May and June: EXTENDED Family Newsletter

The summer has been flying by, and I have gotten very lazy at updating my blog. We have done a lot, including celebrating many birthdays, going to a wedding, going to 7 Peaks (MY FIRST TIME EVER!), and ushering for two plays at BYU, but right now it feels like my life revolves around doing dishes. Matthew has been very busy (and very late coming home from school - two days a week he has a lab class from 7-10 pm) with his summer since he started taking anatomy for the latter part of summer term. Apparently students in class were warned the first day to say goodbye to everyone they knew for the next seven weeks... This class by itself would be bad enough, but Matthew also continues to work from 6-10 every morning at Ancestry.com, and drives to Alpine every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to his internship at Alpine Fitness and Physical Therapy (fortunately, the hardest thing required of him here is to work out with the other interns and patrons; while the internship is unpaid, getting a free workout three times a week has its perks!). With every spare hour of Matthew's being spent on studying, and with me still enjoying a vacation from school, that translates to my being in charge of meals, dishes, and DID I MENTION DISHES? Even with our low-effort meals, it's hard to believe how much two people can dirty in a day! 

Here follows the abridged version of the past two months, with excerpts from my journal to assist:

May 6, 2012

On Saturday, we went to Sarah's Harp Festival performance at BYU. It turned out to be pretty stressful! We walked in during the middle of a performance and had to tiptoe to some good seats. Then they called Sarah's name and number and she was not there! We waited until the session ended before I tried calling Sarah, Hannah, and then home. Halfway through the second session, Sarah appeared. Whew! It turned out that her teacher had made a mistake in scheduling her, and she was also late in arriving because of bad traffic due to a marathon taking place in Provo.

May 13, 2012

Today is Mother's Day. Matthew washed my car for a present - he is such a sweetheart. I have a feeling that our ward is much more aware of it than the singles wards I've attended for the past five years. At least, there are singing Primary kids and two youth speakers and I overheard the bishopric whispering conspiratorially about "the surprise." I could be a mother pretty soon. I feel like so many of my friends have such a head start! But I also enjoy my freedom with Matthew. For example, we were able to drop everything and go see The Avengers yesterday, on a whim. It was AWESOME and neither of us regretted it. Of course, Matthew prepared me by convincing me to first see Iron Man (the first one was better than the second), Thor (probably the most important one to see before seeing The Avengers), Captain America (I kind of spaced out during most of it), and Batman (JUST KIDDING! I totally know he isn't an avenger, thanks to Matt's lessons). So I felt pretty smart and got a lot of the jokes.

One more thing happened this week - I cut my hair! Sarah and Mom cut it, actually. It's quite a bit shorter than it was, but just barely long enough for a ponytail, so I'm happy. And I decided I just don't care what other people think about my hair. It's not an amazingly cute cut or anything, but I think I kind of look like Vin (from Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series). And I'm okay with that. :)

May 20, 2012

The van's transmission died again and Dad and Mom decided not to fix it. They already have a new car, a Subaru that is sort of a pale purple color. Hannah named it "Barney." I am sad to see the van go. We have had it for probably close to twenty years. Not to mention how big a help it's been in moving things around. Here are some of my memories of the van: Mama hydroplaning. Getting hit by the redlight runner near the karate studio. Driving to and from karate. Driving on vacations. Driving Yeller and the cats to the vet. Getting my thumb stuck in the door when Grandpa and Grandma visited. Learning to drive the van. Driving errands with Mama. Moving to Sandy and then to our apartment in Provo with Matthew driving the van. So yeah. I'm a little sad. We are going over today for the twins' seminary graduation and I want to take some pictures of the van.

The last of the old cars

Seminary graduation!

Matthew and I saw The Hunger Games on Saturday. It was SO good! I loved the casting from the beginning, all except Peeta, who had to grow on me. But it was sort of like the book in that he has to grow on Katniss too. By the end, I thought he was awesome. I definitely would see it again.

May 27, 2012

My one year anniversary is tomorrow. What a surreal sentence. Am I really married? Has it really been a year? Wow. I am absolutely not ready to give up being a newlywed. Maybe in twenty years. Eh, probably not even then. Here's what I'm hoping to see in the next five years: Diplomas! For me and Matt. I want to be done done DONE with school! A part-time job might be nice, though. Kids! I want a cute little boy like Matt and a spunky girl. New apartment/city/bed! Sort of kidding on the last one. But seriously, I hope we aren't going to live in Provo forever. And a queen-sized bed would be so nice. I fantasize about it sometimes. Money! Ha ha ha. But seriously, I hope we aren't in debt. Family drama! Of the good kind. Like adopting a dog. Siblings getting married. Me freaking out about turning thirty. Etc.

Happy anniversary. Emphasis on "Happy."

Look at this adorable photo of little Matthew! I can't wait to have a little boy like that.

June 10, 2012

Today is Matthew's birthday! This Saturday is Andy and Melanie's wedding! I went running to Matt's work once this week. It was fun and felt good, but I got worried that I was sunburned (the wedding), and so have decided not to run again outside until after Saturday. Other than that, I don't really have any plans for the wedding. I'll just show up, hang around, eat food, take pictures, kiss Matthew, and sigh in happy relief that we are already done with all the wedding/honeymoon/first-year stress.

Matthew's birthday celebration, with all the trimmings

We were VERY excited to get this card signed by nephew Edward Miller!

This past week was pretty fun. We went to see Arabian Nights and The Mikado at BYU. Both were great, but we enjoyed Arabian Nights more, I think. It had more surprises, humor, a better plot, and really good seats! (We were on row E!) However, some of the songs in The Mikado really cracked us up, especially a certain one which we have entitled "Tit-willow."

June 16, 2012

Today is Andy and Melanie's wedding day! I was on a huge high throughout my entire wedding day. It all just got better and better. Really, nothing went wrong (compared to all that went right). I hope Melanie's day is just as perfect as mine was. I also hope we get to take home leftovers. That would be awesome.

Whoooooo's going to get marrrrrried neeeeeeext?

June 17, 2012

Today is Father's Day. Matthew woke up before me and made us crepes and scrambled eggs! What an unbelievable sweetheart! He then gave me his Father's Day present from the bishopric at church. Awww... It is kind of sad that fathers mostly just get rebuked a lot in Church. I for sure know I owe just as much to my dad as I do to my mom for loving and raising me. I always felt like my dad loved and tried to understand me without judging me. He consoled me when I was upset, and helped me to see good things in my mom when I was really mad at her. Both Matthew and I have wonderful fathers who put up with a lot (that sounds bad, but it's totally true. I know I'm lucky to be blessed with Matthew to help our family up with me, too...).

Two great fathers!

July 1, 2012

We celebrated Mary Alma's 28th birthday last Saturday. And we went to Seven Peaks last Thursday. I wasn't happy at the size of the lines to ride everything, but they actually moved pretty quickly and we got to do a lot of fun rides in under two hours. I was only scared of two rides. The first one gave me a pretty bad wedgie. I thought I was bleeding, but I was just sore and in pain. We did the second scary one right after that, and I totally thought it was going to be easy and fun. Then the three boys in front of us chickened out at the very top, and I was like, "Whaaaa? But this one's supposed to be FUN! What wusses!" And then we took off, and I realized why the boys chickened out because I knew absolutely in that moment for sure that we were going to DIE. SO yeah. I repented of my pride. The last ride we did was maybe my favorite, even though it was super short. It was called the Vortex, but Matthew and I kept calling it the Toilet, because you swirled around in a circle and then got "flushed" out the exit. It was fun, fast, very "solid" feeling (you know what I'm talking about), and the line was way short. Perfect! After all the rides we could stand, we floated around in the "Lazy River" thing, which was fun and reminded me how much I love the water (when it isn't scaring me to death). I felt a little braver afterwards, even to the point that I convinced Matthew to go with me off the diving board at the Orem Rec Center that weekend. We did cannonballs and both landed on the exact same place - our left hip - and boy, it smarted! We weren't too keen to be brave again. I admire the people at the pool who can do all sorts of flips and crazy dives, but it's just never been my thing. I am not really a big thrill-seeker or risk-taker, I guess. But I love the water. And I love the ocean.

The birthday girl!

The un-birthday girls

Goofing around