::If you love me SPOON ME::

No this is not a request, but another new frozen yogurt place in Provo. Spoon Me frozen yogurt is made from low-calorie, all-natural ingredients, with 3 choices of yogurt (green tea, all natural, or acai). After you've chosen the base you want (acai is heaven) then you get to choose your toppings which range from fresh berries to carob chips to Cap’n Crunch. Or all of the above.

Now I've tried Fro-yo...twice...and I actually hated it both times. Sorry. I have not tried sub-zero and the red mango, but until that happens I will be content to eat Spoon Me frozen yogurt everyday, twice a day, for the rest of my life. In my opinion this place takes the cake in the genre of ice cream/frozen yogurt. I have yet to meet anybody who shares the same love for it as I do, which is why I felt the need to express this addiction on my blog. Oh, and just in case you're wondering it has no artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners. No fat. And no table sugar. And the company uses only eco-friendly products from their cups to the spoons.

This pic was taken before Spoon Me opened, because I was sooo excited for it to come to Provo (we had it once in SLC before, so I literally shouted YESSSSSS and threw my arms up in triumph when I saw it was coming)

::murphy's law::

Lately, life in the Hansen household has been a little too boring, a little too normal, and maybe just a little too easy. Then today happened.

Murphy's Law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and its days like today that almost convince me that this is true!

This morning I went into work as usual, but about 15 minutes after arriving I was called into talk with the VP of the company. He informed me that I was being laid off.... and yes he did use that term. Apparently Mill Harvest is going to take a break until after Christmas (funny! that's the same thing they told me last year) and when they get back to working on it, they'll give me a call...? Are you serious? Like I would EVER work for you again. So basically what they are asking is that I leave for 5-6 months, while they sit on their hands, and then come back and work for them again. Awesome.
Now the fact that Mill Harvest is "taking a break" is not a total shocker since I've been doing a lot of work for one of his other companies. However, it was perfectly bad timing. I have been planning on quitting for about 2 months now, so mostly all that was hurt was my pride. (Ah the sweet satisfaction of the words "I quit!") Oh, and did I mention that I was not offered any severance? And school starts next week so that gives me Monday (which is a holiday) to look for a job. I’m sure you also realize that this is a college town with two Universities that bring in more than 50,000 people who have already been hired and are working their first few weeks at their new jobs. The hiring period is very much over, which makes the timing of this firing even harder. This wouldn’t even be as big of a deal, but we just paid tuition on the 26^th (3 days ago) and so we are as poor as we will ever be! (Don't worry, we've been saving, and we are and will be fine financially. This was not written for sympathy or to make everyone worry about us ;))

And so here is where we can choose to believe that EVERYTHING is going wrong in our lives. Or... we can believe that we are being guided through life by a loving Heavenly Father who knows us so well, that sometimes he has to give us these challenges because we're not quite "understanding" what we should be doing.

I've recently been thinking about going back to school. I really wanted to, and Brady has been urging me to, but its been a struggle with myself as I was having a hard time knowing if this was a good time and just having the motivation to go back. After crying to Brady about being "laid off" from a job I've been complaining to him about for months now, I did find comfort in knowing I have other things going on in my life now, like school. Also, by "chance" I started looking for another job at the beginning of this week. Not because I was given any hint that I was going to be fired by the end of the week, but because I just felt it was time. I found out yesterday that I have a 2nd interview for another job. Lucky? I actually see it as a blessing.
And after I came home at 9:30 am on Friday, my sweet husband was doing his best to comfort a crazy over emotional wife and took me to see a matinée, since I'm usually working at that time. And would you believe it if I told you that when we walked out of the theater our car was surrounded by not 1, not 2, no not even 3, but 4 Policemen and a drug dog? Well, believe it. We asked the officers if it was okay for us to get in our car and go home, and they informed us that the cars on either side of us were broken into and robbed. We were told to check our car to see what was stolen. As we looked inside and out of our car, we saw that not a thing had been touched. Another sweet blessing...

And so no, I don't believe Murphy's Law. But I do believe that our Heavenly Father works in mysterious (sometimes frustrating! ;) ways, and I have complete faith in Him. No, our life isn't perfect no matter how many fun/good/exciting things we post on our blog, and there are several days that I come home and complain to Brady that I'm fat, ugly, and no body likes me. But in the end I am always reminded that I'm not alone, and that besides all the bad things going on in my life, there ARE also good things going on.

Oh.... and by the way, we just saved a TON on our car insurance! By switching to Geico! I'm totally serious too!

Sick an Tired of Student insurance (opinions welcome!)

The Fleecing of college students, where does it end?! If raising rent prices and paying about 10-15c more per gallon of gas here in provo isnt enough(not to mention that UT is still about 20c above the national gas average), how about charging students the rest of their non existent paycheck for sub par health insurance. Maybe some of have experienced this? a little something called paying $400-$500 a semester for student health insurance...it gets lumped into tuition and is automatically charged so im sure there are plenty of students who go throughout their entire student career and never knew just how much they were paying. Well, after a year of this, I'm out! But we do need insurance. I've been looking at few different options to keep our monthly payment low, which means a high deductible. This is fine since Tare and I really dont go to the doctors much, and our next big expense would be whenever we have a kid. So, I was thinking of getting a plan that allowed me to start an HSA. I found one recently that covers both of us for about $70+ a month (thats a$5000 deductible, 7mil coverage, etc).
Without an HSA it would drop to about $50+ a month. So, I wanted to post this and see if any of you kind people who read our periodic ramblings knew if this was a good way to go, and what has worked for you.
We are open to any and all suggestions, or rants about insurance in general...but be advised if you post anything about moving to universal, socialized national Heathcare, be prepared to have a very LONG follow up from me! ;)
Thanks!

::hello shredder::

So, this weekend I came across the blog of a little fashionista named Tavi. You should probably look it up if you haven't, because its fantastic. (tavi's blog). She's 12 years old and she reviews trends and talks about the clothes she buys and what not. She has all of these designers and store owners and artists and people sending her free stuff and writing articles about her. I laugh out loud at her posts because she is a clever little one too. And I like her despite the fact that she is not a fan of Harry Potter. Now I ask you this question: where does she get off being cool? She's not supposed to do that for AT LEAST another 6 to 8 years. How are people becoming famous off of blogs? One more question: Why is my blog not famous. Wait. I already know the answer to that. But seriously, no one would appreciate free clothes and fame as much as I. New favorite quote of my life "That hat makes you look like a hacky sack". And this picture... just murdered me.

::Anniversary Weekend::

For our anniversary, we decided to do something that neither of has ever done.... have a Spa day!! We thought it would be a romantic/fun/relaxing way to celebrate. We drove down to St. George (which is something else I've been wanting to do for awhile since I've never been) just to get away, and got to stay in a nice hotel suite. With the suite we also got free lunch and dinner at the riverwalk grill, a round of golf, and sparkling cider, truffles, and ice cream in our room!

After checking in on Friday, we went to the temple to do sealings. It was the perfect way to remember our own sealing, and all of the blessings we received. It may sound odd, but it was also very romantic be able to kneel across the alter again and smile and look into each other's eyes, just like we did a year ago! It brought back all of the emotions we had then of love and excitement :) We have a little slide show at the bottom of this post where you can see some of the fun we had, but I'll just give you a quick summary:

-went to the temple
-went out to eat at a sit down Pizza Hut (how often do you see sit down Pizza Huts?)
-went to the St. George Day Spa and had massages and facials
-drove up Snow Canyon, took a walk and some pics
-had dinner at the Riverwalk Grill
-exchanged fun gifts (just to clarify our gift to each other was the massage and facial, but we each did a little gift)
-went swimming
-gave each other pedicures (I had to take advantage of Brady not being able to say no :)
-had lunch
-went golfing

I gave Brady all "paper" gifts for fun, since the traditional 1 yr. gift is paper (ie: a puzzle i made, a poem, and a pinata filled with old notes from each other) This isn't made out of paper, but I made a dvd of our "photo montage" that we were supposed to have at our wedding but never did. So if anyone wants to come over and watch pics of us as little babies, growing up, and then dating, we actually have a video now!

Brady gave me an awesome jewelry box that he noticed I've needed and wanted because all my jewels get all tangled, broken, and lost.

*sometimes we like to act like we're taking pictures, and then take a video to confuse the other person. So if you're wondering why we're just looking at the camera smiling and not saying anything in the videos its because only the person filming knew it was a vid. lol. Oh and I don't know why this whole thing is underlined. Sorry.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

::1 Year Ago::

This weekend we celebrated our 1 year anniversary! We can't believe we have been married for a year! We both have said it feels like we've been together forever, and at the same time it has flown by. One thing is for sure, we love each other more than we ever have and are so happy to think of what the future holds for us! I was going to put our pics up from our fun spa weekend in St. George, but our camera is out of battery, and I have no way to charge it. So, I got this idea from a friends blog to post pics from each month of our marriage (because I'm so sure you just can't wait to see our anniversary pics, haha). I had to steal pics from some other blogs to help me along the way. Anyway, enjoy :)

August 17, 2007

September 2007: in our first apartment,
right after our utah reception

October 25, 2007: Brady's Golden Birthday

More Oct. 2007: Our cute autumn door

November 2007: Thanksgiving in Oregon

December 2007: Christmas in Texas
(fun day at Six Flags)

January 2008: Jeff leaving on his
mission to Switzerland!

February 5, 2008: My birthday surprise
(Brady had all my friends surprise me
when I walked in to eat gelatto)

More February 2008: Our Valentine's
Day weekend at Zermatt!

March 2008: Brady's family came to visit
and took us out to Red Robin :)

April 2008: Mill Harvest Show

May 2008: Mexican Cruise!! (Snorkeling in Cabo)

June 2008: Camping in Capitol Reef

July 2008: 4th of July in Oregon!

August 1 2008: Avery's birthday :)

....and our anniversary pics are coming soon!

And we look forward to many more fun months ahead.....

::Goose Girl::

I just finished reading Goose Girl by Shannon Hale! I only had 4 chapters left, and I usually read at least one chapter before I go to bed, but I was so tired after staying up to watch the Olympics (Michael Phelps is my new hero!!! and girls gymnastics is so fun to watch.... and even though I'm still questioning the true ages of the Chinese gymnasts, they were amazing...). I told myself to read at least one, since I was getting so close to the end... and I feel like I've been reading this forever and I needed to finish! Of course after reading that one chapter, things were getting intense, so I decided to go ahead and read one more, and by the end of that one it was pretty serious and I HAD to keep reading! I ended up reading to the end, and I was actually surprised at how much I liked it! Don't get me wrong, I had liked it the whole time, but I felt like the story was dragging on at first, and I wasn't reading as fast as I like to, so it literally was dragging on. There at the end, I was pleasantly surprised to the point that I feel like there really needs to be a movie made after this book! I guess I feel that way about almost every book though :)

This is a fun and easy read, with a little fantasy and a little love and tons of action (especially at the end). But even the fantasy part was written in a way that made it almost believable, or maybe I'm just a dreamer! Either way this is a really interesting book... apparently the retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Goose Girl".

"A tale about learning to rescue yourself, rather than falling accidentally into happily ever after"

US Boys Gymnasties

Ok, who saw last nights heroics performed by the big underdog mens team America in artistic Gymnastics? I did, and it was Amazing, Exciting, Outstanding and...Embarrassing? Don't be to quick to judge me as a cynic or communist, I love the Olympics and I am personally convinced that the US is the greatest country on earth. I also dont want to draw any attention away from the outstanding athleticism and teamwork displayed by the US mens Gymnasts. It was so exciting to see the team, who wasn't even expected to be a medal contender of any kind, surge to the front and become the team to beat. And we were all amazed by the nerves, poise and skill of the pommel horse alternate who stepped up and solidified the bronze medal for team USA in the wake of the few, but somewhat critical mistakes made by his preceding teammates. All of this is what I watch and cheer for when I watch the Olympics. (and yes, tare and I yell and jump off the couch multiple times throughout any given event:)
So, what was the stink I'm putting down? In one word, immaturity. Who is this "team leader" from Houston who acts like he's competing in a high school regional tourney? Although he was by far the best Gymnast on the team, and one of the best of the evening, our little hero greeted each of his teammates with some pee wee league cliche comment that seemed either a bit off or a bit lengthy. For example, "yeah, thats right, lets do this tonight what we told ourselves that we were going to do!" and "thats who we be, thats who we be!!" and "what?!, what?! thats right!"...and on and on. He even dictated when it was and was not ok for his teammates to give high fives. And all this on (inter)national TV!
I know these are youngsters and all, but I was just thinking, since they have a warm-up coach, a head coach, a technical coach , a choreographer, an on and on, why can't we provide a PR coach, or an acceptable chants/congratulations coach? I may be alone in this, but I just dont care anymore, it had to be said! If you are going to represent me internationally, you not only have to be an outstanding athlete, but also a smooth talking diplomat, and as cool as the Fonz. And lets be honest for a second, if you are going to be dorky in the name of America, at least win the Gold ;)
just a thought

::big weekend::

This was a big weekend for us since we had a wedding, Ryan's birthday, and the beginning of the Olympics!! We went to Tyson's wedding (Brady's cousin) in Richfield, and were able to attend the temple sealing, which was in the Manti Temple. It was a beautiful morning, and meaningful to us since this is the first sealing we've been to since attending our own almost a year ago! Somehow we forgot to bring our camera again, so we had to rely on the iphone camera. The wedding was on 8-8-08 which is such a fun day to get married, but it also meant that we missed a lot of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. After the beautiful outdoor reception, we caught the parade of nations and then the lighting of the torch/cauldron. We all agreed that it was awesome.

Since we missed everything before the parade of nations, we tried to find some video of what we missed on the internet. I found this gem that is apparently the only video of the opening ceremonies left on the internet (unless you count the crappy cell phone recordings) due to NBC quickly retracting everything. I love how they have drummers with lights on their drums and they collectively mimic an enormous LED display screen. Watching the countdown made me wish I was there to feel the energy that must have been pulsating through that arena! After the countdown and some kind of introduction, the drumming continued with ease and beauty. Seeing the hundreds of Chinese drummers beating in perfect unison not only grabbed my attention, but also demanded my respect.....and made me hope that we never go to war with China :) If you missed the opening ceremonies, hurry and watch this before it becomes "unavailable" too! p.s. the commentary is in Dutch...

Olympics 2008 Opening Ceremony - video powered by Metacafe


I LOVED the amazing fireworks at the end that went on and on! It was so beautiful! If anyone finds a place to watch more of the opening ceremonies, let us know! From the pictures it looks like they put on an amazing show :)

Ryan's b-day was on Saturday, the 9th! We had a fun family party at Bajio's, where we shared memories and relaxed! It was nice to see Ryan and Steph outside of the hospital laughing and taking a breather, and so fun that the whole family could be there together :) Of course we forgot our camera again, so forgive the blurriness of the pic....

Happy 27th Ryan!

America's most popular restaurant

Benihana's of course! Yesterday we went out to dinner with Brady's aunt and all her family! They get together on the first Monday of every month and go out to eat. Since Brady's mom is in town, they invited us to come along with them! I ordered the Benihana Excellence, and mmm mmm, it was good. And apparently its America's most popular restaurant.

We didn't have our camera with us or we would have taken more pics of the family, but all we had was Brady's phone. This is not the best pic of me, but it shows how cool this place is. It is not just off the street, you have to park and walk a little bit to it. Its just in the middle of eveything, and there's a cool little garden next to it, and a big green grass field the little kids were running around in. I had so much fun getting to know more of my extended family. They were extremely nice and out going, and we just chatted the entire time! Lately though, I've been a little homesick for my own family :( I feel so lucky to get to visit Brady's family so much, and get to know them, but it has started to make me jealous that I never get to see mine! But I do love the Hansen's!

Afterwards, we stopped by the hospital to see Ry, Steph, and baby Avery, and she is just a little fighter! She is still doing unbelievably well and has no sign of anything out of the ordinary (except that she's under 2 pounds), and has started to take milk which will be wonderful for helping her grow. She has totally stolen all the nurses hearts! They have taken pictures of her, and made scrapbook pages for her, and just taken such good care of her!

She's Here!!!!

After a very long day and night, our sweet niece, Avery, made her big entrance into the world! She is 2 and half months early, so she's a little bundle tipping the scales at 1 lb 15 oz and is 12 3/4 in.

After just getting back from a little road trip to Oregon, Steph and Ryan went in for a scheduled check up yesterday and the nurses/doctors found a couple things that they wanted to keep testing her for. The results came back to show that Steph had developed something called HELLP Syndrome.(feel free to look up for more details) This is a form of pre-eclampsia that leads to an unhealthy environment for the baby, and an unhealthy situation for the mom so early delivery is a must.

Steph was moved from Timpangos (Orem) to St Marks (Salt Lake), and was scheduled to have a C- Section today at 1pm. Tare and I spent the day yesterday with them at the hospital while the nurses kept a very close eye on Steph. Through the night, her platelet count went up a bit and her blood pressure went down (which was good news). This morning they decided that Steph was doing well enough to go ahead and have the c-section early so that they could also get little Avery out and taken care of.

It was a tense morning for all, but Ryan was able to go in with Steph and the surgery went very well. Little Avery came out with a healthy cry, that could be heard down the hall...music to everyone's ears! As of yet, Avery is even breathing on her own which is quite a feat! The nurses say baby Avery is a "feisty" one :) She will be in the NICU for about 10-12 weeks.

We are all so happy for the new little addition to the Family and I'm sure all your thoughts and prayers are welcome as the new momma and daughter rest and recoup (the Dad too!-who is currently asleep at Stephs bedside:)