Essential Swimwear

Hi! I just wanted to let everybody know that my good friend Brittney started a swimsuit line called Essential Swimwear! (Hopefully its okay that I'm advertising on my blog :) The suits are super cute AND very inexpensive. FINALLY cute suits at good prices! Check it out www.essentialswimwear.com

We love carnivals!

Yesterday I got to leave work early, and we went and played tennis...and I actually didn't do so bad this time! Plus we were stylin' in our tennis gear :) We had some sweet moves. I especially
like how awkward this pic looks.

By the end of our match Brady was feelin pretty good....

Brady asked me on a date, but he said it was a suprise! When we pulled up to a little carnival in Provo I was so excited! I have always wanted to go to those little seasonal carnivals. There's something about the lights and the games that makes me so happy :) Or it could be the greasy food and the funny things the crazy ride workers have to say. I don't know, but I was happy! What a good suprise!Just before we went in to party


I love ferris wheels :)


Can you find Brady? Can you find the crazy ride worker's leg? We were taking this pic when out of nowhere a creepy low voice says "Are you clowning around?" Apparently the worker was spying on us through that little crack. We showed him the pic and he absolutely genuinely loved it so much that asked us to email it to him...



It got a little chilly hence the old lady shawl.

Funnel Cake! Yummy

The view from the tippy top of the ferris wheel

My face in this picture is thinking "Ferris Wheels are a lot scarier than I remember." Then thinking "or maybe its just because I know this ferris wheel was folded up and packed into a small bag and will return to that small bag and be carted away to another state when we're gone." But I quickly pushed those thoughts away and enjoyed the amazing view!

Cruisin'

So, after a little spousal coaxing :), I'm posting my first message on our little blog here. And what better way to start out my blogging career than to post about what I'm most exited about right now! Thats right, if the picture and title don't give it away, Taryn and I are planning to go on a cruise for our summer celebration getaway! We figure that it would be good to get a little vacation in while its still just the two of us (and no, that is in no way a hint to an approximation of an addition to our family:) We have already visited the Caribbean for our honeymoon last year, so we are going to try the Mexican Riviera this time. We'll be road tripping down to San Diego on may 11th and sailing out on the 12th. Very exciting. So, this is just a little announcement of our summer plans, the pics and stories are sure to follow!

The D-town King

Brady sent me this vid to remind of home.... it put a smile on my face! Hope it does the same for you :)



And I thought I'd throw this one in for all you Mavs fans!!

Sweet Summer Treat

Today is a beautiful day! It's sunny and warm with a light breeze. Brady woke up and went to help move a couple in our ward to a new apt., then we decided to take advantage of the nice day by going and playing tennis. We came home and had a summer salad! I found this recipe online and made it a few weeks ago when my girlfriends came over, and they all loved it! Unfortunately, we ate it all before Brady got to try it. Today was the perfect day to make it again though! The combination of onions, balsamic vinegar, and sugar may seem odd, but it makes for a sweet summer treat with a kick! Here's the recipe, with my suggestions in red, if you want to try it:

* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1/2 cup olive oil
* 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar (instead of white vinegar use Balsamic)
* 1/4 teaspoon paprika
* 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* 1 tablespoon minced onion (use red onions)
* A bag of baby spinach
* Strawberries - cleaned, hulled and sliced
* 1/4 cup almonds, blanched and slivered

DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, olive oil, vinegar, paprika, Worcestershire sauce and onion. Cover, and chill for one hour. (I mix all ing. in the blender and it's really ready to go if you don't have an hour to wait)
2. In a large bowl, combine the spinach, strawberries and almonds. (I also added feta cheese) Pour dressing over salad, and toss (I only poured the dressing on the salad when I knew it would be eaten right away... otherwise just use it like a regular dressing where each person can add it to their own salad so that the lettuce/spinach doesn't get too soggy). Refrigerate 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Other good news... In the middle of our yummy lunch Brady got a call from his teacher, Dr. Karen, who told him that he got the TA position he had applied for!! I am really excited about this because besides being a good fun job, he'll also get an opportunity to do research for psychoneuroimmunology (which looks good on med school applications) and be able to get a really good letter of recommendation when he applies to medical school! I'm really excited for him :)

Harry Potter!!!

I know I just made a post, but I just remembered that I needed to make a separate post all about the fact that I just finished all 7 of the Harry Potter books! I had made a secret promise to myself that I would never read them simply because everyone kept going on and on about how great they were. And if they somehow found out that I hadn't read them, they would freak out on me and tell me I was stupid for not reading them... I had been feeling the need to start reading a good book when I was home for Christmas and the first one my eyes saw was Harry Potter. Curiosity overtook will power and I began the 1st book of the series. I finished it before I left, and when I got home I never stopped reading! All the sudden I found myself sneaking my book to work to get peeks at it during lunch, and planning to leave to pick up my friend at the last possible second so I could read for just a few more minutes. It took me 4 months to read all 7 of them, and I have to admit, if I wasn't busy with a full time job and life in general, I would have read them in 2 months if I could!

SO, yes they are amazingly written and surprisingly addicting great books... and your stupid if you haven't read them :)

Mill Harvest

If you don't already know, I am working full time for a food storage/emergency preparedness company called Mill Harvest. To be honest, I don't really even know what my title is. Let me explain, the company is very new and hasn't even technically launched (we're hoping to launch in May, keep your fingers crossed), so I do EVERYTHING from receiving and shipping (as in manual labor) to replying to all emails, customer service, answering phone calls, advertising, as well as all the bookkeeping and accounting. And just in case your wondering, I was not ever trained for any of this, I kind of had to just jump in and figure it out.

Despite all my complaining, it is a good job. There have been times when I have been seconds away from quitting, and then something will happen that makes it worth it to me again. I'm learning to be more assertive and I feel like this job has been and will continue to be great training for whatever I choose to do next.

Another great thing about this job is that Brady is working for the same company! He is the head of the sales department and has been able to focus on school and do this on the side. He just makes calls from home in his free time and he is such a good sales man!! It has been a great blessing to us to be able to have that extra income here and there!

During conference weekend we (Mill Harvest) were invited by Deseret Book to join their Conference Saturday Event! My boss left everything up to me, seeing as how I am in charge of all the advertising, but I didn't know it until he told me right then. I spent the week getting banners made, aprons made, buying the table decorations, as well as figuring out the set up of the table, getting all the order forms and handouts made, and trying to figure out how in the world we would be able to make samples without a kitchen. Luckily, with Brady's help, we got it all done and carted everything off to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building at 8am on Saturday morning. We set it all up and it looked GREAT! We had a prime spot with a window behind us and a really pretty view of the Salt Lake Temple. I was so sad when I realized that we forgot our camera. Luckily I have this cool MAC laptop that has a built in webcam/camera, so as a last resort I broke out the computer and took some pics to document the occasion.

Apparently the computer flips the images, so don't worry, the signs were not backwards!


It was a lot harder to take pictures from a laptop than you'd think!

We were there from 8am to about 4pm! We were definitely ready to go when the time came!

We talked to tons of people who were extremely interested and we received the contact info for about 400 people! It was a fun experience and definitely worth it!

Let the fun begin!

A few of our friends have blogs and wanted us to get one going as well. After talking about it with Brady, we thought it would be a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, as many of our friends are moving away so soon :( I'm not really sure what I will be posting on here in the future....but its gonna be FUN!