2012

Keith and I have come to the conclusion that I say really strange/ confusing/ just plain idiotic things late at night while lying in bed. Yet they always end up being hilarious, so I guess it's all good. This is one of our latest conversations:

Keith was talking about how in 2012 there are going to be these solar flares, and there are going to be all these horrible results. Blah blah blah, cell phones don't work, yadda yadda yadda. Apparently he read all this stuff after some crazy man posted it online? I don't remember. I was sleepy.

Me: Well it IS going to be 2012. Isn't that supposedly "the end of the world? Again?"
Keith: *Laughs* Yeah, whatever. Have you ever seen that movie?
Me: 2012? No. All I remember is seeing the trailers for it. There was a lot of ice, some cave men, and a prehistoric lion? What's that thing called again?
Keith: ......... What are you talking about?
Me: A sabertooth something something?
Keith: ........Julie........?
Me: .....OH! We're talking about the movie 2012! Not 10,000 BC... duh...

I was only 12,012 years off... Great...

Christmas!!!

Christmas has come and gone.  It was a good Christmas, even if it was fairly different from previous years.  First of all, I'm married.  Yeah, that's different, but really, really awesome too!  Julie's parents are really cool.  They were willing to fly both of us out there for Christmas, but since I had to work all of last week, Julie is the only one that went.  I don't know everything that went on, but I do know that Julie had an amazing time and barely slept all week long.

Lucky for me, we had a few friends stay in the area over break.  There was only one day that I didn't spend at least a little bit of time with someone else here in Provo while Julie was gone.  I was lucky enough to get Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after off work, so I got a 3 day weekend, and I didn't even lose any hours either!  I worked a full 40 hours last week, and I get 40 hours this week too!  Anyway, Julie got back in town the morning of Christmas Eve, so I went and picked her up (Thanks Jeremy for letting use use your car all break!)  As soon as she got home, she crashed for a good 3 hour nap.  Julie NEVER takes naps.  She was TIRED.  We still didn't have anything to put in our stockings, so we went to Walmart only to find that it was stripped bare.  It was crazy.  It actually wasn't as busy as on Monday when we went back to grab some groceries (the return line went half way across the store).  But we had a nice Christmas Eve just being together.  Before we went to bed, we read Luke 2 by candle light.  This is, more or less, what our Christmas looked like:

We didn't get a tree.  We were going to put lights on the dragon, but the only lights we could find on Saturday were icicle lights or net lights...  Yeah...  So instead, we had... swords...  Whatever.  We'll do something better than this next year, for sure.  One of our friends that Julie met her freshmen year here at BYU is from Orem, so we ended up spending most of Christmas evening there at his mom's house. In short, it was just a really simple Christmas, but it was fun.

Because I had Monday off as well, we decided that we were going to make some yummy food!  I used the recipes from the Chinese food cookbook that I got last year for Christmas, and we made Broccoli Beef and Chinese Dumplings.  It was so good!  I think that the dumplings turned out better than the other dish, but it was still a lot of fun.

After making and eating dinner, we went to the dollar theater to watch Real Steel.  If you haven't seen it yet, go see it!  It was such a good movie!  Both of us really loved it.  We went with Michael, the same friend who we spent Christmas day with.  It was just a really nice, relaxing day.  But come Tuesday, my three day weekend was over, and I had to go back to work.  Work has been okay, nothing special.  But that has also left Julie home alone all day :-( NO FUN.  We just remembered yesterday that we got her some Zumba DVD's a month or so ago, so she's going to keep herself busy doing Zumba.  On top of that, we are having a good friend from study abroad over tonight.  Geneva is one of the happiest people you will ever meet!  We're excited to have dinner with her.  Then tomorrow night, we are having a small party at our place with some friends and family who are still in Provo for New Years.  We're going to make pizza, play games and just have fun.  Perhaps we'll actually have some more pictures after the party (but don't hold your breath, neither of us ever take pictures...)

Only Hope

So, I forgot this blog existed... I think Keith did as well, seeing as neither of us have posted anything in the past three months...

Anywho, life is swell! I absolutely love being married! Except for the fact that we have no money... and my husband is at work all day while I sit at home bored out of my mind...
but other than that, it's fantastic!!!

I am so happy I married my cute boy. He is seriously the most amazing guy in the world. He always tells me I'm beautiful, and he laughs at my stupid jokes. He deals with my blunt straightforwardness, and he NEVER gets upset or impatient with me. I've never seen him angry. I'm glad that's not his style. He knows how stressed I've been with homework and finals over the past few weeks, and he does everything possible to try and lighten my load. He makes me yummy food for dinner, does the yucky chores around the house, and is willing to just sit and relax with me when the night is finally through. He does goofy things that make me laugh CONSTANTLY and doesn't judge me for the random phobias that seem to control my life. He has gotten to know my best friends and loves them almost as much as I do. He respects and appreciates the things that I enjoy, even if he doesn't particularly care for them himself. He surprises me with things like candy and cheesecake. HE KNOWS ME WELL! He loves his family and tries to learn more about mine.

Speaking of family, I wish he could visit home with me! I'm going home to visit my family next weekend, and Keith can't come because he has to work all that week. It makes me SO SAD! Keith hasn't had many opportunities to interact with my family. By the time they finally started opening up to him, it was the day we were leaving after our wedding! At least he got to have fun with them for a few hours. Though I will be sad to part with my cute boy for a week, I am SO JAZZED to see my family again. I miss them like crazy and think about them every day. My brother Josh is going on a mission in January, so that's the main reason I'm going home. Mom thought it would be good for me to spend a little more time with him. Who knows where I'll be when he gets home in two years?! I'll be back on the morning of Christmas Eve, so I'll still get to spend that time with Keith. (Didn't think it'd be a great idea to spend our first Christmas as a married couple 2000 miles away from each other. Imagine that.)

Anyway, life is grand. Yesterday was the last day of classes for this semester, and I sadly realized that it was my last day of classes at BYU period! Next semester is just student teaching! I'm so close to graduation, and to be honest, I'm terrified about actually moving on to a new phase of life next year, but at least I'll have my best friend with me, and we can do it together. I love Keith so much and can't wait to find out what the future has in store for us. :)

P.S. In case anyone was wondering what the title was all about, I've been re-living my childhood for the past few days, and I thought of the movie A Walk to Remember. The song Only Hope (the one Mandy Moore sings in the play) was one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES! I love Switchfoot's original, but Mandy Moore's cover is SO good, and it's all because of the cello part. (I'm slightly obsessed with the cello. I think it's the most beautiful instrument in the world.) Anyway, it was always one of my dreams to play this song as a duet with someone else on piano, and I decided today that it was actually going to happen haha. Ordering the music now.

Listen/watch HERE if you don't know what song I'm talking about. SO beautiful. :)