Why our Patio??

      I like to use this blog as our scrapbook/journal. I'm not very good at keeping either of those so I figure this can cover for those. I often include small things that have occurred in our lives so we can look back on and remember.
     Jason and I are concerned about the location of our patio because it seems to attract visitors. Right now we are a little weirded out but I figured in the future we can look back on our young married days and have a good laugh about our experiences in our first home.
    Our patio seems to be the place to visit if you are a scary creature. A while back we caught the wonderfully gross Jerusalem Cricket......(It's so disturbing to look at it. I hate it!)

      Today I was up bright and early so I got up made some breakfast and just relaxed until I needed to get ready for the day. I was enjoying my Sunday morning, then Max needed to be let out. I opened our sliding glass door and there was a large animal sitting on our step ladder. I jumped and screamed, Max jumped, and the animal jumped and fell of the ladder and hid under our grill. I think I scared him just as badly as he scared me. I hurried and locked the door (who knows what this animal was capable of) and ran to wake up Jason. I didn't know how to explain to him what I saw so I just said you have to wake up because there is a large animal on our patio! (He is such a trooper when it comes to these types of things, I hate spiders and so Jason often comes homes to cups on the ground where I have caught a spider for him to kill. It's a lot easier to throw a cup on it than my own hand!) Jason was so confused but got out of bed to see what on earth I was talking about. He was pretty amazed that a MUSK RAT was stuck on our patio! Well we caught the poor little guy in Max's kennel and set him free by the stream by our condo.

 Max is thinking"no way, I'm not going out there again"

 Caught!

Set Free!

       The Jerusalem cricket was far more scary than this musk rat. I CANNOT stand any bug, so that oversized monster was terrifying! I would rather have a musk rat any day over that horrifying bug. But we find it a little funny that these odd creatures seem to make their way to our patio...no one elses. We've been making guesses today for what we think will come visit us next. The creatures seem to go up in size each time so my next guess is a goose...maybe even a small deer? Who knows, we will see!

Jason's Birthday!

    On April 9th Jason turned the big 2-3! He's not into celebrating his own birthday but I made sure it was a fun weekend. His birthday was on a Monday which was kind of a bummer because we both had to work all day. Because of this I decided to start celebrating his birthday on the Saturday before. Jason hates surprises or anything extravagant, so I planned somewhat of a mellow but fun night for him. I made a reservation for dinner at Market Street Grill. We love that place and hadn't been for a long time so I thought it would be a good choice. After a yummy dinner and dessert we headed to Fat Cats for a little bowling. I didn't tell Jason that his good friend Christian and his fiance Hannah were going to bowl with us, so when we got there it was a nice surprise for him. We had a blast bowling with them! (Thanks for coming guys!)

     Jason's birthday didn't end there. On Sunday we first headed to my parent's house for a little Easter egg hunt. My mom made it really fun and the prizes were great! Thanks mom! Then we headed to Jason's parent's house to celebrate Easter and Jason's birthday. Korby had a cute cake made up with Ty and his picture on it to celebrate. Tyler's birthday was in March but he lives in Arizona so it was fun to be able to celebrate both birthdays on Easter. (Except when Ty blew out all the birthday candles......;)

    Since Monday was Jason's actual birthday I still wanted to do something to celebrate. So I arranged to go out to dinner with our families. We went to one of Jason's favorite restaurants, Biaggis. It was so fun to have both of our families at dinner with us. We wished Jason's siblings could've made it too. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture....oh well. I think Jason had a great birthday weekend!

     Since this is Jason's birthday post he deserves to be bragged about ;) We have celebrated 7 birthdays together now! When Jason and I went out to dinner for his birthday we reflected on the ways we had celebrated in the past. We have had many great memories together. It's fun to look back on and see how we've changed and how different our lives are now than they were when we first started dating. We have been married a year and a half now and time is flying! I wouldn't say that things have been smooth sailing for us but I could honestly not be happier than I am right now. And it's all because of Jason. I truly am so blessed to have him! His dedication and "work hard" attitude blesses our life daily. 

     Yesterday was a terrible day for me. I had a really long hard work week that was wearing me out. On top of that I have been trying to map out future plans for myself, I had a math test that I had studied for hours for and I felt like I failed, at some point I needed to work on my church lesson, the dishes needed to be done, the laundry was piling up, and I felt more overwhelmed than ever. This week wasn't the worst thing in the world, I was honestly just feeling sorry for myself. Jason also had school until 9pm so I just wanted to sit and do nothing while I waited for him to come home. I found some chocolate and watched a little grey's anatomy and sulked haha. When Jason came home he talked to me about all my frustrations and kept asking me what he could do to help me. He even watched the end of Grey's with me, which he doesn't like very much haha. Before Jason left for work this morning he gave me a kiss goodbye and told me to do nothing today but relax. Then he told me that I didn't need to worry about cleaning our condo because last night after I fell asleep he tidied up a little. I was sleepy so I just said okay. When I got up and walked into the living room I realized how much cleaning he did. He cleaned the kitchen and living room! It made me feel so much better to have those chores out of the way. That was so sweet of him to take a few things off of my plate so I could feel less stressed. I really love this guy! He is always looking for ways to make me happy. I am truly BLESSED! I love you Jason, I hope you had a great birthday and I can't wait to celebrate many more! You deserve the best!

Girl Time

    I was very fortunate to have such great friends growing up. We had a group of 8 girls that were inseparable. 6 of us now are married, one lives in DC, and soon one is moving to Florida. Our schedules rarely match up these days so when we can get at least 4 of us together at once it's a big deal. This past weekend was conference which meant that on Saturday night it was priesthood for all the guys. So my friends Michelle, Vanessa, and Liz were able to get together for some quality girl time. We started the night with dinner at Citris Grill then headed to Menchie's for some yummy frozen yogurt. The rest of the evening consisted of some great catch up convos. My friends are some great girls and I'm lucky to have them!

Ski Day!

    My friend Vanessa and I used to go skiing at least once a week in high school. I loved every bit of it. After high school, season passes just got more and more expensive and my schedule got busier and busier. So I haven't been able to go skiing for quite a while. I was given a ski pass this year and I haven't been able to use it until today! It was so nice to get on the slopes again. I forgot how much fun it is! My best friend, Vanessa, was able to come with me. She is moving to Florida in May so we are trying to get as much time together as possible. We had such a blast skiing together just like old times. It was a gorgeous day on the slopes, we couldn't have asked for better weather!

Thanks for joining me on the slopes today!