Sunday, August 26, 2012

Oh how great, a double date!

We ate hearty
And had a party.

We two...


And Melissa and Drew!


We played games and ate dinner
(but my team was not the winner).

We ended the night with the Sound of Music.
I can't wait for the next time that we do this!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Study Break

I did everything I could think of to put off the inevitable.

I baked cookies.  Since when do I ever bake for no apparent reason? Since never. Especially when I'm supposed to be on a "healthier eating for better quality of life" plan.

I finished all the games that were waiting on my phone, including "Dice with Buddies", "Scramble with friends", and "Words with friends,".

I watched an episode and a half from season two of Bones that I had already seen.

I fell asleep on the couch on purpose while watching the half episode of Bones and stayed there for at least an hour and a half.

By 7:26 p.m., I knew I could wait no longer.  I had to start my very first homework assignment for grad school.

I can't figure out what has gotten in to me. Why am I so freaked out to take this first step? But, since grad school isn't free and I recently paid my tuition, I knew I would never forgive myself if I forever pretended like the assignment didn't exist. The day of reckoning would come.  Consequently, I had to face the beast head on.

My first assignment was to find two scholarly research articles on music education and analyze them.  I scoured the Internet for 45 minutes trying to find an article appropriate for the assignment. I am realizing that I am clearly not as adept at using the Internet as my high school students are.  But finally, by 8:15 p.m., I was ready to start reading and analyzing.

By 9:30 p.m., I finished one article and couldn't bear to go on to number two just yet. Not to say it was boring; I actually thought it was very interesting and even kind of fun.  Nevertheless, I had reached my "fun" capacity.  So, I caught up on the games that had collected since I started my homework, read some blogs, sent some crucial texts, and wrote on my blog (as evidenced here).

It is10:00 p.m. and I think article two will need to wait until Saturday morning.   I am instead going to try to knock off reading one of the four packets for my "Philosophy of Music Education" class. It will be a miracle if I make it through half of one before becoming too distracted to continue.

Whatever happened to the days where I could sit in the library for 6 hours and cram for a music history test the next day that I put off preparing for until the last second?

I am definitely out of practice procrastinating. I need to work on that.

Monday, August 20, 2012

A sweet end and a hopeful beginning!

Have you ever wondered how one spends his/her very last days of sanity?

Not sure how some people do it, but I chose to do two of my favorite things the weekend before both high school and graduate school began:

Puzzling...

Dave found the last piece under a pillow on the couch (still not convinced he didn't hide it there like my siblings and I used to do when we were little so we could put in the final piece).
Needless to say, he was very pleased to have the opportunity to put it in. We busted out this 1,000 piece puzzle in one day (about 7 hours total).
Notice something that is a bit of a theme in my relationship with Dave...?

 ...and seeing more dear friends.

Tessa's beautiful baby Noelle was blessed on Sunday.

I challenge you to find a cuter baby anywhere else on earth.  Impossible.

Dave was such a sweetheart to come!

Playing with Many...

...and loving it!

Today, all of that summer bliss came to a halting stop.  

On this day, August 20th, I claimed this beautiful building as my new second home:

  

The surprising part is I am really excited about it. I had my first day of classes today and being in the classroom as a student was kind of exhilarating! 

A little known fact: I almost pulled out of grad school. I have been really worried about it. The idea of juggling work and school really scares me, which is wimpy considering people do it all the time (along with having a spouse and children!). Thank goodness I had loving friends and family encouraging me to be brave (and helping me remember that Heavenly Father would love me either way).  My first class tonight has 8 people and we have a lot in common in terms of our careers and interests.  It's really cool to be in school with a much narrower focus that directly relates to what I do every day.

I know there is a lot of work ahead, but at least I have a little more confidence that it might be an enjoyable ride!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Golf 'n Stuff

As a little girl, Golf 'n Stuff was the only mini golf place I knew existed and it was really cool to go there, especially because we had to drive to a different city.  Here in Utah, Trafalgas with mini golf courses abound.

Dave and I drove down to Provo to see Sis perform in a modern dance senior project on 9/11.  She did a beautiful job and it was awesome to see her do a different dance form than ballroom, which has been her main focus for the past 6 years.  I love it that my sisters dance! It's something I can't do for myself.

After her performance, Dave and I went head to head with Christina and Jer at the glow in the dark mini golf course in Orem.  I told Tina I wanted competition and that's what they happily gave us! And won. I forgot just how much my sister loves winning :-P.


The next time we get together, we owe them treats!

Tina and I did have to laugh at how equally yoked we were as golfers.  As many of you know, the Houston girls are not known for their athletic finesse (with the exception of dance for my sisters).  Every time she would hit her ball and it would come rolling back, I would hit my ball and it would come rolling back, too.  Anytime we got it in the vicinity of the hole at all, we were always equidistant from it.  Towards the end, she pulled ahead, but there were several times when we just looked at each other and laughed at our close our hits were to one another. 




Birthday Boy!

Davy Wavy turned 29 this week! We got to celebrate it three times. Lucky dawg!
We had dinner with my parents and sisters on Saturday.


 
Even though his birthday wasn't for a few days, we surprised him with Magelby's cakes decorated by Annie Buddah.
Unrelated item, but Christina made my sister and me maxi skirts which she gave us at the dinner.  She's so talented!
 The next evening, we celebrated with Dave's family. Special thanks to Jenny, Dave's sister, for taking pics and sending them to me!


Jenny and her husband (pictured below) made cheesecakes in honor of Dave!

On his actual big day, someone knew about Dave's love for hot air balloon rides and left this outside his house at 5:30 a.m. before work.


And a little breakfast to go!





That evening, we went out with his roommates and friends to Tucanos. Can't say I was disappointed by his restaurant selection! It was fun to meet his friends and see them all interact. They were quite entertaining!

I would like to take this opportunity to say that I am very pleased that Dave was born :-).

Monday, August 6, 2012

Into the Wild

Dave works for KSL and tonight was their summer work party for all the employees! We got the entire Hogle Zoo to ourselves after a delicious BBQ dinner.


This train ride was absolutely...anti-climatic.

Dave, no! 


This little creature was my favorite part. He was smashing things with his flat little palm.



Look at his little tail curled around the branch!
We got free face painting! You should have seen some of the other faces that were wandering around the zoo. The face painters were pro!

Mama and baby!


I just love monkeys and apes and gorillas.


After telling Dave how zoos weren't my favorite thing growing up because of my indifference to animals, I started feeling very animal right-sy when I watched the big creatures in their little habitats. 
This is Dave contemplating how he would take this tiger on if the cage got destroyed.





Only 10% of camels have 2 humps!
Dave remembered climbing in here as a little boy. So of course we had to recreate that moment.
What a cute little turtle!

I can't compete in the dental department with this dude.
Dave is scared because...
...I am lurking around the corner.