WOOHOOO!!!!

40 pages of reports...

5 projects...
1 Whack-a-mole game...
and 5 drawings later...

We are done with classes for this semester!

All we have left are our finals and then we're

HOME FREE!!!!

Is this a cause to celebrate?!
I think yes.

Will we be eating icecream sundaes tonight?!
Definitely.

One last thing...

I had to do a creativity project this semester. I decided to design a home that was based on all the eras we studied throughout the semester. This is what I came up with. Enjoy!

Dear Brother Heath...

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

You are assigned to labor in the Fortaleza Brazil Mission.

My little brother is going on a mission!!! Since when did he grow-up?!

Branden opened his call tonight, with my family on Skype and Dallin and I anxiously waiting on speaker-phone. We are SOO excited for him, and Dallin is ready to start teaching him Portuguese right away!! He reports to the MTC in Brazil on September 7th so he still has a little while... but I'm fine with being able to spend a little more time with him this summer. :)



We love you Branden!! Congrats on the mission call!!

General Conference

We were blessed to get tickets for the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference. When we found out on Friday that we were going to be able to go I got super excited to go take pictures on Temple Square with all the blooming flowers; and to go to conference of course.

Saturday we had BEAUTIFUL weather. I was wearing flip-flops, a t-shirt and capris. It almost got up to 70 degrees!!!

Today, Sunday morning, Dallin and I wake-up and get ready to go to eat breakfast with Brandt and Liz Jensen while watching the morning session... we walk out the door... and Provo is covered in a fresh layer of snow.

Yesterday was summer. Today we jumped back into winter. Utah is so confusing.

Despite the spring/winter wonderland, we had a wonderful time at conference.

I absolutely love hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing, and to see and listen to all the apostles and leaders of our church.

I love this gospel. I'm so grateful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The light at the end of the tunnel....

We are getting SOOO close!! Tuesday night I registered for my LAST semester of college! Wow. What am I supposed to do once I'm done with school?!

Here's some of the numbers....

19 total days until we are finished with this semester.
8 days of class.
7 days of work.
2 reading days.
5 days of finals.
and about a million assignments, papers and projects to go.

I am so stoked to get a break from Provo and to head to Portland for a little while.

Now I need to make up for being a slacker and update the blog as to all that has happened in the last month, or at least the important things. :)

About 3 weeks ago Andy, Julie and Brayden came to Provo for the weekend and it was SO much fun to catch up, meet Brayden, go out to eat, and sit around playing games.





We love you guys!! and LOVED holding Brayden!







In my family there has always been the tradition of eating a green dinner on St. Patrick's Day. I couldn't handle eating normal colored food (even if Dallin was a little weirded out.) We enjoyed a green "breakfast" for dinner. Green pancakes, eggs and avocado-banana shakes. I thoroughly enjoyed it. YAY for tradition!

We also celebrated the Cougars making it to the Sweet 16 by having a big ward get-together to watch the game. Everyone brought snacks and watched the game in the multipurpose room. We brought blue and white cupcakes to show some school spirit.

Dallin creatively arranged the cupcakes to form a Y (can you see it?) We did frost them, but they were whisked away before I was able to snap a picture. Even though BYU lost, we still had a blast watching the game and cheering/booing along with our ward family.

Our good friend Brandt Jensen is in the band for Young Ambassadors and he was able to get us tickets to one of their shows. It was amazing! Dallin and I were so impressed that those guys can sing and dance at the same time. One guy even did a back flip while singing a solo!! Pretty impressive. Thanks Brandt and Liz for getting us the tickets!!

I got an internship for the fall. It was a huge relief when I got the call saying I was accepted. An internship is required for my graduation, and since I only have one more semester I have obviously put it off until the very last moment. I will be working at Curves. I am so excited. I am even "forced" to work out 3 times a week at the facility... darn. :P I think it'll be a great opportunity.

And yes... I will most likely be leading Zumba classes. haha!

Anyway, that's about it for us. We wrote our To-Do list of all the things we need to finish before leaving for Portland. We're going to try and check-off at least one thing a day until we are done.

Wish us luck!!

SUCCESS!!!!

As Cassie mentioned about a month ago, we started a diet for one of her classes. Though most of the time it consisted of me complaining about not being able to eat the sweets/meats that I wanted, I was grateful for what she was helping me do. Take a look of some of the wonderful things that we were able to feed on during the past 4 weeks!

Most of the snacking consisted of, but was not limited to, these wonderful foods....

And Cassie was even nice enough to let me get some of these....
(Whole Grain of course)

Fruits and veggies were always a must...



Breakfast was sometimes cereal, other times some fresh squeezed orange juice and toast. YUM!



We had some amazing dinners! Including roasted potatoes, asparagus, veggie pizzas, chicken, quiche, and so much more!!

Overall it was a wonderful experience that we both enjoyed. The results? Cassie lost five pounds and I was able to lose eleven!!! Needless to say, we'll be sticking with this diet (although I am going to allow the occasional red meat).

And as a surprise and promise to my love that I'll keep up the healthy lifestyle, I'm giving her my word right here and now that this summer in Portland we're going to at least run 10K. There... I said it. And everyone can me hold me to it!

Birthday-ness!

Well... a week ago was Dallin's 23rd birthday!!

We were both extremely busy so we had to hold off on most celebrations until the weekend. But, we found a little time and ate a delicious dinner, opened a few presents and ate cake. (yes, I allowed a little diet rule-breaking.) I tried a new recipe and made Cinnabon Cake. It was quite delicious... especially since we haven't had sweets in a few weeks.

Thanks to everyone who sent Dallin texts, messages, stopped by and called to chat and sing to him. You made his day. :)

So after a very hectic week, the real birthday celebrations began!

Friday night we went out to dinner at Zupas. One of our favorite restaurants that also allows us to eat within the limits of the diet. Except for the free dessert they were giving away that night.... oops! Because of the free dessert deal the restaurant was packed! We ended up letting another couple share our table with us because so many people were standing around with no where to sit. (People were actually going outside to sit at those tables!!)

After dinner we went out to the movies. We decided to splurge and went to the REAL theatre. We saw Rango... neither of us can decide what we think of it. It had some funny parts, but I don't think I would watch it again. Oh well, it was still extremely fun.

Saturday was another fun-filled day. We started in the morning by picking up our Bountiful Basket.

Then we were off to work, next we watched the BYU basketball team become Champions!!!

We did a whole lot of bargain shopping, our fridge is literally FULL of fruits and veggies. (I don't think I've seen a fridge this full since I lived with 5 other girls my freshman year. The only difference is our food is all healthy! lol) Almost every item we bought was either on sale or we had a coupon... it was great!

One of my presents to Dallin was tickets to a Vocal Point concert.

The concert was awesome! I am always blown away by their talent, and by what those guys can do.

OH yes, we decided we didn't want to make dinner after the concert so... we went to Zupas again. haha! We will need to have a little more control this week.... but we just use the excuse that it was for Dallin's birthday and then we don't feel guilty! :)

Last night, to finish off the week, we decided to finally open up our coconuts and figure out what we are going to do with them. It was quite an adventure!

Saturday.

Today started off nice and early. Dallin and I woke up around 6:30... something I haven't done in a while! Got dressed in warm clothes, grabbed a laundry basket and walked out the door into....


Yes. A Winter Wonderland. (I'm not going to lie, I'm ready for spring.)

We drove to Orem where we picked up our Bountiful Basket! We heard from some dear friends how amazing of a deal this is, so we decided we needed to try it out. You sign up at the beginning of the week and on Saturday, nice and early, you pick up a basket of fruit and a basket of veggies.
Here's what was in our basket this week....


2 mangoes
1 box of strawberries
4 Roma tomatoes
8 miniature pears
2 crowns of broccoli
1 head of romaine lettuce
1 bag of butter gold potatoes
9 bananas
1 bunch of asparagus
and
2 coconuts!!! (if anyone has suggestions of what to do with the coconut it would be much appreciated. haha!)


The best part-- it was only $15.

One last thing.

Happy 8 months to my hubby/best friend!!! I love you so much. Thanks for all you do for me; including doing this diet/exercise program. Even though you hate it.
You're the greatest. <3