torah (Genesis-Deuteronomy). It's a super informative class! I really enjoy the fact that I can take religion classes here. I've learned a ton about the Holy Land, the layout, the history, locations and boundaries. It makes Isaiah a lot more interesting. Right now we're studying about David's reign and fall. Something I never before considered, don't think I'm an idiot, David wasn't a prophet at all. He didn't even hold the Melchizedek priesthood. He didn't even hold the Aaronic Priesthood. I guess if I'd thought about it for a while, I'd have figured that out on my own, but it puts more perspective on his story, and personally I'm rooting for David, because I really want God to be merciful to me.
3. Fit for Life is a simple class where I learn about exercise and how it affects the body. I learn about the various types of exercise, how to exercise, and how to obtain good homeostasis. BYU-Idaho students also have access to a health center, where they give free Fitness Assessments. Outside my college it would cost me a lot of money to get one of those done. Anyway, I took one at the beginning of the semester and I'm scheduled for another at the end. In my class I'm required to work out at least 3 hours a week. This has been great for Rachel and I. I've been pretty active, running and lifting weights, doing workout videos and stuff. I feel more healthy!
4. Anatomy and Physiology is a good class I guess. Lab is really interesting, learning about all of the bones, muscles, nerve networks and yadda-yadda-yadda. Lecture is a different matter though. Most days I don't even know why I go. I took another class that taught me basically everything that we go over in lecture, but in greater detail. I feel really smart in the class, being able to answer just about every question with no studying, but it also feels like a waste of time.

Anyway, that's what's going on with us. Our plan is to work until September, then move to Portland. Chiropractic School starts in September. We're super excited to get out of Rexburg. This place has the most atrocious weather!

Holidays

It's been a while, so we're going to give a quick summary of the holidays and fun stuff since we last wrote in November.
First, I turned 23 on the 23rd of November! I ended up working a ton that day to make up for the days off I took for Thanksgiving, but it was still fun. After work, Rob made a delicious dinner of haystacks, then we went to a little cupcake cafe for dessert.

Later that week, we went to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving. Liz and her family were there, and Katie and Reuben were also. After Thanksgiving, Lindsey and Kyle showed up with their boys. We didn't take pictures of Thanskgiving, but we did have another birthday celebration for me there, complete with a Costco cake, my favorite.
We did after Thanksgiving shopping and got most of our Christmas presents while we were in Salt Lake. We came home and finished decorating our tree. Here is the finished product!

We spent Christmas in Sunnyside with Rob's family. We stayed at Tiffanie and Jeff's house (Rob's parents' old house) for the first couple of nights and spend Christmas morning with their family. Christmas day was spend with everyone at Tiffanie's playing games and eating lots of food. (We might add some more pictures later when we find some). We also spent a couple nights at Amber and Steve's. It was fun to spend time with everyone and we are excited for this fall when we will live closer to all of them.

Rob and I started our own family tradition of writing in a journal every Christmas. We bought our Christmas journal and wrote our first entry this year. We hope it will be a fun tradition for us and our future children to write about Christmas each year and add some pictures, and write about any major events or changes from that year. Also, we think it will be a good account of our family's main events over the years, since our personal journal habits are inconsistent :)

Christmas picture

When we were in Sunnyside, Rob and I got the chance to hang out with some of Rob's good buddies from high school, Skyler and Joe.

And I went to Diana's baby shower in Yakima and got to see Lindsey there too.

We stopped by my parents' house in Yakima since their renters had just moved out. It may have been the last time we'll be there, because they are planning to sell it.

We celebrated our 1st Anniversary in Sunnyside too! It's hard to believe it's been a year. We had frozen the top layer to our wedding cake and we ate some to celebrate.

For New Year's, we got together with some friends in our clubhouse and played games and barely made it to midnight without falling asleep. Since then, we have been getting back into the swing of things with work and school. We are working on our New Years Resolutions of eating healthier and getting in shape (we started adding Jillian Michaels DVDs to our routine and they are tough!). Things have been pretty busy but are settling down.

God's Everlasting Love

Rob here. So this was an eventful weekend for me. I went on tour with BYU-Idaho's combined chorus and orchestra to perform a special Oratorio entitled, God's Everlasting Love. See, according to many of the prophets of this dispensation, the greatest of music and art has yet to be discovered. They asked why Handel's Messiah has to be the greatest oratorio ever written. So, BYU-Idaho decided to create The Sacred Music Series. The idea of it is that, Handel was employed specifically to write The Messiah. The man who hired him provided everything for him so he could focus on the music. BYU-Idaho does this as well. They hire a composer and provide for him. This has happened every other year since 1992. This year the oratorio produced was God's Everlasting Love, text written by David A. Bednar.
I guess I just got lucky with my choice to join Men's Choir this semester. Anyway, we went to Twin Falls and then to Salt Lake on our tour. We got the opportunity to record in the Tabernacle, which was really cool. Actually, when we were changing into our performance attire, we used the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's dressing room. By total coincidence the locker I changed in happened to by my father-in-law's! How crazy is that?

So it was very fun. Anyway, I think the real reason I decided to write this blog was for the experience after the concert. So we left Salt Lake City around 9:30 or so. By the time we reached Tremonton the bus needed to be refueled. As soon as we stopped the bus's generator broke down. So we began the wait... 2 hours. It was about 1:00 when we got out of there. You might not have had this experience before, but I would not ever wish it upon anyone. There were a whole load of young single girls there and when they have to sit and wait they go completely nuts. On top of that, the guy next to me was taking up a seat and a half. I was about to snap. Finally the other buses on tour with us came back to help us out. I loaded onto the other bus, put on my headphones, covered my head with my coat's hood and took a short nap of about an hour. I awoke to Deliver Us from The Prince of Egypt Soundtrack. I'm getting to something, be patient. So there was a line that said, "There's a land you promised us. Deliver us, to the promised land." I'm not going to get all sappy or anything, but I started reflecting on home. I always tell people that I'm from Yakima, Washington. But, am I? I mean really? I'm married, and my parents don't even live there anymore. Yes, I grew up there. But, now I'm not from there anymore. My Mom and Dad grew up in Royal City, WA. But, they're not from there anymore. I guess I'm kind of from Rexburg now, sadly. That's where my home is. I'm from wherever Rachel and I live. I just really wanted to go home at that moment because home is peaceful and comforting. I missed my wife.
So when I got into Rexburg, my gracious wife came and picked me up. It was close to 4 in the morning. When we got home she totally surprised me! I had been talking about how I wanted our very own Christmas tree. She got this days ago and stored it in the trunk. While I was gone, Rachel, Katie and Roger put it up. Here's a picture with our very first Christmas Tree! (We are going to finish decorating it together later.)


So in conclusion, I love my wife. She is my life. God granted Israel deliverance because he loved them. He gave them a land to live in. Their deliverance was symbolic of salvation, and the promised land is symbolic of the Celestial Kingdom. Likewise, Christ offers me salvation and I now can receive the promise of the Celestial Kingdom; but I couldn't make it without her. I guess I could say that Rachel is my deliverance, she is my salvation. I love you, Rachel.

Halloween

We had a good Halloween weekend. We went to our friends' house for a party Friday night and dressed up as a flapper and gangster.

Us with Chris and Nicole. . . Rob and Chris knew each other from their mission and think alike apparently.On Halloween, we bought lots of candy and got no trick-or-treaters. We watched a scary movie and went to a party thrown by some members of our ward where we competed against each other in a jell-o heart 'snarfling' contest. Rob is the snarfle champ.

In other news, last weekend Rob helped me dye my hair and then we started a puzzle. Yeah, it was a Thousand-Piecer. Let me tell you, this thing was addicting. We spent hours at a time on it, listening to the History channel or Food Network in the background . . . Who says married people don't have fun?! We finished it in 3 days (Rob may or may not have skipped a class one morning when we were working on it).

The Masterpiece.

BFF

We were recently looking through old pictures on our computers, and found a bunch that we had forgotten about. We probably forgot about them on purpose because they were too hideous to post on facebook or anything. Anyway, as we were looking back on all the ugly photos that were too embarrassing to show to anyone, we realized how much we like them because they show how much fun we have together, as well as how comfortable we have always been together. We have been best friends for years, and we decided to make a little blog about our friendship, and include some of those never-before-seen pictures of grossness! Let's start back in High School . . .
High School
Most of the time, we hung out as a 4-some with Lindsey and Joe, but we have several good memories of just the two of us. For example:

• Once we went rollerblading together at the Greenway. Along the path, there were tons of stones recognizing contributors to the park. They were on the ground and looked just like gravestones. So, we spent our whole journey mourning the "deaths" of all of them. "Oh, poor Standard Paint and Abbey Carpet. Both of them?! Such a tragedy!" So embarrassing, but our favorite memory from back then.

• We had our first kiss outside of Joe's house when I was 17 and Rob was 18.
  

• My 16th birthday: After a stake dance, Lindsey and I decided to straighten Joe's curly hair and curl Rob's straight hair.
  

• Rob was Joseph in his high school's "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." I went to watch it a few times. Joe and Rob used to tease me about clapping my hands sideways or rubbing my legs when I was nervous or something. There was this one part of the play where Rob was in the front of the stage and all the other cast members were singing to him, and he was supposed to look a little uncomfortable. So, of course, he picked me out in the audience, looked me in the eye, and clapped his hands sideways, then rubbed his legs.

Mission
We wrote to each other occasionally throughout Rob's mission and sent a few tapes to each other. It wasn't until the last 6 months or so of his mission that we started writing consistently. Yesterday, we looked at some of the old letters we would write to each other, and they were so funny! We had the best letters. Even though we were only buddies during his mission, we always started our letters with the most awkward terms of endearment. Here is a sample of some of them:
Dear Sugarcake, Twinky Lips, Cottontail Bunnyfluff, Schnookums, Sweaty Pie, Sugarmuffin, Lovekins, Kissy-Wissy Lips, Wuffie Minkle Crinkle Drops. (We'll let you decide who came up with which of those) :)

Dating
We always had the best times together and were comfortable being totally dorky.

Morning Picture!

Lots of road trippin'!
We once decided to Simpsonize ourselves on some website . . .

Then thought it would be funny to dress up like our Simpson characters and take the following pic.

This picture of Rob cracks us up every time. It might be better if you enlarge it.

And we definitely tried taking super cheesy pictures of me and a rose one day.

We like to eat together

And we LOVE candy!

On the way back to college one year after Christmas, we decided to eat a chocolate Santa. It was messy. And we tried taking the grossest pictures we could!

Engagement

Definitely laughed too hard for any kissing pictures.

Marriage

We are so happy that we are not only in love, but we are also best friends for eternity!

Vacation 2: Cruise and Disney!

Our final vacation of the summer was our delayed honeymoon cruise! We had been waiting so long, and it was lots of fun. We took a 5-day cruise to Mexico. We were supposed to spend 2 days in Cabo San Lucas, but this dumb hurricane was going on there at that time. So our ship made it about 2/3 of the way there, then turned around and we instead went to Catalina Island and then Ensenada, Mexico.

Our ship

The few days we spent at sea were fun, and there was tons of stuff to do. They had shows, a hypnotist, karaoke. . . all kinds of stuff at all times. The first day or two, we were both pretty seasick, so that wasn't so great. But once we got some medicine, it was a lot better. Although after taking the medicine, we ended up doing a lot of this:But. . . since we felt better, we also did a lot of this:

Sleeping and eating. . . isn't that what vacations are all about anyway?! Okay, so we weren't total lazies. We kept busy. They had a Family Feud game one day and Rob was chosen to participate. After 19 weeks of the Boys' team losing in Family Feud (according to the cruise director), Rob won it for them. Here he is with his 24 karat solid plastic medal.Rob was also chosen to go on stage and be hypnotized. . . but it didn't work and he came back and sat down after a while. Don't worry though, he did kind of fake it while he was up there. Later he said that he wasn't sure if he was really hypnotized, so he just went for it. . . but then when he knew for sure that he wasn't, he went back into the audience.

Here are a few more pics from the ship:

beautiful sunsets

Catalina Island: really cute. It was fun to walk around this little town and go in all the shops.
Ensenada: Rob's first time outside of the US/Canada. We walked around town and did a little bargaining. We decided that instead of buying random souvenirs, we would start a tradition of getting a Christmas ornament from each place we visit, so that was our mission. We also found a local grocery store and that was fun. . . we bought some treats I remember from Spain.

This is what we look like in Mexico.

When our ship arrived back in California, we were ready for 2 more days of fun in Disneyland with Scott and Diana! We hit up all the good rides with almost no waiting in lines. We spent one day in Disneyland and the other in California Adventure. We really enjoyed both, and thanks to Scott and Diana for being our tour guides/chauffeurs! :)

Happiest place on earth

Best vacation ever. . . so far.

Sidenote: Right before we left for vacation, Rob turned 24! I finished work early and we celebrated by going to see the new Harry Potter movie, having dinner in Idaho Falls, and shopping for a new video game (he had an early birthday present a few weeks before: we found a good deal on a Wii with Rockband). It was a good day of celebrating. Rob is the best husband.

We're so lucky to have had such a fun summer together!