Like It's Your Birthday

The data can't lie - I had the best birthday yet this year. It's a good idea to evaluate your self-worth based on people who write "Happy Birthday" on your Facebook wall, right?

Andrew knew that I really just craved time with him, so he planned a bunch of fun activities all weekend long!

Friday we went to the basketball game and then I got a milkshake at Coldstone. I also discovered I really wanted an ice cream cake for my birthday.

Saturday, after my dance class (already a fun day), Andrew took me to Einstein Bagels for breakfast. Then that afternoon, we had people over to watch the football game and eat pizza.

Saturday night we went to Old Towne Grill for dinner (with a coupon from Hayley and Jonathan, THANK YOU), then Andrew took me to a bed and breakfast. We went there last year for my birthday and had the best time, so we decided we should go again. It was so relaxing and charming. And breakfast Sunday was so good that we didn't even need to eat lunch that day.

Had enough yet?

Sunday night, Andrew surprised me with an ice cream cake! And he secretly invited a ton of people over to eat it with us. It was so fun and I felt so loved, so thanks to everyone who came by!

And it's still not my birthDAY.

MONDAY, the big day. Andrew made me breakfast in bed! (So if you're counting, that's three breakfasts!) I love him. He never gets enough sleep and he still woke up early to show me he loves me. (BTW we had bullseye eggs, which is a cute tradition we've had going since we started dating in 2006.)

Then, I went to work. And my lunch crew gave me the cutest present! Popcorn, hot chocolate, crystal light packets, perfect.

Then, Andrew took me to the movies that night (we had leftovers for dinner because hello, we had so much delicious food from the weekend!). We saw Ender's Game and had a great evening together (Andrew sacrificed a lot of study time to celebrate with me all weekend. It was the best present). And I opened my presents (thank you thank you, I feel so spoiled!).

I'm grateful for another great year ahead of us. We have been so blessed. I'm grateful for my husband and for all he does for our family. I'm glad my Heavenly Father cares so much about me that he will send me gentle reminders that I am loved. I know I need that to get through this dark, cold winter.

Here's to being in my late 20s!

Fall Is Not My Favorite Season

True story.

I just got back from a trip to visit my brother and his fam on the East coast. Warm, slightly humid, wonderful. I didn't even have to put lotion on my hands every 5 minutes.

But I love Utah, too. I'm just not quite ready for the cold. And the DARK.

But I'm also excited to announce that we'll be living in DALLAS next summer! Andrew got a job at a firm there. I'm so happy for him and excited for our next adventure. (It's still up in the air on whether I will be there all summer. We have a while to figure it out.)

Andrewism #31

"What would you like to eat? A sleepy hotdog?"
Translation: Pigs in a blanket.
Best part: It's catchy. Come to our next party and try some sleepy hotdogs.

Original image from Pillsbury.com

Andrewism #30

"We want to inherit your mom's china. Make sure she tells her executioner that we get the china."
Translation: Executor
Best Part: He was so confident when he said it, that I thought, "Huh, that word is weird. I'm sure there are many contexts in which its use is offensive." Then I thought, "Wait a minute. Wait."

Questionnaire from Katie

One of my best friends moved away this summer (You can have more than one? "Best Friend is a tier, Danny"), and it was really sad. I was rereading her blog, and I remembered that she tagged me forever ago in this cute blogger questionnaire. I'm not good at tagging people, but I want to fill it out still to help jump start my blog participation again.

Also, stay tuned, I have 2 more Andrewisms waiting in the wings.

Questions from Katie

1. What do you love most about summer? Being able to go OUTSIDE. And I LOVE summer nights. Your day is soo much longer in the summer than in the winter. And the sunsets in Utah are amazing.
2. What is your favorite TV show? You meant showS, right? The Mindy Project, Suits, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, everything else... My favorite "oldies" are The West Wing and Gilmore Girls. (Even though I still haven't seen the last season. I'm in denial)
3. Where is your dream place to live? Um, we are trying to figure that out right now. I just need a place with nice people, a solid community, a good place to raise my future kids, lots of job opportunities, and maybe it has a beach? Or at least lots of pools.
4. What was your best vacation? I always love vacation. One favorite was when we went to TN last year for a family reunion. That was such a blast that I threw a tantrum and didn't want to go home, so we extended our trip! (Also I lost my job the week before, so that was why I was so tantrum-y)
5. What is one of your biggest fears? Finding a dead body. Seriously. I hate parking garages and basements and saunas because of it.
6. Coke or Pepsi? Dr. Pepper. It's the only soda I always like. 
7. Favorite scent at Bath and Body Works? Anything citrus-y, and they don't have many of those flavors lately! Coconut Mango and Orange Sapphire are the ones I own right now.
8. What’s a beauty tip you want to share with the world? Oh geeze, I'm NOT the person to ask. I have a four-step makeup routine that never varies and I rarely do my hair. I did just learn that if you spray your perfume on the back of your neck, your hair will whisk the scent around all day, so it feels nice and fresh all day. But maybe everyone already knew that.
9. How do you motivate yourself to be healthy? About a year ago, I decided to stop gaining weight ha. I haven't lost a ton, but I'm on the right track these days. I don't have STRONG motivation, but one thing that worked for me was to give up a lot of junky stuff for a while. Once you train your tastebuds to like healthier stuff, it's harder to eat junk. Now I get sick off of just a little bit of ice cream, so it's a lot easier to choose fro yo or a homemade smoothie instead. And I have an exercise counselor ;) My first forever friend, Brittany, will check up on me and remind me to exercise and give me ideas for how to do it. I hate telling her that I didn't do anything, so that's a helpful tool to at least get up off the couch some days!
10. What is your favorite website? Oh, I have a billion that I like. I love catching up on friend's blogs. Those are the only ones where I always read the text. I also love Katy at No Big Dill; she's so artistic and takes such beautiful pictures. I also like what she writes. 
11. Would you rather be in your sweats or get dressed up? I love getting dressed up. My husband is really good at telling me if I look good, so that helps. (Really all I have to do is put in earrings and he can't stop talking about how pretty I look haha) I used to love sweats but I tend to feel like I need to shower all the time when I'm in sweats. So that's a bummer.

11 Facts about Me

1. I hate getting my hair cut. I cry every time. I have a really sensitive head and those combs...yikes. Luckily I just found a friend who is awesome at hair cuts, and she didn't make me cry! I'm thrilled about it. I kind of want to go get my haircut in 1 month instead of in 1 year.
2. I have 26 nieces and nephews. I love them so much. I will probably talk your ear off about them. 
3. I love TV. 
4. I still like to think of myself as a ballerina, but I'm not. But I miss it a lot.
5. I really like my job. It's in my field, it's not too stressful, I work with awesome people, and I'm home by 3:30 every day. 
6. I have a lot of extra time to myself because my husband is in law school. I fill that time with learning how to craft: quilting, sewing, knit, crochet, etc. That's why I have a crafternoon section on my blog. It's a bit sad, really. But I enjoy my new hobbies.
7. I mostly wear skirts. I have 2 pairs of pants that actually fit me, and I wear them alternate Fridays.
8. I've owned my favorite pair of flip-flops since 2005. They survived Australia, college, and a trip down river in Thailand. They are Havaianas, and I highly recommend that brand.
9. Andrew and I make dang good Thai food. And we love to make it, so come over and eat with us.
10. My favorite food is fried chicken, but I'm pretty picky about what kind is good enough. Publix is still my favorite.
11. I'm actually really excited for football season this year. Andrew has taught me well. Go Cougars!

Andrewism #29

"He's always so negative about his own abilities. I don't know why he has to be so self-defecating."
Translation: Self-deprecating
Best Part: 1. Said about a professor. 2. There is actually an entry in urban dictionary for self-defecating. (it's PG-13, otherwise I would link to it.)

Andrewism #28

"It's a good thing we have disposable thumbs."
Translation: Opposable thumbs.
Best Part: He always has great ideas! How great would disposable thumbs be?!

Crafternoon #5: Christmas Quilt and Fat Quarter Idol

First of all, I entered a fat quarter compilation challenge over at Sew,Mama,Sew! It was so fun to do, and probably the best job in the whole world would be to be in charge of making little packets of corresponding fabric. I wonder how you get to be really good at that.

Here's my entry with the theme of "Fresh:"

Even if I don't win, I just want to make a beach blanket/towel with all those fabrics!

My second crafternoon project today took me 3 months to complete. It's a quilt top I made for my mom for Christmas. I'm writing about it now because she sent it out to be quilted and bound, so now it is officially finished! I'm very excited about that, because if it had been left up to me, she wouldn't have seen a finished quilt until 2015 at the earliest.

I made an Americana quilt because while we were in Tennessee this summer, my mom and I went to a quit shop, and she told me she is always on the lookout for a nice Americana quilt. We found a few at the shop, but they were manufactured, and the "piecing" was printed on the fabric. Not as wonderful as a nice homemade quilt.

It's just a twin size. I only had to unpick 6 of the squares to re-sew them so the points lined up. And there is one "unique" square in there somewhere, see if you can find it. (I really just messed it up.)

And here is the finished product. The back is so fun, the quilting came out beautifully, and I love the binding! 

Excuse Me

Andrewism #27

"Man, if I get this internship, our lives could change in one fellow swoop."
Translation: One fell swoop
Best Part: It would be nice if a fellowship opportunity swooped in!

Crafternoon #4: Glove Bear

I made some friends invite me over this weekend for a crafternoon. I had high hopes for this seemingly simple craft I saw on Pinterest: the glove bear. I have a ton of cute gloves, and I thought it would be fun to whip one up at my friend's house, and of course, everyone there would think I was so cute with my cute glove bear. 

It looks like some kind of hybrid of a dinosaur and a sunburned human. Yuck. Creepy.

Original glove bear via Little Bit Funky, buried somewhere in the archives I suspect, since I never did find an actual tutorial. 

Paint Chip Projects

No, I didn't make any paint chip projects.

Not this:

via Maple and Magnolia via Pinterest

Or this:

via The Crafty Scientist via Pinterest

Or this:

via Papery and Cakery via Pinterest

I should mention that it's wasting the paint companies' money. Crafters all over the world are saving a fortune!

But some of the projects ARE really cute...

Family Reunion #2

Catching up on last summer again.

We traveled to Idaho in July for the Bean family reunion up past Sun Valley. Wow, that part of Idaho is BEAUTIFUL!

We didn't take as many pictures on this trip, but we had a great time with the Beans! (All 70 of them!)

Andrew and Jason took everyone river rafting. It was so fun to see Andrew in his element! He's a great guide. And no one will forget the time he called it when Jason fell off his raft, leaving his passengers floating away without their guide!

Jill taught me how to knit, starting one of my new crafting obsessions.

Jason also took Andrew paragliding. I was crowned the best wife in the world for letting him attempt such a daring feat with such a daring cousin! But all was well and they had a great time.

There was a fun homemade water slide at the ranch, and everyone had fun going down that (except poor McKenna, whose teeth got rattled when they slammed into her brother's head!)

Jamie and baby Avery. So fun to spend time with them before they moved to the Northeast!

And we got to spend a lot of time with cousin Stephanie, visiting from Switzerland! She was so fun.

Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa for such a fun family vacation!

Will Work for . . . Free!

It's a weird thing.

But we have good news:

Andrew got his first externship! For the first half of the summer, he will be working for a federal district court judge in Dallas. We are so thrilled, and we count our blessings every day!

He's still looking for an externship for the second half of the summer, so if you want Andrew in your city, send us some contacts to pester.