Tuesday, March 30, 2010

NC NC NC!

It's official. This...



...in 140 days! We bought our tickets today and we're stoked!

Today in Provo was one of those days where the pollution/inversion/disgusting mess/whatever you want to call it made it so you couldn't see the mountains looming over the valley. It makes us really excited to get out of Utah and head somewhere back east.

I've never really considered myself a Southerner, but I claim it a lot more now that I don't live at home. I can't help but smile when I see a car with a NC license plate (surprisingly, we find more Wisconsin cars than Carolina cars, including 2 others in our complex) and I'm really sad I have to give up my NC phone number soon. I miss home and we're super excited to go back and bring Jordan out here!

-Daniel and Jenn

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Sundaes

Daniel is playing Zelda and I'm about to finish a paper and I am really just ready to turn in these projects and call it good. The end of the semester is so close but March just lasts FOREVER and we get so burned out. Daniel's on top of things so he can relax and play Wii, but I have 5 more pages to write before I go to bed.

On the bright side, I totally spaced on Friday and completely, totally, 100% FORGOT about a project I had due in one of my classes. I e-mailed the teacher and asked if I could turn it in on Monday for partial credit and she told me I could turn it in without penalty. Needless to say, it pretty much made my weekend. We also got to go to Emily's baptism yesterday and eat good food afterwards and were invited to watch Conference at Grandma Larson's next weekend and Daniel's going to the Priesthood session and I'm going to hang out with the girls. We have tickets for Sunday afternoon, so it'll be nice to just hang out and get away for the weekend, even if we don't go very far.

We also went to Guitars Unplugged last night at the Covey Center and it was a good show. The last few acts were kind of slow and sad though, I feel like the people who organized the list of performers could have done a better job. By far the coolest group was two brothers on acoustic and a third guy on the accordion. Their song was called Take Me To The Zoo and the opening line was, "Tie me up with chains / Put me in a box / Take me to the zoo" and it was from the zoo animals' perspective that they don't really do anything when the humans are watching for fear of their reaction. The chorus had a line that went, "Humans are the deadliest of all," and I thought it was a very cool Ludo-ish sound that slightly mocked the human race but I still liked it.

In the short amount of time between the end of Winter semester and the beginning of Spring term, we're going to hike Timpanogos and spend a day hanging out in Salt Lake. Even though I don't want to raise a family in Utah, I would be just fine with retiring in SLC. I love the city feeling and being close to family and an airport.

I've also come to a startling realization: I'm ok with Daniel going to Duke for med school (*collective gasp*). I mean, I want him to go somewhere he'll enjoy and get a good education and graduates only have about $3,000 more debt that UNC students, and that was my whole argument to begin with. So yeah, I will always think Duke is puke, but if it makes Daniel a good doctor, then so be it.

-Daniel and Jenn

PS: If you know anyone who is engaged/about to be engaged, of the girls I visit teach makes amazing invitations/announcements!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Procrastination!

I have a massive assignment due tomorrow for my least favorite class, so instead of working on it, I'm blogging. Yay! Here are some good time wasting videos...

This one, this one, and this one

-Jenn

PS: Lost is my new thing.

Monday, March 22, 2010

A Small Survey

So we're taking a small survey, check it out!

When you were a baby, did your parents keep you in their bedroom, or were you in your own room from the beginning? If yes, how long were you in mommy and daddy's room?

We're getting a head start on plans for next year when we move; we're trying to decide if we should get a one bedroom apartment and then move when I get pregnant, or just start off with a two bedroom place...

-Daniel and Jenn

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

One Day

We cannot get enough of THIS



-Daniel and Jenn

Monday, March 15, 2010

Ramblings...

It seems lately that all of my married friends are pregnant/trying to get pregnant. Every week in Relief Society during our Good News Minute at least one lady announces she is expecting. And then your good news just seems silly after that, because really, who can compete with the miracle of life? Daniel and I aren't planning to expand our family any time soon, I want to be done with college and work for a little bit, but it's crazy to think that I could technically get pregnant in the fall and still be good with the whole finish-college-first thing.

Daniel is working hard on his med school application (it's nice because it's just one giant application and you send it out to whatever school you want) and even though applications don't open up until June 1, he can still work on it so it's all ready to go in June. It's all kind of becoming real that this time next year we'll be packing up and moving out. I'll be finished with school and looking for work and Daniel will be starting something he's really passionate about. I love Provo, but it's definitely a college town and I'm excited to go somewhere with culture (Chapel Hill, Durham, Madison, etc.). Plus everything closes at like 10pm in Provo which is dumb.

My dad is starting a NCAA bracket and I'm doing one for the first time. It's not for money or anything, just bragging rights really, and West Virginia is going to take it all. Daniel think that if Duke wins it's a sign that he needs to go there for med school, so I don't really care if WV wins as long as it's not Duke!

Ke$ha + Star Wars = This

-Jenn (Daniel didn't really have much say in this one)

Friday, March 12, 2010

Props, Hooks, and Oranges

In order to prove that I don't just blog on Mondays about the previous weekend, here's a Friday post. Mind blown? Good, let's continue...

So on Wednesday I was TA-ing with Kimball and Corinne. I had just finished my row of students when I saw a girl looking at the married housing section of the Cougar Rentals website. Cougar Rentals happens to host all the Parkside openings (as well as other married apartments), so I walked over and said, "I don't mean to be creepy, but I live in Parkside and I love it!" She got all excited and started asking me all of these questions and I said, "And Corinne lives there too, let me get her over here." So I called Corinne over and we're having this conversation about Parkside and how much we love it and answering this girl's questions and Kimball comes over thinking we have this massive research problem! He wasn't mad or anything, I just thought it was pretty funny. The girl is a freshman and her fiance is a junior (sounds familiar...), maybe I'll see them around come fall.

Also on Wednesday I went to my 195 class where we talked about networking and having a "hook" (basically something to go off of once you get your foot in the door). The teacher started calling out names of students in the class and mine was one of them. He then told us that our e-mail addresses were our hooks, and had us tell the class where ours came from. It's funny, I always thought yankeydoodle89 was sort of silly and I was planning on getting a new one once I started applying for jobs and stuff, but I guess I shouldn't, it's a good conversation starter at least!

Growing up in my house, our main fruit staples were apples, bananas (thank you Gwen Stefani), and grapes. Daniel grew up with all of those, plus a few others. He's introduced me to some that are alright, but recently we've been eating oranges like no other. I always have Daniel peel them because I don't really know how, but I made our lunches today and managed to do an ok job! You can get a bag of oranges for a few bucks at Smith's, and we usually buy a new bag every week. Oranges are delicious and good for you, and I'm glad we can find decent ones when we're so far inland. They're also really useful when you have a sick hubby who consistently forgets to take his vitamins...

-Daniel and Jenn

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Mmm...Weekend

This weekend was exactly what we needed before more midterms. Friday morning was super snowy but luckily the sun came out around 3:00pm. I had already worked all of my hours, so I took a test and then splashed home in the melting snow (it was perfect rain boot weather!). I took Ruggles to this place called PC Laptops and they told me some guy in Salt Lake would be willing to fix him! It'll cost about $250, but that's way cheaper than buying a new laptop. I'm so glad I finally found someone to help me! Friday night we went to the volleyball game and beat Pepperdine 3-1, then we went to bed because we were really tired.

Saturday we slept in for the first time in forever. It was really nice to just lie in bed without having to worry about class. Daniel went to the lab and I cleaned the house/did laundry, then went to J Dawgs and picked up some lunch for us. I surprised Daniel at the lab and hung out with him a little bit, then went grocery shopping. I spent less than $100, yay! I picked Daniel up and we unloaded the groceries, then we went to Thai Ruby for dinner. Oh. My. Goodness. If I had to pick one Provo restaurant to take with me whenever we leave, it'd probably be Thai Ruby. Or maybe Spicy Corea. But Thai Ruby is definitely up there. Their lemongrass soup is like a fireworks show in your mouth and the curry is amazing. It was the best meal we've had in a long time!

After dinner we went to the mall and browsed some stores. All of the spring clothes are out and it makes me happy! I'm super excited that turquoise is a popular spring color so I can wear my wedding shoes more often! After the mall we went home and made homemade chocolate chip ice cream and watched some stuff on Netflix (Netflix completes my life). The ice cream wasn't all the way solid, so we tossed it in the freezer and it's awesome now!

Today Daniel went to the hospital and I did more laundry. We stayed for the first 2 hours of church, then left for Sandy for dinner at Grandma Larson's. Everyone was there tonight and it was so great to just hang out with all of the family. On Friday the adults are going to Famous Dave's for Mark's birthday, I'm excited for some BBQ!

When we got back to our apartment, we found someone in our parking spot (it really is a coveted spot, we lucked out). We parked on the street and I wrote a note and stuck in on the car's windshield. Daniel says it won't do anything, but I felt better after doing it. The last time someone parked there and I wrote a (somewhat heated) note, our upstairs neighbors brought us cookies and apologized and I am now one of her Visiting Teachers. The note I left tonight was much nicer and hopefully won't be as humbling an experience.

The end of the semester is getting closer and closer and I'm so excited! I'm really looking forward to my spring/summer classes and the warmer weather. The end of the semester also means I'm just a few months away from going home! We're super close to buying our tickets and I can't wait for it to be official. I would start a countdown, but that would just make it worse...

163.

-Daniel and Jenn

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

March!

So it's been a crazy last few days and this weekend we can finally relax!

I had lunch with Michelle on Friday, we stayed at the MOA for an hour and a half just talking and eating delicious MOA food. Then I went home and did some laundry and cleaned the bathroom, then I picked up Michelle and Cory and we met Daniel and the tennis match. We pretty much whooped University of San Francisco, and we got free pizza so that was nice. Daniel and I went grocery shopping and only spent $50, yay for coupons and cheap meals!

Saturday was ward temple day, so we met up for the 9am session and had a fabulous time! After that we went home and got all Cougar-ed out for the basketball game against New Mexico! It was super intense and we played so well, but we lost 83-81. New Mexico is a good team, if we were going to lose to someone, it would be them. We did beat Utah 71-51 tonight though, which is pretty nice. Saturday night was Stake Conference, Daniel and I got there 15 minutes before it started and we were only on the first row of folding chairs (if you don't get there an hour before back home, you're pretty much on the stage). We signed for a during it and I watched all the cute babies.

Daniel got up super early to go to the hospital on Sunday, his shift usually goes from 8am-12pm, but since we had Conference at 10am, he went in at 7am for a couple hours. He didn't complain about having to get up, which I was very surprised and grateful for (I usually have to roll him out of bed!). Conference was great and it was really nice to have the rest of the afternoon to Home/Visit Teach. I had so much fun that I forgot about a paper due on Monday. Whoops...

This week has been pretty good, made even better by the return of our shows (we realized during the Olympics that all we watch is NBC) and the second season of Scrubs from Netflix (seriously, Netflix is amazing!).

Also, thanks to the handy dandy 100 hour board, I found out I can probably get Ruggles fixed for like $100 instead of $450! After I dominate my Brit Lit test on Friday, I will take a drive up to PC Laptops and have them check it out.

We are super close to purchasing tickets to go home in August! I'm so excited!

If you love Christian Siriano...


-Daniel and Jenn