mikes deer

I have been really terrible at updating. i know. but mike went hunting for the first time a couple weeks ago and got a deer, so i guess its time. We have been crazy busy for the past few weeks, but here it is: Mike and his friend Jared went hunting and mike said he was shooting anything with horns :) Jared couldn't shoot a deer because he already got one, so it was all mike's. I'm assuming that not many people actually read this blog, so those who do have already heard the whole story. so mostly this is just for pictures. which again, everyone ha probably seen. anywho, enjoy!

MAN VS. MUD!!!

last saturday we did the man vs. mud 5K. we signed up months ago, and were really excited. we picked the team name "wasted potential"..... yeah, we think highly of ourselves! i wanted to try to get in the habit of running this summer because 1) i probably haven't been this out of shape ever, and 2) i thought it would be more fun if i wasn't dying the whole time. that never happened (surprise, surprise) but i thought it cant be that bad..... wrong-o!!! i thought i might die a few times along the way. and it didn't help that you had about 50 lbs. of mud caked to each shoe, and were dripping wet. yeah, if we do that again i will make sure to be more prepared for it! but it was super fun, and different than i expected. the mud was a lot more watered down than i thought it would be. which looking back i guess is a good thing cuz that meant less weight for my out of shape butt to lug around. :) there were TONS of people there which kinda sucked because everytime we got to the next obstacle we had to wait in line for a few minutes cuz they were really slow going. i was glad for the chance to catch my breath, but it made it that much harder to get going again. i'll use that as my excuse for why i had a hard time :) with that many people there that had to pay for registration, they must have made lots of money! hope it went to a good cause!!!!

the whole group waiting to start

Ashlee, Mike, and Me clean before we started

The very beginning of the race was a huge slip n' slide.

Me and Ash considered backing out right there cuz it was kinda

cold, and looked pretty dang steep!!

us after the big mud trench where someone lost a

wedding ring.... sad!

after we were done. we were FREEZING!!

i know it doesn't look like we are that muddy, but it sure felt

like it! my hair was crusty, my contacts wiggin out.

that last slide was a doozy :)

Trish, Aaron, Megan, Me, and Mike by the sign on the way out

back to reality

i think that summer is a nice break from "real life".
no school.
work, but still having down time.
both of us working our butts off so we feel like we are rich for a second.
then those glorious 4 months are over....
we are no longer rich.
we now work our butts off at school AND work.
we don't see each other as much, and when we do we have to try to make ourselves do homework instead of go to a movie or something that actually sounds fun.
stress.
constantly being behind on laundry and dishes, because when i have the time i have no motivation.
this is what i feel like "real life" is right now. i just have to keep telling myself that is a means to an end.
on the bright side, today i realized that i am a junior in college. that felt good. i went to the bookstore to print my book list and get my books and the line was about a mile long. so i walked the short distance to the lab at the end of the hall, and was in and out in no time with book list in hand. i went back to the bookstore and all those poor suckers were still waiting in line. i am SO glad that i am not a newbie who is completely lost and thinks there is only one way to do things!!! i then found my books in record time with no help from the workers despite the several offers i got (just because i am a junior doesn't mean i suddenly don't look like im 14 anymore). while the newbies were still waiting to print their booklists or getting escorted around trying to find their books i squeezed my way in and out of the massive crowds grabbed what i needed and was on my way.
this may not be a good thing about having done this before, but i have become almost completely desensitized to the outrageous cost of books. the cashier rings up my 5 thin, paperback books and tells me the total and i think "sure, no problem. want my firstborn too?" and the books i am now buying, the teachers say i will want to hang on to for when i am teaching. so there is no selling these puppies back!!! (i refuse to have to buy it again later down the road!!) i shoved them all in my backpack and it automatically gained about 100 lbs. from 5 paperback books! ridiculous!! okay so im exaggerating a little. but my shoulders were aching every time i put that thing on. i need a backpack with wheels!! until winter.... then im not sure what. but me being the dork i am i tried to weigh it to see how much it really weighed. stupid scale wouldn't weigh it. i refuse to think that this may be because it doesn't weigh enough for the scale to register it. i know for a fact it does! dumb scale.
anyways, these are my random thoughts of the day. i can't tell you how mike's first day went because i haven't seen him since he had class and he is currently working.
ciao!~

katy perry and camping

for the weekend of the 24, me and mike went up blacksmith fork canyon with my family to go camping. we went up on saturday afternoon and were able to stay til monday afternoon. it was way fun, especially cuz we rarely have the same days off. so it worked out great that we were able to stay that long.
monday night i went to a Katy Perry concert with Brynn and Jeff that i work with. Mike said he would sit it out, which is probably good cuz i really doubt he would have enjoyed it. (except being able to see her.... he claims he doesn't think she is hot, but i have known him long enough to know when he is lying. why else would he have wanted a t-shirt?) ;) we had a really good time and, aside from the opening acts, it was a really good concert. the opening acts were DJ Skeet Skeet, and Robyn. maybe i am just really sheltered but i had never heard of either of them. they were both just loud and obnoxious and i wanteed to pull my hair out. especially the second girl..... it sounded like all techno crap and i could barely hear her voice over the other noise they consider music. lets just say it was a relief when that ended. even though there were a few Katy Perry songs that i had never heard, it was a really good concert! :)

Brynn, Jeff, and me at the concert


stage

cool light show during one of the songs

mike throwing a tube attached to a rope into the

river while we are camping. don't ask me why

he does these things... he just does. :)

playing volleyball up the canyon

mike getting ready to float the river with his "paddle"

as of late

nothing much new around here lately. but i have been slacking on pictures, so i thought i'd post some.

here is the cake i made for taylor's birthday. i'm still learning....

this is the first square cake & the first 2 tiered cake i have done. let me know what you think!

we went to another real game recently. i have always loved soccer, and as much as mike
tells you he hates the sport, he actually enjoys watching these guys.
we need to go to more so, if nothing else, we have a good excuse to wear our jerseys :)

march of july (just for you caitlin)

this year i missed the hyrum parade. which i was totally fine with. its not as fun as when i was a little kid. im not sure whether this is because i dont go running for the candy, or because now all it is, is a bunch of cars with their business logo on it. lame!! there are hardly any floats anymore :( needless to say, i wasn't upset at all with working 6-2. i got off right as the parade was getting over so i had time to go to my grandmas house and change, go up to the square and buy some really cute headbands, and still make it back in time for our family bbq.
mike missed coming to my grandparents because he was at work, but then we met up at paul and ashlees for another bbq, games, and fireworks. there was a lot of badmitton played. mike thought he was pretty good til he went up against paul. paul is a lot taller with longer arms so he only had to take a couple steps, but had everyone else running all over and diving. very funny to watch!! mike redeemed himself in volleyball, but just barely. we had a lot of fun playing volleyball, although anyone watching would have got a good laugh. a bunch of uncoordinated people trying very hard just to get the ball over the net. mike kept saying you bump it to me, i'll set it, and jon can spike it. like i can aim... HA! i told him maybe we should just work on getting it over the net. better idea i thought :) in our efforts to get it over the net, some faces were hit with the ball (megan and jon) the net fell down a few times, and we had a great time! (maybe not the competitive boys, but the girls really enjoyed it).
i love that me and mike both come from families that can have a good time messing around, laughing, and attempting to be pro athletes. and that we can throw our families together and have a lot of fun! thanks ash and paul for letting us come over, and for a fun night!

anniversary

last friday was our anniversary. yep, its already been a year. hard to believe!!! we went to salt lake on friday afternoon. we went shopping to kill some time and then went out to eat. we went to The Melting Pot. terribly overpriced and not very good. not to mention that it took forever to eat. we had gotten tickets to a bees game that started at 7. at the restaurant they first bring out a cheese fondue and bread and veggies to dip in it. then they bring you a main dish and you cook your meat in the fondue pot right on your table. each thing took a really long time for them to bring out, and then to cook it, so we just skipped dessert because it was already like 7:30.

we went to the bees game and got hot dogs and nachos. much more our style :) that was the first baseball game i have ever been to and it was pretty fun. they were playing music and when i actually started listening i noticed it was christmas music. YUCK! and all the announcers were wearing santa hats. apparently they were doing some christmas in june thing. weird!

on saturday we were planning on going to Hogle Zoo. we drove there and there were cars parked probably about 6 blocks away with people walking to the zoo. not to mention that the front gates were packed!! we decided we didnt really want to fight crowds, so instead we went shopping again :) (friday we didnt really get anything we were just bumming around). i got some really cute stuff and im sure mike was having the time of his life..... but he payed me back by dragging me all over smith and edwards with him.

crazy to think that it was a year ago that we were all stressing to make sure we had everything we needed, and that all the details were right. all i can say is that i am sure glad that the planning part is long over and i never have to do that again!!!

mike's revenge

well, he finally did it! he caught himself a woodchuck!!!

he came home from work and saw one by the side of the house so he came running in the house and started loading his gun. of course i freaked out on him and told him to put it down. after awhile he finally listened to me and decided to set his trap instead. (it was in the house because he had been working on it).

he randomly decided to bait his trap with a marshmallow and apparently they like sugar :)

one of our neighbors was talking to us from her upstairs window, and she said she works from home so she is there a lot and she sees them com under our porch all the time. she told us that the one we caught was just a little guy compared to the others, but mike assures us it won't be the last one he catches.

we took it out to my parents house to get rid of it. mike was going to shoot it which is why there are no pictures of him letting it go, because i didnt want to see that. he took it up to the spring and he said he had a shot but his safety was on, and then he just decided to let it go. hopefully they dont start eating the plants out there!

woodchuck inside the trap

this picture is pretty dark, but it is in the back

CURRENT STANDINGS: WOODCHUCKS-2 MIKE-1

woodchuck strikes again!

yesterday we got mike a new bike. als was having a sale, and he has wanted this one for a really long time. me and megan went and got it and had it here when he came home. megan has one identical to it, just a little bit smaller. so when he came home he thought it was a joke, and it was hers. when he found out it wasn't, he got really excited and rode down to janey's house to show her.

today his family came over to see it. his dad wanted to take his old bike home so mike went out back to get it. he came inside and told me to go out back and look at his lettuce. i went out there and he said "didn't it used to be taller?" ha ha ha! sure did!! once again he said "d*** woodchucks!!" the trap was about a foot away from the lettuce, but unfortunately it got blown over by the wind so we just picked it up and it wasnt set. of course. so once again our lettuce is gone.

*compare this picture to the one from the last post to see the difference.

CURRENT STANDINGS: WOODCHUCKS-2 MIKE-0

mike V. woodchucks

awhile ago we were pulling up to our apartment and mike said "squirrel!" i told him that was a pretty big squirrel and he looked closer and said it was a woodchuck. so of course he had to chase it around the back of the house. we couldnt see it anywhere and we assumed it had gone in the hole between the cement pad and the grass just outside of our back door. mike wanted to try to get it out with a stick but i made him leave it alone.
last week, mike decided to plant a garden. on thursday he went to home depot and bought a big tote and some lettuce, tomatoes, and peppers. he came home and planted the whole thing and was very proud.
saturday afternoon i was at work, and i got a call from mike. when i answered he said "the d*** woodchucks ate my lettuce!!!" i started laughing my head off and he told me that i needed to call my friends dad who is a trapper to see if he could lend us a trap. i asked him what was in it for me and without pausing he said "a woodchuck hat!!!" :)
on sunday mike decided the wait for a trap was unbearable. yes, it had only been one day. so he decided to build his own. we went to his parents house and he found some scrap wood and built himself his own live trap for the woodchuck. when he asked what to bait it with i told him lettuce. ha ha ha! i think im pretty funny!
so far, we havent caught anything. mike has spent plenty of time at the kitchen window with the binoculars staring out into the field next to our apartment where they live. but they have yet to come back.

CURRENT STANDINGS: WOODCHUCKS-1 MIKE-0

mike planting his garden

so proud of the finished product

after the woodchucks had their feast
this is a couple days after and the lettuce is actually starting to grow back.
if you look at the first couple pictures, you will see that it was a few inches tall in the beginning.

this is how all the lettuce looked right afterwards.
barely poking through the dirt.

THE WOODCHUCK TRAP!!

update

i was pretty excited for school to get out and for life to calm down a little, but so far things have stayed pretty busy.
i have started working mornings, and so far so good! i usually work the 1-9 shift, but i really don't like it in the summer. i am a master at wasting time. when i don't go to work til 1 i am really good at bumming around all morning, then going to work and not getting home til about 9:30. then i just chill with mike til we go to bed. needless to say, i don't always get a lot done. now i have started going in at 5 or 6 in the morning which is cool because then i am totally done for the day at the same time i used to just be going in. now the question is, what to do with all this extra time? i'm not used to having a lot of time to myself and i love it!!!!

when me and mike got married, everyone told us june was the month for weddings and i just thought okay..... now i see what they mean. 2 of my friends and one of my cousins are getting married in june. luckily none of them are on the same day! Stephanie is marrying a guy named Scott that she met down in Ogden. and Kristina is marrying..... Jason Baxter! who woulda thunk? me and mike were talking the other day and we realized that the 4 of us used to hang out all the time, and now we are all going to be related. isn't it strange where life takes you sometimes?

scatter brained

sometimes i amaze myself. and not in a good way.

today i had 2 finals. no biggie. went to the first and left feelin pretty good. it was 10:00 am and my next final wasn't til 12:30. or so i thought.

in the syllabus it said the final was at 11:30. i had written in my planner 11:30. but i could have sworn on my life that in the last class she said "remember that we changed it and, the final is at 12:30 not 11:30."

i must have really misunderstood.

i blame in partially on my deafness.

stupid genes.

anyway, i went to the library to study for it and kill time. i've been sick so i was feeling pretty crappy and just really wanted to go home. i was trying to study but my mind kept wandering, so noon rolls around and i still dont really feel ready for the test. but i just thought oh well because it wasn't really a "final" just a last test on the last few chapters, and we get to drop our lowest test in the class. so i thought if i do better good, if not who cares? i could just drop the final and still get a B out of the class.

so i go to the classroom what i am thinking is like 10-15 minutes early. there are like 2 people in there working on a test. i thought it was strage that there were only that many people there. at first i thought that she must just be letting people start it as soon as they came in. then as i walked past one person i noticed they were just checking over their entire test.

OOPS!

yeah it really started at 11:30.

so the professor says to me are you just getting here? i told her i had the time mixed up and she was fine with it and was still going to let me take it. she had to dig a test out of her bag because she was all packed up and ready to go. so i sit down, and the other couple people start to leave. i didnt want to make her sit there for like 30-40 minutes while i am the only one finishing the test cuz i am a blooming idiot and couldn't remember what time it was at. i looked over the test really quick and there were quite a few i didnt know, so i just left and told her that could be the one i would drop because it would probably end up being my lowest score anyways.

and call me lazy, but i am more than happy with a B. especially considering the fact that i only went to that class half the time.

so i wasted about 2 1/2 hours of my life up on campus studying for a test i didnt even take. and i was just sitting in the library when it really started. it's not like i was busy or anything.

for anyone reading this, it probably doesnt surprise you at all.

yep, thats me!

i'm a college student ;)

ugh

im stressed today, and i decided i'm sick and tired of a lot of things. so i thought i'd share.

-i'm sick of drama

-sick of the two faced people who cause drama

-sick of people being nice when they want something

-sick of rude customers at work who act like i should be honored to be able to help them. guess what. im not. at all. and im only being nice because its my job. so, as my sister-in-law shelby so nicely put it, dont whistle at me, wave me over, or ring our "invisible bell" because i am not your dog. and PLEASE get off your cell phone. dont try to point things out and whisper to me because i have no idea what you want.

-sick of school and pointless classes that i have no interest in

-sick of always being busy.

now that i have vented and complained, its time to remind myself that it could be lots worse.

and i am very grateful that i actually have a job. and for a nice apartment. and for an awesome husband who puts up with my crap. and many more things. sometimes it just feels really good to say all the crap that frustrates me.

the end.

peace out

hockey and pie

i felt the need to share this.

mike is currently doing sit-ups, push-ups, lunges, squats,... the works.

i am sitting on the couch on the computer eating banana cream pie.

he is a lot more self-motivated than me. definitely. :)

meet matilda

one day we were bored.

i said lets get a fish.

mike said how bout a turtle.

turns out sea turtles stink. bad. and are a lot of maintenance.

so we decided on a tortiose.

after that, mike was online every free second he had looking up tortoises.

so we went to taylorsville and got one.

MEET MATILDA aka "tilly"

she is a yellow-footed tortiose.

she will probably get at least twice this size.

and live for 40 years.

mike is trying to feed her but she got shy and tried to go in her shell

tilly "soaking"

our...family....ALBUM!

a day in our life....

yesterday mike was in the shower and i needed to get ready. the fan in our bathroom is pretty crappy so by the time you get out of the shower everything is always all steamy. so i just opened the door a crack so that it could air it out a little and the mirror wouldnt be steamy when i went to get ready.

i should have known better.

our fire alarm goes off it the steam from the shower gets to it. it has happened a few times, but last time mike just untwisted the whole thing from the ceiling. i knew that if i opened the door it would usually go off. but i thought that since it was just hanging from the ceiling that it wasnt working. wrong! i was in the bedroom and it started going off. and when one does, they all do. i walked into the hall to see if it was that one that was going off and sure enough, it was. the one i thought wasnt working. great....... so i just stood there like an idiot with my hands over my ears cuz it is so dang loud. i was thinking "i dont even know how to turn this off if i wanted to". so i went in the bathroom and shut the door which muffled the sound quite well. mike was still in there and he said "go shut it off". i said, "umm i dont know what to do." he told me to just untwist it from the ceiling. i reminded him it already was, and thats why i had opened the door in the first place. so after a sec he came out and tried pushing buttons and covering it with a blanket. nada. he told me to go get the stool so i ran downstairs, and that alarm was going off too. it was so loud everywhere. the neighbors were probably ready to beat us. anyways, i grabbed the stool and ran back upstairs. and just as i put it on the ground and set it up, they all stopped. of course. i told mike it was a good thing he was home becuase i probably would have just stood there with my hands over my ears hoping it would turn off by itself. he told me just to take a blanket or something and try to fan the steam away from the smoke detector. that was what he had just done. or if that doesnt work he said grab the stool and take out the batteries.

my thought was "or just keep the door shut"..... probably the simplist solution :)

after that we met up with the girls from my family for lunch. mike had to work at 1 so he was leaving the restaurant, and i told him i would just stay for awhile and go back to my grandmas with them. then my mom or someone could take me home so i could be to work by 3. so he left, and later megan was driving me home. when we got almost to the house i thought oh crap i dont have keys. mike isn't the best at locking the door when he leaves. pretty much he never does. so i got after him about it the other day and told him he needs to start locking it ALWAYS! the good news is that he is a good listener. it was locked. so i had to call work and tell them i would be late. then megan had to drive me to maceys to get mikes key, back home to change, and then i had to turn right around and go back to maceys. super fun. after that it turned out to be a nice day.........

BIRTHDAY BOY!

Mikes birthday was on the 10th. which i just realized also means we have been married for 9 months.... HOLY COW!! anyways it was a nice relaxing day because its spring break so we didnt have school, and we both asked for work off. we got up and mike opened his presents, and then we pretty much bummed around all morning. then we went to lunch and went to get a few things for that night. we had both of our families over for cake and ice cream and, as usual, i forgot to take pictures. i swear unless the camera is actually in my hand i never remember. anywho, it was a pretty fun day and mike got some cool stuff. thanks everyone!

mike shaking his present to see if he can guess what it is.

he is actually a really good guesser!!!

we went to dollar tree to get some birthday plates

and napkins and he really wanted the hat. then i

was totally joking and asked if he wanted the button too.

of course he did.

Mikes cake

On a side note, we finally finished the puzzle mike got me for christmas. we started it in our old apartment and got pretty far, but then we just broke it all apart for the move. we dont have a lot of free time, but we liked to work on it here and there. now its time for a new one i guess :)

catch up

since we moved in we havent had internet so i havent been able to update this thing. so now im just playing catch up from the last little while. mike always says "i got you a new camera for christmas, and there are no cool pictures on our blog".... so here you go. i hope you like pictures :)

me, mike, taylor, and megan

sledding at my parents house

we invited mikes friend zach and his fiance heather

over to make pizza and watch a movie. the boys

wanted a deep dish pizza, and were very

proud that they made this.

this is the cake i made for the superbowl party at

the Boam's. mike served part of his mission in

Green Bay, so of course we are Packers fans

oh yes. the move. this is our entire life packed and ready to go.

it doesn't look like much, and in our new apartment it doesnt feel like much either.

but when you have hardly any storage (aka our old place) it feels

like you own way too much!

our tiny kitchen in the old apartment

living room

bedroom

bathroom (couldnt figure out how to flip the picture... sorry)

POLAR PLUNGE

Me and Mike heard about this on the radio, and i said who

in their right mind would pay to go jump in a frozen lake?! weirdos!

Well.....Megan talked me into doing it with her...

not as bad as i expected. she said it was a lot warmer

than it had been in past years. still cold, but i got a t shirt.

worth it? i would say yes to say you have done it, but not

something i'm dying to do again

me and megan getting out of the water FAST!

Audrina, me, megan, and trevor (aka santa)

random picture of me and mike when we went bowling