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Baby Shower Back Home

When I was back in Kentucky, my mom and my sister Ashley threw me a baby shower. It was overwhelming to see how many people were there supporting me and crazy to think how each of them affected me in my life. There were many past Sunday School teachers, Young Women leaders, neighbors, and old friends from high school in attendance.

One of the activities at the shower was where everyone wrote the baby a little note of advice. I just read through them this morning and they were so sweet. Some of them even brought tears to my eyes. Here’s what my friend Blair from high school wrote… hers made me laugh and I’m sure she won’t mind me sharing it. (The first bullet point is referring to when my mom gave me mashed bananas instead of apple sauce for my medicine.)

The baby got a lot of great gifts. So many cute clothes (even baby jeggings thanks to my friend Beth from church), a hand crocheted baby blanket from Mrs. Doran (a neighbor that has been like my second mom growing up), and gift cards that  bought the changing table.

I wish I would have remembered to take pictures of the whole group, but we only took a couple. Thanks again to my mom and sister for making the shower a success.

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It’s a girl!

Last week, I threw a shower for my good friend Heidi McQuay who is having a baby girl any week now! (I seriously love throwing parties, why can’t I do it professionally? You could just hire me to throw you a party, and then it’ll be the best time of your life. Maybe you want to celebrate a good grade, new shoes, or the weekend. It doesn’t matter… we can just have a party for anything!)

Anyway, it was good turnout… Heidi had a lot of friends show up from her home and from church but I think the highlight was, if I do say so myself, was the potato soup. It was just a Bear Creek soup mix, but man… after a long day of preparing for the shower, it tasted delish!

Congratulations, Heidi and I hope the delivery goes well! I can’t wait to meet little Evette!

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24 Hours of Driving Later…

… and we’re finally back home!

Hannah and I made it safely back last night. There were some crazy drivers, roads, and towns (or should I call them villages?), but I am in Provo and loving the beautiful mountains surrounding me!

I got a call from T.J. on our way back saying that he had a surprise for me. I finally got what the surprise was out of him: he made dinner for me! He has never done this. Well, there might have been an occasional grilled cheese or french toast when I was in my first trimester and couldn’t stand the smell of anything cooking. But besides that, this was the first real meal he has made me since we got married. It was chicken breasts with a tasty coating (he mentioned he put paprika in it… I was impressed that he even knew what paprika was!) and a side of vegetables. Of course the way he put it all together was adorable and artistic: the veggies were in this perfect circle (maybe he used the ice-cream scooper?) and there was a streak of mustard sauce going down the center like in a fancy restaurant. And the real surprise was the clean kitchen when I arrived home.

I have the best husband!

……

So, I am going to be in Provo for about 3 days and then I leave for my other trip to Washington DC to visit my sister Mary Beth and her family (this one also cost me nothing because I’m flying Standby)! I can’t wait to see my darling nieces Claire and Amelia! I can wait for the flight from Long Beach to DC though. That’s going to be a long one!

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This is Texas.

Do you get worried when I don’t write five posts everyday like usual? I sure hope you do. I hope you miss my mindless posts and ramblings.

Anyway, I am currently in Texas. Hannah flew me down so she wouldn’t have to drive back to Provo by herself. So, it’s pretty much the best deal ever. I get to see Hannah before all of her other friends, go on a trip for free, visit her family, and tonight I even got to see some of my cousins who I haven’t seen in eight years… they live just 15 minutes away. Awesome.

I will post a bunch of photos later. But for now, enjoy these two from our afternoon downtown McKinney. Hannah and I matched. I wore the dress version (thanks again, dear Hannie) and she wore the shirt version. I felt like a true TexMexan. I made that word up right now.

P.S. I apologize if my face gives you the creeps.

 

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Double Par

Saturday Night, we met up with three other couples for a night of Trafalga fun (free for us because of our amazing pass of all passes). I got two or three hole-in-one’s so I thought there was no way I’d get last, but there were a couple of rough holes… who would believe that I played golf in high school? Well, I never played much better than that back then anyway.

Oh, and T.J. did even worse than me. What a good husband!

 

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Who made those great signs?

This weekend was awesome. We had a lot of stuff planned and although I wasn’t home but a couple of hours, it was worth it. On Friday, we had the Relief Society  sleepover at Erin’s parent’s cabin about 45 minutes down the Spanish Fork canyon. Erin and I went down in the afternoon to get the place ready and put the food in the crock pot so it would be ready by the time everyone showed up.

There were 12 of us, which for an activity so far away on the last weekend before school-I thought was pretty good. We ate homemade Cafe Rio salads (which turned out spectacularly) and lots of other goodies. It was just a casual night where we sat outside in the cooler weather (oh, how wonderful it felt), talked for hours, and went to bed after two. For the rest of the weekend, I felt like I couldn’t stop telling T.J. about all the things we discussed. I guess he also thought I was a little crabby because of the lack of sleep so he told me that I’m not allowed to go to another sleepover. Sure, mom.

(P.S. thanks to Sarah for some of these pictures)

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Friday Night

On Friday, we met up with T.J.’s old roommates and their wives in Sandy and headed up the canyon for a firepit and dinner. I’d never been up this particular canyon, and although the road getting to the park was extremely windy , the beauty weighed out the nauseousness it created.

The best part of the night was seeing the boys get together and try to break a big piece of wood. They all wanted to take turns lifting the rock and trying out their different ideas to break it. It was our entertainment for the night.

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Randoms

  • Last night I had a dream that my belly button finally flipped all the way out. But, instead of a regular outie-it was a flower. Wouldn’t that be a nice surprise? A flower belly button?
  • Where the heck did summer go?!? It is mid-August right now!
  • Hannah Judd comes back to the U.S. in less than two weeks. That’s about the best news ever.
  • Is anyone else getting sick of the movies playing at the Dollar Theater? I keep hoping new ones will replace the old ones but no luck. I will not see Rio even if it’s in that theater for a year. So, get it out of there already!
  • I had a charley horse in my leg the other night while I was sleeping (I’m telling you, this exhibit construction is killing me). It was so weird. I had a flashback to middle school.
  • My friend Megan from high school has this awesome job/internship in NYC right now as a designer for Tracy Reese. I’m pretty sure I’ve never been so jealous of anyone in my life.
  • I’m almost in my third trimester and lately the most common thought I’ve had about pregnancy is, “How is this thing supposed to get out?!”
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Can I be on both teams?

On Monday, I noticed a few girls from my ward talking about having a party to watch The Bachelorette finale. I hadn’t seen any of the episodes, but I knew I wanted to be in attendance because of the guest list. Plus, I am in some need of girl friends.

Yeah. It’s kind of a depressing topic. I have lots of friends, I do. But it’s really hard to find/keep close girl friends that you could just call up and go shopping with or just hang out with on a Monday night. I think it’s because once you get married, your best friend and your entire world is your husband. Which is how it’s supposed to be. But every girl NEEDS a couple girl friends on the side for an occasional froyo run.

Am I right?

Anyway, back to this Bachelorette finale. I told the gals I was in, tried to make some homemade toffee (my speciality… or so I thought until I burnt it), picked up some Kisses instead, and headed over to Sarah‘s house. She was such a wonderful hostess and provided delicious and romantic food for us to enjoy, such as chocolate covered strawberries and white chocolate popcorn (which reminds me, I really need that recipe). And an added romantic bonus, she lit candles to really set the mood for the finale.

Sarah’s house was the perfect place for such a party (not to mention, I got to see her darling daughters) because of her projector screen and DVR. The funniest part of the whole night was that in every commercial break, instead of fast forwarding, we just paused the commercials and chatted about what had just happened and who’s team we were on.

JP! No, wait… BEN! Or maybe I do like JP… I DON’T KNOW! Both?

So, that was the night. It was wonderful and I hadn’t laughed so much with a bunch of girls in a while. And let’s just say, I cannot wait for The Bachelor season to start!

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Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend…

I love Utah. One reason is because we get Pioneer Day off of Work. Okay, I guess that’s just BYU. But nonetheless, it makes for an automatic awesome weekend. So, to start it off right, I’m going to a wedding! Rehearsal dinner tonight, and the sealing tomorrow! It will be wonderful. I am so excited for Danica to get married AND I can’t wait to see her in her beautiful wedding dress. I got a sneak peak so I know it’ll be amazing.

As soon as that’s over (unfortunately I have to miss their reception full of Sammy’s shakes), T.J. and I are hitting the road for a full-blast pioneer weekend extravaganza. We’re spending the weekend in St. George and Enterprise. Pool parties, children’s races, parades, picnics, family photos, and of course, a rodeo.

What have you got planned?

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