The Mansfields

They don't come much cuter...

2012-02-02T13:06:00.000-08:00

Both these boys... love 'em to death!!

Christmas with a BANG!

2012-01-19T20:41:00.000-08:00

Mike and I decided to get ourselves a gun for Christmas. Mike owns a shotgun but we (I) felt like in an emergency, we would need something more manageable to whip out. So bless my hubby's heart, one day near Thanksgiving he said, "Let's go look for a gun for you!" Not a phrase I'd really imagine hearing directed to me {ever} as we never had ANY guns in our house growing up... Nonetheless I was excited about this new purchase!

So Mike and I went to Basin Sports in Vernal and I had my first gun-buying lesson. The guy at the counter recommended a revolver for me. Revolver?! Psht... clearly this man does not know how many episodes of Alias I've watched (and re-watched and RE-watched) in my life. Sydney Bristow would never carry a revolver! :) So of course- we had to move on down the line to the 9mm pistols. That's just the gun a spy would carry, folks. Okay, ok, I'll stop projecting my secret desires to be a CIA spy. Mike was so sweet and let us pick out a gun with a smaller hand grip for my small hands. Fits perfectly and surprisingly, I have great pride in my little, big gun.

We tried it out a few days later at the outdoor range in Vernal.

From happy...

to HARDCORE! :)

He's so handsome.

I just love a man holding a 9mm gun (Vaughn... cough, cough) Jk! Ok, really, I'll stop with the Alias comments.

No lie... I actually hit the bullseye! (The above picture has not been doctored in any way)

Alright, it only happened once and there may have been more on the dirt hill behind then on the target... but hey, you gotta brag when you get 'em.

I'm quite surprised how happy I am with this new purchase. Not only do I feel more secure in our home but I just feel tough---just by owning it. Yes, I know I'm far from it but somewhere deep inside... I'd like to think that I am. :)

Thanks to mom and dad Mansfield for contributing to our Christmas gift!!

Moments That Matter Most

2012-01-15T08:03:00.000-08:00

This morning I am fasting and praying for answers in my life. I was feeling heavy hearted when I opened Mike's laptop. Bless his heart... his homepage is lds.org. I went to type in "google" when some mormon message videos caught my eye. I thought, "I can watch those later". But my fingers froze on the keyboard and I felt like I needed to watch them now. I started watching these short, 3 min. messages and it was like my perspective broke wide open. What I already knew came rushing back to me in a wave of peace and happiness. I loved this one about "Moments that Matter Most". It made a smile come to my face and my heart lighten just a little. Thank heaven for moments that matter most... if only we can keep the perspective that they are what are significant and what we're living for...

2011 in Review

2012-01-01T18:05:00.000-08:00

You could never possibly recount everything that had happened in a year's time. However, with a bright, shiny new year ahead of me... I am feeling nostalgic about what transpired in 2011. Not to be worried, I narrowed it down to one to two significant events per month.

January: Mike began complaining of sudden "heartburn" and discomfort in his chest.

February: Megan goes with Starkey to fit hearing aids on children and adults in Mexico. Mike is hospitalized for a few days under the presumption of "bowel obstruction".

March: After many doctors and specialists, the bowel obstruction turned out to be some other mystery entirely... 8-10" of Mike's bowel are removed without doctors really knowing what made them abnormal.

**No pictures because Mike refused to let me take any of him in the hospital. I got one video while he was coming out of anesthesia but as mentioned in a previous post... I have vowed not to post it**

April: Mike and I celebrate 1 yr of being homeowners by re-doing our front yard and planting trees.

May: I (finally) graduate with my Au.D. Mike and I celebrate and take a trip to the condo in Florida!

June: Mike finds out he passed the CPA exams!! All 4 on his first try! He's an official CPA.

July: We bask in the awesomeness that is the annual Mansfield 24th of July campout

August: Mike bought me a new car-- a crossover preparing us for family days in the future. Mike plays in corporate games. Marisa and I have our first garage sale-- a raging success.

September: We go on a Lake Powell trip with my bosses and their friends for a week. An entire week of boating, sun and games!! I celebrate my 25th birthday and Mike's 27th birthday!

October: We went up to Scofield cabin with the Dyes and Jonny. Mike competed in a volleyball tournament (not pictured).

November: Brittany and I road trip to Las Vegas for a girl's trip!

December: Mike and I celebrate our 4 year anniversary by staying at the Marriott at City Center, shopping at Gateway and eating delicious food.

2011 had it's ups and downs (as most years do). Mike and I are looking anxiously toward 2012 with hope, goals and ambition to make it the best year yet.

Thai Food

2011-07-10T09:44:00.000-07:00

Thai food is a new love for Mike and I... but, boy, do we love it! For over a year, I've wanted to eat at this new place in Riverton called Thai Basil. One of Mike's co-workers this week told him it was excellent. We went last night and it was delicious! The decor was nice, our waiter was fantastic and the food was wonderful. We loved the cream-cheese wontons. Not overly fried and smooth cream cheese inside. We got the standard go-to Pad Thai and the waiter's recommendation of Pad Prick Sod (wowza, spicy!). The other thing I loved about it was the menu included an Asian mix... Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese (I once had Vietnamese in Miami and it was one of the best things I ever ate!) with lots of vegetarian choices. I love trying new places and it's rare that they're actually worth the adventure. My parents are also new Thai lovers so Mike and I will have to take them there. I hope they stay in business... so you should all try it! :)

P.S. Sorry this is a no-picture post. I had just showered with no make-up and no hair-do (a result of a spa afternoon gone terribly wrong-- that post coming soon) when we went out... hardly picture worthy!

For the love of reading...

2011-07-02T05:56:00.000-07:00

Such a variety of emotions... anticipation, contentment, serenity and thrill all compressed into one iota of a moment. The instant of running my exploring fingers over the pages of a new book. Newness of the copy itself has very little to do with it. In fact, sometimes the older the book, that more character it's worn pages provides my avid imagination to create it's pathway through existence. The emotion lies in the unknown descriptions, characters, adventures, romances, places and history my mind craves but doesn't even know yet exists. It's like going home to your favorite place in the world but never knowing what you'll find there each time. I don't know if that analogy computes in anyone else's brain besides mine... but even writing about it stimulates neurons deep in my brain that have my itching to race to my bookshelves.

Reading. It's been such a part of me for so long, I can't remember books not being an important part of my life. I have my wonderful parents to credit for that. It began with my pre-K self standing in front of the small bookshelf in the very back of the old South Jordan library. I don't remember a single title of those square, shiny-paged, paper-back books that I started with...only 3 words per page. But I read them-- all. My mom said she'd pay me a nickel a page. That gets a kid's mind racing and eyes moving. However, the beauty of it all was I honestly can't remember when the monetary payment stopped because an emotional payoff took over.

One of my dreams is to have a library in my home. It doesn't have to be large (okay, okay, I might have imagined a Beauty & the Beast library in my wildest dreams) but just one room-designated to the love of the excitingly unexplored and the lovingly familiar. In this process of building my own library, book by book, I want YOUR input. Yes, you. Book recommendations are always high on my questions for people. I love asking for favorites or their current read... so now I'm asking blogosphere. As many as I can get... pour it on. I really, really want to know....

GOT FAVORITES?

Au"D" Day

2011-06-17T13:29:00.001-07:00

It finally came.... graduation day! After taking college courses ever spring, summer, fall and winter since I was fifteen years old (one third of my life!), I'm finally done!

Megan Mansfield, Au.D.

Doctor of Audiology

It was an exciting and surreal day. One which meant the world to me to share with my incredible supportive husband and families.

Seriously, they don't make husbands more supportive than this. I think he was almost more excited than I was about this day. It was twice as fun to celebrate this day with him than it was to celebrate my undergraduate without him. He's my world.

Mike's family. They drove all the way from Vernal and Brigham City! I love them!

My awesome family. My sister said she may not have driven 4 hours to get there but she still had to sit through a 3 hour boring ceremony... so she wants her sacrifice acknowledged. :)

My fellow doctors. I've shared a majority of my life with these people. We've quizzed each other, cried, celebrated and traveled to three different countries together... they are my family too. I am so proud of each of them and happy to have them as colleagues.

Most of all, I have to thank my Heavenly Father for helping me through these incredibly stressful, exciting, grueling and rewarding years of my life. I had my dad and then Mike give me a blessing at the beginning of each year and nothing short of miracles poured forth.

3 years 5 months and 9 days ago...

2011-05-29T18:52:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize I could love this man more than I did on this fall day...

Oh, the joy that comes in realizing my own limited understanding.

Here's to the love built through laughter, anger, celebrations and sweat. Hoping we all fall more in love with our spouses each burdened and blissful passing day.

Lazy Days of Summer...

2011-05-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

We're ready for you.

Happy Doing Nothing At All

2011-03-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the times that pull me through are the nights I sit on my sofa, eating chicken taco salad and watching Celebrity Apprentice with my husband. Followed by some much-needed, therapeutic cuddling (which can only last about 20 minutes because he's got to get back to studying for the CPA exam). Really, sometimes it's nights like these I cling to just to help me make it through the days.

What a Pain in the...Bowel.

2011-03-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

I'm so grateful this man is okay. Some of you may know that my ever-healthy-never-get-sick-in-my-life-because-I-have mutant-healthy-Mansfield-genes of a husband has really been fighting the health battle for a couple months. Near the end of January Mike started complaining a couple nights of some mild heart burn or upset stomach. Being the ever-helpful wife I told him to take some Tums. I know. Hey, I'm not an MD people. However, it seemed to slowly be getting worse as time went on. Sharp pain that seemed to wax and wane on his left side right under his rib cage. I was wise enough to tell Mike he should be checked out since his digestion has been off ever since his mission but, of course, he dismissed that and toughed it out. Then one Sunday night after eating Mike started having real pain. It got intense enough he agreed to go to an after-hours medical care. They ran an x-ray of his stomach and said there was no blockage, nothing looked abnormal and they gave him some OTC medications (Ya, I'm not sure if that guy was a real MD either).

We went home and the next morning he went to work. Yet that night when Mike came home he said he was going to lay down. He didn't feel well again. I was in the other room when I heard him. I could hear him cry out and when I came into the bedroom he was writhing around on the bed, sweating and clearly in a ridiculous amount of pain. I've never seen him experience any real pain and I gotta tell you... it scared me silly. I helped him to the car and drove the very short (what felt like forever) drive to the E.R. That visit ended up in a 3 day hospital stay. They ran a CT scan, admitted Mike for small bowel obstruction, inserted a tube through his throat and into his stomach and left it there for 2 days sucking all sorts of horrible looking things out of his stomach. Ugh, even thinking about it makes my heart hurt for him. He was so deflated, so tired and so uncomfortable. Morphine. Dilaudid. Morphine. Dilaudid. Bleh. They released him after a few days and told him to take it easy, starting with soft foods.

We did just like they said. Honest. Yet again tho, only days later and Mike had pain again. We called the doctor and he said just to do what made him feel good. Okay. Well as long as he didn't eat, he didn't have pain. Great! Uh... except that's a pretty essential human function. Mike minus 15 lbs later... we got in with a GI specialist and then the testing frenzy started again. Barium swallow follow-through, colonoscopy, endoscopy, biopsies and blood work. If you've ever had some of these you know about all the fun preparation. Mike and Miralax are best buds now. :)

So I'm sure you're all wondering what was the problem- what was the answer from all those tests? Well, we were too. Unfortunately, they didn't have a lot of answers. I felt like we were eliminating serious problems like Crohn's disease and cancer just to have them be put back on the list again later. All we could gather was something did look abnormal about his small bowel but the tests couldn't reach or see what exactly that problem was. Finally, the GI doc ordered a capsule endoscopy where Mike swallowed a pill that took pictures as it traveled through his body. This confirmed and pinpointed the abnormal area of the small bowel. On February 23, Mike was in LDS hospital for "exploratory surgery with the possibility of small bowel resection". Oh, those hours of waiting. It's a really weird experience waiting for your husband in surgery not sure what they're doing, what they're seeing, what could go wrong, what could change after that day. It's just an interesting place to be-- waiting with no control.

Anyway (and finally the conclusion!), they removed 8-10 inches of Mike's small bowel and re-sectioned the healthy portions together. On top of that, our awesome Dr. McKinlay did it all laparoscopically leaving Mike with four small (about 1 inch) incisions on his stomach. The recovery was actually much better than I expected and he's back to working and eating Bacon Westoner's (yuck). I tease but really could not be more thankful to my Heavenly Father for allowing my husband to be healthy enough to eat ground-up cow flesh (I don't eat red meat, people). Pathology came back negative for Crohn's and cancer (insert huge weight lifted off my chest) and although the doctor and his colleagues are a little stumped about what caused that abnormal section, they don't predict he'll have problems in the future. What a blessing- for his quick recovery, for a relatively short time of poor health, for the amazing family and friends who fasted, prayed, brought meals and always for the tender mercies of the Lord.

I can't say it enough... he's my world. There's no getting out of it...he's stuck with me for life!

(I know these pictures don't have much relevance to my post. I just don't like posting without pictures and Mike absolutely refused that any pictures be taken of him in any of the hospital stays. Which coincidentally, I may or may not have some awesome video of him coming out of anesthesia...that I vowed not to post.)

Humanitarian Mission 2011

2011-03-13T20:49:00.000-07:00

It was a quiet Friday night in January when my phone got a text. I heard it but kept going about my business. One text. Two texts. Three texts. Email notification. What on earth was going on?

It was my professor at USU and students from my program all texting and sending out emails. An opportunity had just opened to go on our annual audiology humanitarian mission with the Starkey Hearing Foundation. So why the rush? My professor had just found out minutes before, we had hours to decide if we were in or out and we were leaving in less than a week. I am not a good decision maker and certainly not under pressure. Mike told me it was a once in a lifetime experience and I'd regret it if I let the rush back me out. So I said yes and a whirlwind later...

We were in Toluca, Mexico. I must say that when you travel with the Starkey CEO Bill Austin you stay in much nicer places than we've ever stayed as a USU group. Yes, unlike the Dominican Republic, I couldn't see the sky through the motel ceiling, we had AC, no lizards in the room, stinging ants in your bag, alarming stains all over the bed or occasional fear for your life. :)

We spent 5 days fitting hearing aids in Toluca and 1 day in Mexico City. 6,000 hearing aids for 3,000 people. I've never done anything quite like that. It was an amazing and exhausting mission. I think these few pictures share the experience for me.

It's amazing that some of these children had only heard firework before and now they were hearing their parent's voices. It's incredible.

This little guy's name was Diego and he loved Molly. I didn't think Molly was going to leave Mexico without the little man. I can't blame her- he was the sweetest thing I've ever seen. He clung to her blonde hair for at least 20 minutes, with his head right next to hers, wouldn't let go. Aww, melts my heart.

The Molly and Megan team (it was much more fun to work together), our patient and his mother and our awesome translator (far left).

No words needed for this picture. His face says it all.

My friend and coincidentally, boss, Molly. We were roomies the whole time- it's a good thing I love her otherwise that whole experience with your boss could have been awkward, right?

You can't help feeling joy in this work.

Our USU team.

What a blessing in my life that I could go and serve the Mexican people. It's always when you go on these missions that you feel like you got more out of the experience than anyone else did. I appreciate these amazing experiences in my life and thank the Lord for the blessed life I am privileged to live.

New Addition

2011-03-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

Because she deserves an introduction...

London Allie was born January 30th close to 5:00 p.m. Weighing in at 7 lbs 1 oz. and 20 inches long. She is ridiculously cute with a head of dark hair. I love her already and we are so grateful mom and baby were healthy and rest of family was ecstatic!

My world.

2011-01-28T22:44:00.000-08:00

"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain."

~William Shakespeare

It might be raining right now but nothing makes you appreciate your love for someone more than when you go through trials together. This face. Oh, how I love him. I'm so grateful for the love we share and how the Lord watches over us.

Because I Love These Faces...

2011-01-28T21:30:00.000-08:00

... and I can't wait to have one more to love and kiss this Sunday.

So excited to meet baby girl London!

Surprise Game Show Winnings

2010-11-03T19:46:00.001-07:00

One lazy Saturday Mike came down and poked his head in our room. I was reading when he asked me to come out to the living room. In the living room he had a card that said:

"Megan,

Congratulations! You are the next contestant on 'Mikey has a HUGE surprise for you show!!!

But first you must answer the following questions correctly to qualify for you surprise...

Are you ready to begin?

Question #1

Who is your favorite person in the world?

a. Your husband

b. Michael Vaughn

c. Marisa

d. Bart

e. None of the above

Question #2

Which of the following is your favorite quality of your husband?

a.Dashing handsomeness

b. Charming demeanor

c. Impeccable auditing skills

d. Dry sense of humor

e. All of the above

Do you have what it takes to win 'Mikey has HUGE surprise for you?!? There is only way one to see! Please submit your questionnaire for grading by the judges!"

Upon submission (he might have been slightly biased)... I was rewarded with another card that when I opened up, I saw this:

I was so excited!! I desperately wanted to see Broadway's production of The Lion King at the Capitol Theater. When the day came we partied hard! Every member of Mike's family came into town for a family Lagoon day. Thank you Mansfields!! It was very fun, very hot and we ended the afternoon very tired. Mike and I left early, caught a shower at home, a quick nap and went to dinner before the show. I forgot my camera but we took a couple pics on Mike's phone before the show.

It was such an amazing performance! I might as well have been 5 yrs old by the way I was grinning as the animals came down the aisles at the beginning of the show. It was incredible! You obviously can't take pictures but here are a couple from online. The giraffes were my favorite! I can't imagine the creativity and the talent that went into this production. It was truly unique and impressive.

I was so grateful for an exciting surprise (he knows I LOVE surprises!) from my sweet husband. I most especially enjoyed going to the theater with him! It's something my family did a lot growing up and therefore, is one of my favorite things to do. I miss going more often and Michael knows it. Although we could do anything and have fun together, it was great to have a special night out.

**Mr. Mansfield makes me one happy wife!**

Perspective

2010-10-26T21:24:00.001-07:00

They walked by... one, two, three.

Seeing nothing but a tree.

Fourth walked by happy to see,

A hidden face smiling at me.

Perspective.

A New Mantra

2010-09-01T20:56:00.000-07:00

"Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation."

- Eat, Pray, Love

Transformation is coming.

(not in the form of pregnancy)

The Magic

2010-07-31T09:50:00.000-07:00

How much would you pay at Smith's for...

4 rolls of Bounty paper towels

1 box of 45 count Tampax Pearl tampons

5 Colgate toothbrushes

1 bottle of Downy lavender fabric softener

5 Lady Speed Stick deodorants

2 Herbal Essences cans of mousse

2 Herbal Essences cans of hairspray

5 Weber grilling marinade packs

2 bottles of Old Spice men's body wash

2 boxes of American Beauty penne pasta

22 (yes, TWENTY-TWO!) tubes of Crest (17) and Colgate (5) toothpaste

Go ahead and add it up...

Oh really? Is that how much you'd pay??

Well I paid...

$10.72.

Unbelievable, right? Well, believe it-- I have the 2 and half foot receipt to prove it. My best receipt so far that says I saved 88% off my bill that started at $122.10, dropped to $61.84 and finished at $10.72!!

Now that's the magic of Savvy Shopping baby!

Welcome! Come on in...

2010-07-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

Without further ado, our home. Enjoy the tour!

Our front porch.

I love, love, love this bench! Our good friends gave it to us last week as a housewarming gift. I am so happy just sitting on it with Mike on a good evening staring at the temple. Thank you SO much Satterthwaites!!

Entry way

To the left of the entry way is the.... formal living room.

(This room is currently serving as storage for my sister's sofa and my chairs. You'll notice throughout the tour that we're building each room piece by piece. So we're not there yet with the decorating, mostly cause we don't own that much furniture, but we're enjoying the journey!)

Walking through the entry way from the front door leads into the... living room.

Behind the living room is the... kitchen nook. I adore the oversized window and doors on both left and right of the kitchen area that lead to the backyard. When we complete our yard it's going to be fantastic to open up those doors and let the air breeze through from our patio area.

Walking past the eat-in area is the... kitchen. You have to know how LITTLE counter space we had the first two and half years of our marriage to understand the appreciation I have for our island. When I saw it I actually hugged it. Counter space... I love you! I've always wanted dark hard wood floors so these beauties warm my heart at night after my sweetheart of a husband has cleaned and buffed them and they shine up at me. Yes, I have a serious relationship with my floors. (And, of course, with my husband!)

Walk through the kitchen and to the left and you'llbe at the garage entrance where there is a... guest bathroom. Not much to say here- it does it's purpose well! :)

Also on the main floor is the... master bedroom.

Obviously one of my favorite rooms. I love many things about it. One: I love the three little windows above the bed. Two: I love the high, slanted, unique ceilings. Three: I am obsessed with the sitting/reading nook with windows. It is my own, personal reading area complete with a ridiculously comfortable chaise lounge ($45 @ the overstock liquidation sale!).

Opposite my reading nook is the master bathroom.

His and her sinks and a jetted tub for stress-releasing evenings. I didn't take a picture of the shower which is to the left of the tub in the above photo. Also in the above photo is the door that leads to the closet. I definitely did not clean it the evening of picture-taking... therefore, it is being left out. It's a closet. To the left is Mike's area and the to the right is mine. There is also a giant window that doesn't really make sense to us but is nice for natural light (Ha ha...I guess?). Although it mostly remains with the blinds closed because really, how clean do you all keep your closets?! Also in the above photo with the sinks is the WC. Nothing special there but again, it does its job.

Upstairs overlooking the living room is the door to... Mike's office, which is put to good use pretty much every night as he studies for the CPA exam. He's one hard-working sexy man of mine.

One of the best things is the three windows that pretty much encompass the room. There are some great views on both side of the mountains.

To the left of the office is my (pretty much empty)... workout room. The good news is that in the next week a treadmill will occupy this space. Yay!! I'm so excited!

To the left of the workout room is the... guest bathroom. It's so nice to have a separate bathroom for family and friends.

Next to the bathroom is (currently) the... craft/play room. This is mostly "my room" where all my therapy toys, crafts, cedar chest, memories, etc. reside. It is planned to be the future nursery. It's going to be pretty much one of the cutest nurseries ever. :) Mostly because of the charming step down into a play area off of the room. I am going to put a glider in that area and rock my baby to sleep while I look at this...

In the future maybe that area will be a small sitting/reading area for my children or maybe we'll go all out and create it's own little door so when you walk through you are transported into a castle, spaceship or some other magical space for make believe.

And finally... this is the guest bedroom. I understand it's mostly empty now but I have big plans for this room. As for now, it's already housed 5 nights of guests. We LOVE having a room for them and welcome any of you to spend a night when you're in town, in need, want to have a sleepover... whatever. :)

So thanks for joining me for the tour. Again, we extend an invite to all that'd love to come for a game night, drop-by, FHE or weekend.

**The point of having a home is to fill it with family, friends, laughter and love. We look forward to many to come!**

A New Adventure

2010-06-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

Some of you may know that Michael and I recently purchased a new home in April. We've lived here for 2 months and we are slowly repairing and improving. We love it! It's such an exciting adventure for us. We never, EVER could have done it without our incredible families. Here are some pictures of my family helping us patch holes, replace lightbulbs, clean walls, wipe out cupboards, etc, etc, etc... (all the dues required in purchasing your own home, right?).

Boys working hard... although it currently doesn't look like Jonny is, he actually cleaned ALL the walls in the whole house.

As it was a full days' job we had a little lunch in the kitchen. Ree actually brought some amazing chocolate cake for her birthday (we celebrated it about 5 times this year so don't think I'm a horrible sister-- it wasn't her birthday or her party on the day we cleaned).

A couple of the fantastic things about our new home is living near these beauties!

Although I still haven't found the time to go around and take pictures of the inside, here is a picture of the outside...

We love, love our home and can't wait to start an adventure of a different kind here sometime soon ("soon" is really a very relative term so don't read too far into that).

Health Ideal

2010-06-06T08:09:00.000-07:00

Canyoneering

2010-05-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Every May my audiology group typically does a humanitarian trip. In past we have gone to Mexico, Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. This year, the trip ended up falling through due to all the turmoil in Mexico-- so we opted to do audiology-volunteer work at a school in Moab for a couple days. Truthfully, the volunteer work only took us a matter of hours. So the rest of the time we played!

The first day we all hiked to the famous Arch (my first time seeing it actually!).

Some of the students in a rock window, the famous arch on Utah's license plates and more of the group as we worked our way up.

The next day we chose whether to go regular hiking or canyoneering. I am so happy I decided to go canyoneering with Liz and all the boys. It was ridiculously fun! In case any of you don't know what canyoneering is (as I didn't)- let me tell you... it is a riot! Basically, canyoneering is getting through a canyon by walking, scrambling, etc. and using rappel gear to descend once you get to the top. Beau and Chris were our "secret-taking-the-backroad-trail" guides, and they fulfilled their promise to get us home in one piece. With the help of the men as an occasional step stool for the girls (hey- I'm only 5'3!), we all hiked/crawled/boosted/jumped/lifted our way up to the highest point in Arches National Park-- Elephant Butte.

Liz and I were pretty proud of ourselves. We were the only girls to brave the 4 hr hike!

The canyoneering group (minus me, the picture-taker, of course).

The view from the top of the world (or at least the top of Arches National Park). Us signing the register to proclaim we made it to the TOP!

Me rappelling down-- woo! I'm the tiny pink dot so look closely. Wow, what an amazing rush!

On the second rappel, we decided to flip upside down half way. Some of us (Liz) had some great shots!

Others struggled a little to get all the way upside down, not naming any names (Beau and Dr. Larsen). It was quite the hilarious scene to observe.

I highly recommend canyoneering to anyone that gets the chance. It was a blast and hope Mike and I can do it together soon!

Sometimes it's the little things...

2010-05-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

...that make a home yours.

The permanent mark on our linoleum floor where Mike and I (still under debate who is personally responsible) accidentally leaned on the stove knob while putting away groceries, caught our groceries on fire, realized I have not been trained how to appropriately react to a fire and Mike running in and knocking the flames onto the ground. Resulting in above.

The hole under our porch where one, two, possibly three snakes resided. You never know when a snake is going to completely ruin your ice cream cone on the porch.

The pink (debatably mauve by some people's account) carpet. I cried the first time I saw you (not the happy kind). Yet it's amazing how your horrid color seemed to fade and be less important to me as the years went by. I think I actually accepted you as if you were a nice, pleasant beige. Now that's growth on my part.

The cheesy glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling of our bedroom. We made fun of them but somehow never had the time in two years to take them down. So they will happily pass to the next resident and they will think that those tacky stars were my fashion faux pas.

The "flame" key. Also another thing to pass to the next lucky resident who will think that we thought the key that looked like fire was cool. No, definitely was not us.

The shelf that Mike built me to store all the cleaning and laundry supplies due to the paucity of storage space. And the amazing labels he made to organize cleaning supplies vs. food storage vs. laundry materials (yes, I'm very much in love with him).

The extra security measures, the motion sensor alarm and second door lock that Mike bought and installed for me to make me feel safe while we lived those three long months apart. Ironic that I felt I needed these on our little lane in Logan after we left our keys in the door for an entire night without being robbed, killed, etc.

Even if it was the little imperfections that made it perfect. It was ours.

Just Call Him Master Mansfield

2010-05-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

Bring on the accounting jokes, jests and jabs... cause he's an accountant baby!

(And soon to be a CPA!)

I am incredibly proud of my fantastically intelligent and hard-working husband! At his young age, he's accomplished so much. On May 6th, he graduated from Utah State with his masters in accounting. Now he's anxiously awaiting starting with Deloitte next week (4-6 months earlier than previously expected!). You can almost taste his relief of putting school behind him. Although he's not a huge fan-- he graduated with his MAcc, at age 25 with an outstanding (hope he doesn't mind me sharing) 3.93 GPA. I know, he amazes me as well. Again, it's hard to describe how proud I am of him as well as grateful for his dedication to provide for us. I know very few people who work as hard as him. I'm attributing that to some seriously impressive parenting and role models throughout his life.

Graduation was a whirlwind of a weekend with Mike's family coming out to stay from Vernal. On Thursday, Mike's sister Megan and her husband Mike (yep, you read that correctly. There are two Megan's and two Mike's in the family. We just like to keep it interesting.) came to stay with us at the new house. It was so fun being able to host someone finally. It's been our hope for a long time now that we would have a home where family would have room to come and stay with us. Thankfully, we now have at least one room with a bed (nothing else really in it) for just such visitors. Anyway, Megan, Mike and Chloe all came and stayed Thursday. On Friday morning, we all drove to Logan to meet Mike's parents, sister and niece. It was a long graduation ceremony but so worth it to see Mike get hooded. Below are his pre-hooding picture (waiting in line) and post-hooding picture (notice the presence of a smile here!).

Afterwards, Mike's sister and brother-in-law threw this wonderful BBQ for Mike as a gift. We went and had great food, our fill of laughs (my body actually hurt) and played some competitive games of HORSE. It really was an awesome day. Plus, on top of that, Mike's sister, brother in law, niece and parents all came back and stayed at the house. It was a great weekend and a monumental step in Mike's professional career. Thank you to all the family and friends who supported Mike not only on this day, but every day he worked towards his goals!

What's next, you ask? CPA exam here we come...

Spring Break

2010-04-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

This post is a little (okay... a lot) late coming but I've got to take these precious (not) blogging moments when I can. In case any of you were wondering if Mike and I had nothing new to blog about... that's really not the problem. (More posts should be filing on here soon!) It's been more a lack of time and internet access than anything. But I did start this blog post about a month ago and wanted to finish it. It's just a recap of our enjoyable Spring Break adventures. Being low on money but having a whole week for Spring Break (our last one ever, in fact) we wanted to do something fun. So we decided to migrate down for warmer weather to the beautiful St. George. We stayed with my amazing grandma and enjoyed home-cooked meals, lots of laughs and oh so sweet relaxation.

One day we did a hike up to the 3 waterfalls in Zion's National Park. It was great! The rest of the time we swam in the pool, read books and watched the movie "Babe". Yes, I know, weird. It's a Grandma Allie thing.

Here's some pictures from the hike:

And last but definitely not least... we got to see my aunt's amazing new home she's building in Ivins, UT. I should have taken pictures of the inside. It is incredible! Floor to ceiling windows looking at a giant, red rock. It's literally breathtaking. Can't wait for my parents to build there's next door so we can start making the memories!

The Visible Hand

2010-02-25T19:45:00.000-08:00

Mike recently told me about a book called The Invisible Hand. Apparently it is a book about the "invisible hand" that guides the economy. So that in the end, everything works its way out.

Well, I know it's been at least 2 months since I've blogged (I know) but I want to tell everyone out in blog world about the very visible hand in my life the last few months.

It began in January which some of you may know was the month of the dread competency exams. For all who are interested (although the number may be limited), my comps consisted of two 4 hr days of written tests, 1 hour of practical completing an evaluation of a patient, 1 hour of practical doing a hearing aid fitting and an oral defense of your answers and actions during all the following. It was five long, stress-filled days. Truthfully, I did not know if I could do it. I used to joke and tell myself that I would drop out of the program before I actually got to the point of going through comps. Additionally, I was set apart as Relief Society president the first week in January-- the week prior to my comps (explanation of this would require it's own lengthy blog).

Mike gave me a much-needed blessing and the words he said could not be better defined than as Balm of Gilead to my heart and mind. I remember him distinctly saying that the Lord had helped me to this point and he would not abandon me now. I purchased a framed sign for the presidency message I taught in January and it has been my mantra ever since... With God All Things Are Possible.

And let me tell you... they are! I made it through comps! I spent some 6 hour days going over everything I learned in the last 3 years of my doctoral program. Despite that, I think the most difficult part of the whole experience was getting the courage to walk into the room every day. Nonetheless, with the Lord's help, I passed my comps with high scores and compliments from my professors. It's difficult to describe how big of a deal this was for me. Basically the pinnacle of my doctoral degree. The relief of passing is immense. The hand of the Lord.

After comps, next on my list was to finish my clinical research project (which is required for my degree before I leave for my 4th year) and then obtaining a externship placement for next year. These also weighed on me. But chanting every day to myself, with God all things are possible, I see the very visible hand of the Lord in my life. To keep it short, I am finally done collecting data and working on my paper. I am presenting my final project to my committee on March 8th.

Now for the more exciting part? After wondering, worrying and traveling thousands of miles around the country, Mike and I have definite plans for our upcoming future. And thankfully, they involve actually living together. Some of you may know, in the effort to allow Mike and I both to obtain our professional pursuits, we had seriously considered living apart for a year. Yet with faith and patience I saw the Lord had for me a better plan than I had for myself. Three weeks ago I was offered a position at a brand new Ear Nose and Throat physicians office in Draper. The perfectness of this position for me was surprising and very unexpected. The office is large, with brand new, top-of-the-line equipment, 8 rooms dedicated to audiology and more diversity than I had ever imagined in an off-site placement. The opportunities to expand and have exciting options for the future keep coming and I am beyond ecstatic. On top of that, I absolutely love the audiologist I work with and feel like I've known her for years as opposed to weeks. Another blessing... the position is paid (which is not required during your externship) and provides benefits!!! If I said "I'm excited" 500 times-- it probably still wouldn't cover my excitement! Miracle #3.

Finally! Miracle #3 allowed for miracle #4. Mike and I are very excited to move onto the next big step in our lives... (if you now think I'm pregnant, you might be very disappointed) We are buying a house!! Living in the same state and both beginning work has allowed Mike and I to take advantage of that tax credit everyone else has been telling us so much about. SO... we found a rambler in Riverton that we are currently under contract for. We are planning to close at the end of April beginning of May and will move in immediately following. What word describes ridiculous giddiness and excitement? Well, whatever you thought of, times it by ten and you might reach where we are at! We can't wait to leave the student life behind (not that it hasn't been wonderful) and move onto a new life in Salt Lake closer to both our families!

In the end, we have been overwhelmingly blessed. It is not difficult to look back and see the Lord's gentle shaping of our decisions and lives. We are so grateful. I have learned many, many things these last few months. They have been grueling in many respects but also have done much to strengthen my faith and testimony. I have learned two very important things I will always remember from these experiences: #1: with God all things are indeed possible! and #2: the Lord's plan for us is infinitely more beautiful than we could possibly dream and plan for ourselves!

Christmas 2010

2010-01-20T20:28:00.000-08:00

Truthfully, I have way too many adorable pictures to put on here. I want to. Really. But due to the fact that I would be on here for hours waiting for my images to load since every 5 pictures seems to take about 5 minutes to load (Does everyone's take that long?!). So I'm doing something I am primarily against-- making a post without pictures. Here is the fastest Christmas recap ever recorded.

Mike and I left on Dec. 17th to go hang out with my parents a few days before Christmas. Here we celebrated Jonny's b-day and played lots of games (mostly Settlers of Catan).

On the 21st we head to Vernal for an incredibly relaxing and fun week. Every day was a nice sleep in till 9:00 (okay, some days it was 9:30!), followed by movies, lunches, chatting, games and hanging out. Some things to note: I learned how to make Mike's mom's famous poppyseed bread with almond glaze and also got our scrapbook page done for the calendar (with help, of course). Woohoo!

Christmas Eve we had a big dinner with all of Mike's family. We opened up our P.J.'s and watched a christmas movie. Christmas morning we woke up and Mike and I did our stockings for one another. Santa brought us some great stuff. Including our own raclette grill! Afterwards, we got ready and went and visited all of Mike's family members to see what they got for Christmas. It really made me want to have kids seeing all the excitement of the nieces and nephews. Mel was sweet enough to invite us over for breakfast where we had yummy cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole. Later that day, Mike and I opened our gifts for one another. We mostly gave each other some much-needed clothes. That evening the whole family came over and opened gifts together. That was my favorite! I loved watching everyone, adults and children, open the huge variety of gifts. Mike's parents gave us clothes, another amazing Santa Claus village piece and a movie. From the Rusts and Mansfields we both got games-- practically our favorite gift ever!! :)

On the 27th we left Vernal and drove to Oakley! My parents had rented a cabin that was pretty much a lodge. They got a great deal as the owners was just trying to figure out how to rent. Oh my goodness-- it was beautiful. (I really should post pictures). The night we got up there we sat in front of an amazing fireplace and did our own mini-Christmas. Mike and I both got some great clothes from Marisa and Joe. My wonderful parents also gave us a new game and a good start towards our food storage (which we were totally stoked about)! While we were at the cabin we played games, cooked for one another, snow-shoed, watched movies and went sledding (absolutely hilarious with ages 1-50+ all on sleds). Again, this is picture-worthy. If I get ambitious later, I will post some. It was so much fun and our attempt at a Dan In Real Life experience. I love the memories we make every year doing these adventures my parents plan!

After some wonderful family-time, we finally arrived home in Logan on the 30th. We celebrated a quiet New Years together and I got ready for the big week of competency exams I'd been dreading for the last 2 and half years!

December Happenings

2010-01-20T19:56:00.000-08:00

So I know I'm a little late but here's some pics of our annual celebration of Same Klaus Tag. It happens to be one of my favorite and most exciting traditions and I love that Mike has indulged me to celebrate it every year. It was also nice since for Christmas we mostly asked for clothes, for Same Klaus Tag we got some toys (AKA toys, books, etc). We also started a new sub-tradition for Same Klaus Tag this year. I asked Mike to start giving me a children's Christmas book every year so we can start building our own collection. One of my favorite things to do at Christmas was to sit in front of the fire and read the same Christmas books (with amazing illustrations) every year. I want that tradition for our children as well so Mike started this year with copies of "Berenstein Bears Christmas Tree" and a new version of "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Loved them!

Funny note about Same Klaus Tag. This year it fell on a Sunday. That day in Relief Society the lesson was on how we need to focus less on Santa Claus. Ya, I thought that was kind of funny. Mike and I waiting to go home and celebrate "Santa Claus Day" or Same Klaus Tag!

Another fun happening in December was making gingerbread houses. I love making them every year (although it's a serious waste of candy). I didn't think I was going to be able to convince Mike to make one this year and then I was saved by Sammy! Sammy is a girl in our ward who invited us and another family over to their house to make gingerbread houses (Thank you so much guys!!). It was so much fun! I left absolutely ill from snacking during the long process of making our house but it was a riot watching everyone figure out how to make those again. Ours had some issues staying up (twice) but after one night left outside... it was holding strong all the way till the second week in January before it died a strong but definite death in the dumpster.

Postherpetic Neuralgia

2009-12-04T21:36:00.000-08:00

So just because I can't break my arm or get stitches like any other normal person... this week I got diagnosed with shingles on my arm. Yes, shingles. Now before you all start wondering if I've touched you, talked to you, coughed within 30 feet of you within the last week... calm yourselves. Although shingles is the varicella (chicken pox) virus in your body acting up when your immune system is low or you're under stress... it is only contagious with direct affected skin to skin contact and only when the vesicles burst (yummy, huh?). I've had it covered, hence no one has ever touched it and being a compulsive hand washer... all is well.

Luckily, it's been more of an annoyance than painful. Looking shingles up online is enough to scare you silly. (Mike and I have concluded they only post the most severe and disgusting of cases). I also learned as an audiology student in my medical aspects course that shingles (which I learned as Herpes Zoster) is the cause of Ramsay-Hunt syndrome-- which can cause hearing loss, dizziness and Bell's palsy. Talk about a career killer... (ha ha). Of course, mine isn't anywhere near that and not affecting the nerves near my head/face. Interesting nonetheless tho, huh?

Anyway, I know there are some serious cases where people have it all over their body, get really sick and are dealing with a lot of pain. Don't let your imagination go wild. I'm really not a diseased, pustulated woman whose been writhing in pain... no need to shun me. I've actually been very blessed. No spreading, no real pain, no being sick. Yay!

The only problem now is that as the shingles have cleared, I've started having weird pain in my arm. Looking into this more, I've found out this may be called "postherpetic neuralgia". Since shingles attacks the spinal nerves, specifically the dermatomes (C8 in my case), even after the shingles are gone the nerve is affected. It can't send the signals correctly after being attacked and sometimes it sends mixed messages that register as pain. This can last for months in some cases years after the shingles leave.

Well, anyway, I found it all to be quite fascinating. Of course, that might be because I've been reading a medical dictionary lately for fun and watching Dr. Quinn episodes. Anyway, that's the new medical case study happening with me. Never a dull moment in the Mansfield home. I knew you'd all enjoy that anatomy lesson. Class dismissed! =)

The Friends That Go Beyond Friendship

2009-11-21T19:26:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking about this for over a month. In October, Mike and I went to a missionary homecoming for a family we are friends with. I was excited to see all the family together again and looked forward to hear the missionary's talk. The talk was great, the food divine, the conversations wonderful. However, after we left we were not 10 minutes from their home when Mike commented, "Isn't it amazing that after leaving them you somehow feel better about yourself?" It struck me. I always knew this family was unique and they've never not put a smile on my face. But Mike hit it on the nose... this family had the ability to do something extraordinary. Every single one of them, has a special way of making you want to stay with them. They make you feel special and in turn, you want to be better.

Mike and I drove home with smiles on our faces, warmth in our hearts and really... wishing we could go back. The love, the charity, the kindness, the fun, the laughter... it's tangible in their home and in each interaction. It doesn't matter how long it's been or how horrible a friend I've been in return. I truly don't know if I have ever met a family that has touched my heart the same way. I hope you know how special you are to me. You may not ever read this but someone out there should know how amazing you are. You have affected Mike and I in a way no one ever has and we appreciate your friendship and support more than you'll ever know. Time or distance... we pray for you. No one deserves happiness more than all of you.

You truly are the friends that go beyond friendship.

We love you Satterthwaites!

Halloween

2009-11-14T11:03:00.000-08:00

No this is not a mistake. I took the bright, fall pictures two days before it snowed. And boy, did it snow! Quite the juxtaposition. Luckily, it melted!

Carving pumpkins at the Obergs! Our end result pumpkins.

We also carved pumpkins with our friends Don and Heather. As far as I'm concerned, you can't carve too many pumpkins! This is my Frankenstein and Mike's scared pumpkins adorning our pumpkin-filled doorstep.

Annual Halloween Party

The kids on Halloween night.

Pumpkin-Time!

2009-10-05T19:58:00.001-07:00

For some reason, I am appreciating Fall more than ever this year. On Saturday we decorated our porch/door for Halloween (I'll post a pic soon). I was so happy!! I can't get enough of Halloween, Fall, soup, hot chocolate... mmm. I love it! I know it'll be gone soon since Logan's Fall lasts approximately 2.3 weeks before the snow comes... but I'll take what I can get.

As part of my "loving Fall" mood, I really wanted to use pumpkin in a dessert to go with the soup I was making for a woman in my ward. Since I'm not a fan of pumpkin cookies (much to Mike's dismay), I went to my endless recipe book... the internet. I found a recipe for pumpkin cheesecake on Kraft foods (gotta love it!). Although I probably shouldn't experiment with food I'm taking to other people.... it was fantastic! I know some of you have had my 4-layer pumpkin cake, and although the cheesecake's presentation does not stand nearly as impressive as that, I'm giving it the boot this Thanksgiving for this yummy (and much easier) cheesecake! Yum!! I highly recommend it.

Recipe:

2 pkg. (8 oz. each) Cream Cheese, softened **Healthy Tip: next time

I'm going to try this with 1 pkg of Neufchatel and 1 pkg of regular cream

cheese to cut down on the fat**

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Dash of ground clove **I didn't have clove so I used a dash

of pumpkin spice instead because I had it in my cupboard**

Dash of ground nutmeg

1 Graham Cracker Pie Crust (6 oz.)

PREHEAT oven to 325°F. Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Remove 1 cup of the batter; stir in pumpkin and spices.

POUR remaining plain batter into crust. Top with pumpkin batter.

BAKE 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. **We baked this about 10 min. longer than it suggested so it would set as described. Also, we refrigerated it for about 5 hours. It had wonderful texture but I'll be interested to see if it's different depending on the length of refrigeration.**

Birthdays by the Bundle

2009-09-28T17:42:00.000-07:00

The birthdays began with Sadie's! Hers was the only one with a Disney character in attendance. Of course, she was a vital part of the Little Mermaid party. We had amazing food (the best taco salad I've ever had), an Ariel pinata and Little Mermaid cake. Mel did a wonderful job and it was fun to see all the excitement from the little girls by seeing a "real" princess. I love the last picture of Sadie wearing the Ariel dress that Mike and I bought her. So adorable!

On my birthday my parents got my whole family tickets to The Scarlet Pimpernel at Hale Center Theater. It was awesome! My mom bought them a year ago so we had the best seats in the house! I love musicals and we hardly ever get to go to them anymore. Thanks Mom and Dad!! Before the play we went to Pei Wei (cause Chinese is Mike's fav) and after we had cake, (look below to see my mom's cute cake! I loved it!) ice cream and presents. I also loved the picture that Christian drew me in their card so I had to post it. =)

The next weekend we celebrated Mike's b-day. On Friday, we went to Macaroni Grill with some of Mike's sisters who were in town for the Scrapbook Expo. The next day, Mike wanted corned beef and hash at the Blue Plate Diner in SLC for his b-day so Jonny, Kaylee and I went that morning to breakfast and enjoyed the wonderful outdoor eating at the little dive. Mike then went and played tennis with my dad while I went to my BF's baby shower. Later that night, we stayed in, ordered pizza and played games. It was fun, relaxing and one of Mike and my favorite things to do (Game Recommendation: Smallworld by Days of Wonder). Below is Mike opening his presents and holding the cake I made, which is always fun. Ha! I insist on doing it every year despite the fact that I always mess something up. Mike would probably prefer a plain cake over my stress but in a strange and sadistic way, I like to do it for him. This is actually the second version because I had some serious frosting problems the first time around. With help, it worked out. Mike was surprised and liked it, which was most important. It was also appropriate for the news we got the day before... Deloitte was ranked the #1 business to launch your career by Business Week magazine. Woohoo!

This weekend we got to go home to Vernal and celebrate Mike's dad and Derek's (his nephew) birthdays. As a nice surprise, we also got both our birthdays in there as well. Thank you all for the amazing and fun gifts (we already went to Chili's for FHE)! Notice the pictures of the cake. Mike's sister is this amazingly ridiculous cake-maker. She made a cake for both Dad and Derek. The fancy side is for Dad. Set a front-loader to the other side and you find Legos inside (made of fondant of course). It was so cute. Derek loves Legos (he got a bunch for his b-day) and he loved his cake! Mel, you're incredible!

Comedy of Errors

2009-07-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

WARNING: Extremely lengthy but somewhat funny post to follow.

Despite the title... the 24th of July weekend was really fun. Mike's family has their annual camp out so on Thursday we headed to Flaming Gorge. I love the camp outs! It's fun to all be together, go boating, eat great food, make fires, cook in a dutch oven, play games... the whole bit. It's something my family really never did growing up (the closest we got to camping was the motor home at Lake Powell) so I figure that's why I love it now. The initial downer was that my throat started to hurt a little Thursday morning when I woke up. Nonetheless, we made it. We were at a new camp site this year and it was a lot bigger and more shady. That night was kind of funny because all 13 of us ended up eating in the gas station because in the small town of Manilla, everything closes at 9:00 p.m. And by everything, we mean the 2 restaurants. All the same, it was a pretty good hoagie for a gas station. I was a little sick to my stomach that night so I just wanted to go to sleep. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, my allergies got bad as soon as we got out of the car. Being outdoors is probably enough but camping in all that wilderness and under all those trees... I was doomed to have a chapped nose by the end of the weekend (which was very attractive on Sunday!). So whatever, I'm used to having allergies. They're a pain but you live with them. Mike's parents were so sweet to lend us their tent and Mike's sister and husband lent us these AMAZING cots. Woohoo for not sleeping on the ground! We went to bed and all was well... Until I woke up around midnight as things started pelting my face. Raindrops. We hadn't put the rain fly up because we wanted to see the stars and yes, it rained. So I woke Mike up and he ran out to put that up in the middle of the night before we were soaked. Trying to be romantic and ending up being rained on at 12:00 a.m. = Comedic Error #1. That was fine and we fell back to sleep. Around 2:00 I woke up to some noise. Okay, so I'm not tough-- big surprise. I'm not much for hanging out with animals. Last year some animal was scratching at our tent and growling. When I woke Mike up he said it wasn't a big deal. What he didn't tell me was that he stayed up because he knew that wasn't just some skunk. The next day Kevin said he found bear tracks behind our tent going into the bushes. Who knows? Either way, I wake up to noises. So I wake up Mike and ask him what that noise is. He flashes his light out there and JOY--- some animal is in the food tent. Also unfortunate for us... our food was the only food in there. Whatever it was it went through three bags shredding and eating our Texas Toast bread for our orange french toast. Grrr.... so annoying. So at 2:00 Mike and I are making noises to scare the animal away and Mike goes out to clean up all the shredded bread, separating ruined food from salvaged food. Stupid animal eating $10 worth of bread and having to buy it again at Manilla's only market for $15 = Comedic Error #2.

Despite the night, the next day was great! We headed to the lake and even tho it was crowded we had some good sun and played on the beach a bit. I still didn't feel very well but really wanted to go boating. We went out and Mike wake skated for the first time. I tried. Although I got up, I probably only stayed up for 4.5 seconds. I decided to switch to what I could do better and wake-boarded. I'm no pro but I can get up and stay up (no tricks, mind you). The weather started to turn so the water got really choppy by the time I got to wake-boarding. I wasn't staying up as long so I told Mike's brother "one more time". Famous last words, right? I got up and was bumping around on the choppy water. I decided to go out of the wake so I maneuver right and get a little too much speed going out of the wake. Not being smart... I gave forward and flew face first into the water. The wake board comes off my feet, flips up and the side edge hits me square in the chin. Ouch. I never understood the expression "cleaned my clock" quite as well. So I get out and the board gave me a 2 inch cut on my chin. Wonderful. It was more of scratch so it didn't bleed long but looked lovely on my face. More than that... my jaw killed. I could barely open my mouth to chew the delicious cobb salad Mel brought for lunch. Bummer. Feeling like I'd been punched in the face by a 300 lb man = Comedic Error #3. On top of that, while trying to recover me from the water and with windy weather, the rope got caught in the prop. Mike and Wyatt spent 15 minutes trying to get that untangled and ended up with a cut rope. Stranded on a boat in the cold watching boys take turns over and over-- one goes under, next comes up... resulting in a cut rope = Comedic Error #3 and 1/2. The rest of the day was good. We had delicious food (spaghetti and cobbler-- yum!) and hung around the fire pit talking-- which I love. Mike's family is fantastic and always make me laugh. There are a lot of kids, which I also love and they're all adorable. They always keep it interesting!

However, that night I was still feeling it. My chin and jaw I could live with but my nose had continued to run none stop and I was quickly going through my 3 bags of tissues and 1 box. The problem with that was that the combination of being a little sick and the compounding allergies resulted in my asthma increasingly becoming aggravated. For those of you who don't know, I've had asthma since I was a kid but it typically isn't a problem except when I get sick. I brought my inhaler so I was using that every 5 hours or so.

The next day it was rainy. Bummer. But the high point was that we got to play lots of games-- which Mike and I LOVE! While we were there we played some of our favs: Acquire, Tripoly and Scrabble. That night was the worst for me. Cold + allergies + sickness = bad coughing and no breathing. The interval for me taking my inhaler kept getting smaller. That night I found it hard to eat because I couldn't stop breathing long enough to chew my food. Probably should have realized that was a problem. When I woke up I was taking my inhaler every 1-2 hours. I know I shouldn't do that because it's bad for my heart but it was that or breathe. =) I made a command decision.

The next morning we packed up and headed home. I was very excited to shower and take a breathing treatment. Right before the treatment, I knew it was bad. I could barely walk up the stairs and gathering my materials I was really forcing the air in and out. But I know my treatments always fix it. I finished it and felt good... for about 10 minutes. After that I was back to heaving and wheezing. I've never not had relief from a treatment so that was weird for me. After I couldn't fall asleep, I called my dad to ask how often I could take a breathing treatment and long story short (or at least shorter)... Mike and I were at Logan's InstaCare. InstaCare on a Sunday night = Comedic Error #4.

A nurse at my dad's health care advise line said they would likely give me an oral steroid. I was ready for that. They brought me in and while getting information they said I had a fever. The nurse gave me a mask to wear that covered my nose and mouth. (side note: Isn't it funny that my problem is that I can't breathe and as I'm forcing air in and out, not being able to finish a sentence without having to stop and take breaths in between... she gives me something to wear that covers both my mouth and nose. As far as I know, those are pretty much the only two ports for air. Basically, comprising the necessities of breathing, right? Hmmm... think about that). After the doctor comes in and hears the problem it's a whirlwind of "fun". After listening to my lungs, he tells me he's going to give me another treatment again and that I need to take a steroid immediately. Okay, nothing surprising there. But unfortunately, I had progressed too far for an oral steroid. Which left me with a shot. Joy. In my butt. Bigger Joy. A shot in my butt... that was a first. The doctor told me it would be painful (nice) and started me on a treatment. As soon as I started that a nurse comes in and says she needs to give me my shot. During my treatment. So I'm standing at the edge of the table with a tube in my mouth, pants down, holding Mike's hand, both of us trying not to laugh but me partially wanting to cry as this nurse gives me a shot smack in the buttock. She said she didn't know what the doctor was talking about and that it wouldn't hurt more than any other shot. One, two, three... all was good. It didn't hurt and so after giving me a Taz band-aid (probably TMI) on the rump and as I'm priding myself that I must have one tough butt since that didn't hurt hardly at all after the doctor said it would.... ouch. That thing started to throb! Apparently, injected steroids like that make your butt ache for a couple days. Butt shot = Comedic Error #5. So now I'm sitting there, having received my violating shot, squirming on the table trying to find relief, still doing the treatment and a nurse comes in and says since I have a fever she's going to swab my nose for influenza. Also never had that happen before. So still breathing through a tube, the nurse takes a cotton swab and "goes where the boogies go" (her words, not mine). Uhh... there are no boogies that far up. Insert coughing and extreme eye watering. Boogie swab = Comedic Error #6. After the treatment, the doctor ordered a chest X-ray. (Those are going to be fun medical bills!) We finished at 8:30 p.m. when the doctor said I didn't have swine flu and the fever was probably cause my body was working so hard to breathe. Good. There was no fluid in my lungs. Also good. But there was inflammation. Not so good. So now I'm popping 3 prednisone (steroids) a day for the next 2 weeks, taking an inhaled steroid twice a day and breathing treatments every 4 hours. (I HATE taking medications!) The side effects being irritability, mood swings and increased weight gain. My reaction: "Weight gain??" Mike's reaction: "Mood swings?!" =) Megan the roid popper = Comedic Error #7. Whew... it was quite the Sunday evening. All in all, I hate going to the doctor and really debated going in. In retrospect, I guess I'm grateful I did. The doctor said I was going downhill fast and would have been in the E.R. soon because I had progressed so far. Thank goodness for Mike who encouraged me to go in, held my hand through the unexpected and took care of me all night.

Although I've put this "Comedy of Errors" spin on the weekend, it was actually very nice to get away. I love the Mansfield's and I have so much fun with them. As for the not being able to breathe part... I've learned my lesson and I'm left with a story that makes me laugh. The summer has been laid back and I haven't been sick for 3 months. That's pretty good for me! I guess I was due. When it rains... it pours, right? =)

Packin' in the Fun

2009-06-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend we got to go home to South Jordan! I haven't seen my family since Mike's graduation party so it was nice to go down to celebrate my dad's birthday and Father's day. In addition, we really packed in the fun. On Friday we drove straight to Orem to meet Marisa, Dustin, Jeff and Lexi. We picked up some yummy sandwiches at a place called Ernie's, took them to their house and packed up our bikes. We rode "caravan style" to one of the most beautiful parks I've ever been to. We ate on the grass and then rode our bikes around the park. We found "The Swing" as its called and had fun pushing each other. It was a giant swing that you got pushed on as well as turned as carousel. The ride back (all uphill) was interesting considering we all had full tummys. Bleh!!

On Saturday Mike got up early to go play in a grass ball tournament with his friend Josh. So of course, it rained. It rains every time he plays. I stayed in bed and came and watched him play his last 3 games. It was cold and rainy but it was fun getting some good pics of him playing.

On Saturday Jay invited us to a group date/BBQ he was having at our house. It was good food and fun to meet some new people. They went to play volleyball after the date and since we'd (as in Mike) had done that all day, we stayed at the house. Instead we played games with mom and dad (one of our favorite things to do). We played our new board game "Pandemic"... which is pretty cool and had a great time. Game time turned to talk time... till 1:00 a.m.

On Sunday we had an AMAZING day in church at my dad's Legacy House branch. I cried, again. As I do every time I attend that branch. The family came over after and we had a delicious meal for Father's Day and to celebrate my dad's b-day!! It was such a nice weekend. Happy Father's Day to all you fabulous Dad's out there!

A Check On My Bucket List

2009-06-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

So I had no idea yesterday I would do something that would make me oh so satisfied with myself (I haven't felt this good since I won the "good behavior" placemat in second grade!). Yet it happened... I, Megan Mansfield, have learned to make bread! Although it may seem like a small accomplishment to a majority of you (I know, some of you have been making your grandmother's famous recipe since you were like 36 months old... ya, ya), it is something I've always wanted to do. I don't know why I think making homemade bread will somehow make me a better wife, housekeeper and future mom- but hey, I do.
So here is my first breadmaking adventure. I found a recipe for light wheat bread on Annie's Eats (which I love!). Did you know bread only has like 5 ingredients? Almost all of which I already had in my cupboard. I always had the impression that bread was difficult and lengthy. Besides the raising parts (which are lengthy) this was actually very simple. That's a major appeal. I did have to buy yeast though, which I will admit was the most difficult part of the bread making process.

*Here is my yeast soapbox, if you're not interested, skip to the next paragraph.*

Active dry yeast? Bread machine yeast? Fast rising yeast? Instanst yeast? Three words for you.... WHAT THE HECK?! Did the pioneers have 4 different kinds of yeast?? Well after remembering that I only had bread machine yeast, buying active dry yeast, not knowing you had to put active dry yeast in water first (ya ya, I know), researching yeast online, deciding people that know nothing at all can post anything online about yeast, going to the grocery store again, stopping some poor woman in the aisle to ask her about yeast who had children who looked seriously annoyed I was delaying their mom, buying the only "instant" yeast I could find in a package I probably wouldn't be able to use in a year... I came home and had two different doughs rising-- one with active dry yeast (not dilluted in water first-- just thrown in) and one with instant yeast (just thrown in). Why am I telling you all this useless information? Well because at the end of the day and after that sweet lady in the grocery store giving me a sad, pitying look that I was pathetic enough to put yeast in my bread without allowing it to bubble in water first... both loaves worked out great! Given, the instant yeast rose much quicker and ended up being bigger (which was my doing since I waited for both to be done so they could go in the oven at the same time). So if no one knows, at least for this recipe, yeast was yeast.

This is the instant yeast batch just before it's second rise
(Notice the cute green Kitchen Aid my sweet Aunts gave me for my wedding-- I love it!!)

This is the instant yeast batch after it came out. It's bigger than the one below and bigger than I'd normally want. Hey, it's not perfect but I'm not going to be picky my first time.

I was pleasantly surprised, if not shocked, at how well my first bread-making adventure went (maybe the Lord was just having mercy on a wanna-be homemaker). I have decided that I am going to attempt (very noncommittal) to make this bread every Sunday for Mike and I to eat throughout the week. Mike and I are trying to save money and every week we buy some local Spelt bread that costs $5. We'll see how it goes when school starts up again but I like the idea of saving money, being domestic and knowing what's going into my bread!

This is the active dry yeast batch. I don't know if you can tell but it's smaller and looks more like what I envision it should look like.

Mike cutting up the bread. We ate it with freezer jam or my favorite, just butter and a little honey. Mmmm!

And the winner is...

2009-06-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

A tie?!

Two weeks of checking back and forth and this is what we end up with. 11 to 11. Kind of anticlimactic huh? I would just like to say that earlier today the polls were considered done when picture B was ahead by two votes. Picture B--- MY picture! Woohoo, right? So we took our victory and not-so-victorious photos this afternoon and then I logged on to post the results... and what happened? Two people voted tonight to make it an even tie!! I can't believe it. Mike is next to me laughing (Mmwuahaha!) and saying I can't take the earlier results. Which I find ironic considering today when I told him I pulled ahead in the polls by 2 votes he said (I quote), "Well, I wasn't in it for the competition. Just for the fun..." Uhhh... yea right. Spoken like a classic man who was about to get his pride publicly handed to him by his wife. =)
So here's the lesson here, making a gift into a contest only ends up in one thing... a lousy tie! What's the fun in that?! Just kidding! Well, I guess we were an even match and both get to have one hand on the "I-was-right-trophy" at least for now... ;)
Thanks all for playing along with us!

(Just for fun... here are the victory photos)

Picture A taker /Picture B taker

(This just proves that pride cometh before the fall...)

2 days left...

2009-06-12T21:25:00.000-07:00

So in retrospect, I gave WAY too long to do this poll. This is probably the most fun we've had with our blog so far but we want to end this poll and move onward and upward. (As in continuous checking of the blog-- Mike has never looked at this blog as much as he does now!). So over the last week when discussing to end this poll there's been a question that if I end early I might do it when I'm ahead on the polls. So Mike and I decided the arbitrary day is Sunday. Sunday the poll ends and the winner is announced. I think I'm going to have to make a prize of some sort since this has been more fun than I originally thought. Thanks everyone voting-- it's been so much fun to see your votes and comments! So hurry and vote if you haven't!! It's all going down on Sunday! =)

Sweet Surprise Turned Photo Contest

2009-06-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

When I came home from Costa Rica, Mike told me he had a surprise for me. I came home and found this beautiful pot full of gorgeous flowers on the front porch. I had wanted to plant flowers but could never bring myself to buy them. Mike went home to Vernal, where his mom and sisters picked out and helped him plant these adorable flowers. I especially love the Gerbers... which they included because they know they're one of my favs and were in my wedding bouquet. He's the sweetest!

So here's the competitive part. Mike and I took some pictures the other day of the flowers while they're still so beautiful (or before they fry on our front porch)! In looking through our pictures we jokingly debated about how we each enjoyed the picture we took better. Just to make it fun (and cause I secretly love polls!), I've decided to let the blogging world decide! So cast your vote on this totally inconsequential question to resolve a fun-loving debate (and allow the "I was right" card to be handed off) Thanks for participating in our crazy fun.....here they are! =)

Picture A

Picture B

A picture is worth 2 months words

2009-05-20T20:51:00.001-07:00

Because writing about the last 2 months would take longer than any of you have or would care to read... I'm catching everyone up on our life through pictures (which are more fun anyway!) and adding blurbs. Enjoy the whirlwind we call life...

For the last 3 months Mike has done an internship at Deloitte. He interviewed and finally got his dream of one with a "Big Four" accounting firm. He lived in Salt Lake for 3 months while I lived in Logan... nothing was as great as him coming home! He loved Deloitte and they loved him. He hopes to work for them in the future!

While working for Deloitte, Mike worked in Indiana for 2 weeks. Deloitte flew me from a conference to meet Mike for a weekend. We went to Nashville and saw a little of Indiana.

Easter came and went in a flash. We spent it at my family's house having a great Easter egg hunt with the kids. There were strategically placed eggs with 10 dollar bills as well for the adults. I won't lie and say there weren't some scratched up arms and legs (of the adults of course!) in fighting for those eggs. There were so many, my mom had to make a map!

School ended-- thankfully! It was the hardest semester of graduate school so far and never would have survived if Mike wasn't home to help me. With the end of the school year came Mike's graduation! Yay!! He graduate Summa Cum Laude from USU and got in to the Master's of Accounting program here. As if he's not amazing enough... he also received the highest scholarship offered to MAcc students and the only assistanship. He's my hero! Both our fantastic families came to Logan-- which is a lot of people-- and we had a great celebration with them. They are incredible and we couldn't do it without their support!

Two days after Mike graduated, I left for Costa Rica on USU's annual audiology humanitarian trip. Short of boring you with all the stories... here's the summary: I fit hearing aids on children, screened children for hearing loss, used my auditory-verbal training, used ASL to communicate with kids that spoke a totally different language, saw a child with a Med-El cochlear implant, held a crocodile, went canopying and hung out with some really great people! The picture below are the student in my year of the AuD program-- now 3rd years! Wahoo!

And now I'm home again with Mike! It was great to come home and finally stay home. Things have calmed down for me but Mike has started up school again. Today we went on a date... during the day. Gasp! Yes, we are looking forward to a slower summer together which hopefully involves staying in Logan for awhile.

Thanks for the catch up with the Mansfields!!

Things I never thought I'd see...

2009-03-13T13:46:00.000-07:00

At our New Year's Eve Party we had all sorts of games. One of those involved playing Raving Rabids on the Wii. (This is a fun group game if anyone has ever played it) There is a dance game in there that quickly became a favorite. I'll let the video speak for itself but watching my dad play Wii within itself is funny enough... dancing through the Wii is a whole 'nother thing! Not to mention Marisa... she's feeling it!! Good times at the Grover's house....

Catch-Up

2009-02-15T18:18:00.000-08:00

First off, I apologize for the lack of blogging the last month. I kept waiting to get the video of my dad dancing before I made a new blog. But with my parents in Florida for 3 weeks and not getting home very often... I've decided to move on in the blogging world and catch up with what Mike and I have been doing for the last 2 months.

Chronologically, first off in December was mine and Mike's anniversary. As of the 20th Mike and I have been married a year! That night Mike blindfolded me and drove me to the cutest bed and breakfast called the Four Seasons in Logan. I'd seen it once and said I wanted to buy it as a dream house one day, it is so picturesque. I was so surprised and delighted. He'd rented the Bridal suite with fireplace, sunken tub and balcony... complete with pink and orange rose petals (my favorite!) everywhere. It was adorable! For dinner, Mike took me to Hamilton's steak house. We sat and talked for hours-- which is something we love to do. The next morning we sat in a sun room alone eating homemade apple pancakes, bacon and fruit. It was almost like being far away from Logan in a snowy Vermont or something. It was an awesome anniversary and Mike was so sweet to surprise me with a night away!

Christmas came soon after and even though that makes this post out of order... I thought I'd post the only pictures I have. I forgot my camera over Christmas and so a lot of the pictures were taken with my mom's camera or Mike's phone. I won't go on forever about what we did but here's just a couple pictures of what we did.
South Jordan...

Vernal... (We didn't take very many pictures here because we didn't have a camera but here's a picture of us playing Guitar Hero with Mike's sister, mom and brother in law. This other picture is one that Mike and I enjoyed. We were at a restaurant in Vernal called Seven Eleven, which is my favorite place to eat in Vernal. They have a little country shop you can buy in while you wait and this is what we found. Don't you just love "frige" magnets? ;)

The holidays were good to us. Since we've been home, Mike and I have enjoyed our weekends together. Whether it's staying in, going bowling or to an arcade for fun, out to eat, playing games or watching movies... we've been relishing the weekends where we can leave work and school behind. Here's a couple pictures of one fun weekend where Mike and I went bowling and to an arcade with a couple of our friends, Don and Heather. At a bowling alley in Logan there is an arcade attached to play in while you wait. We found a whole new kind of fun playing Deal or No Deal... what's more fun than that? A dollar a game for enough tickets to buy matching tatoos, tootsie rolls and pixie sticks that would cost 50 cents! =)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-12T15:14:00.000-08:00

Well this year is already starting out interesting... with Mike moving to Salt Lake for an internship and me staying in Logan it looks like it's going to be a long beginning to a new year. Fortunately, we had a great (if not long enough) break to enjoy each other before we headed back to reality. With our 1 year anniversary, Christmas and New Years... we have lots of pictures to share. Also some funny video for all you people who think seeing my dad smack his own butt in a dancing game is going to be hilarious to watch... so check back soon and I'll hopefully I'll get some fun pictures up from the last month!

p.s. I know whoever is reading this is secretly grateful Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers have FINALLY stopped singing their Christmas tunes... so ungrateful. But you're welcome. =)

Traditions!

2008-12-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

Yay! It's Christmas time and the traditions have begun!
Although Mike and I were technically married last year, with the planning of the wedding and flying out on our honeymoon on Christmas day, we hadn't even moved into our place yet and didn't have a chance to do any of the traditions we've loved since we were kids. So this is our first Christmas at home-- Mansfield style!

Decorating Our Christmas Tree
It was so exciting this year to have our own tree. Mike's mom gave us the tree she bought for our reception in Vernal and we got to decorate with all the ornaments we had signed by people that came to our reception in Sandy. Nothing like celebrating Christmas with ornaments that say "Get Lucky" on them! =) jk It actually really was fun to remember that night by reading all the sweet messages (because yes, most were very sweet and not all written by Mike's friends) people wrote to us. It ended up making for a tree that not only reminded us of the season but of the amazing day that we got married! Here are some before and after shots, one of Mike as we wrapped presents to put under the tree, a mid-decorating shot and one of "Mike getting bored as we looked at 5 different stores for our Christmas star shot". While we did this we watch my favorite Christmas movie... Miracle on 34th Street! Watching this movie is essential for me and I can't let the season go by without watching it at least once... or three, four, five times... well, whatever... =)

Sammi Klaus Tag

So this tradition is one that my family has been doing since before I can remember and I couldn't stand the thought of me not doing it with my own family. So even though we don't have kids yet, I don't even care! I love St. Nicholas Day, or as we always called it Sammi Klaus Tag!! This tradition is like mini-Christmas and happens on the night of December 5th. On the night before the 6th we put our shoes out with carrots, celery and treats for Santa's reindeer. If we've been good, we wake up the next morning to find that Santa has fed the treats to his reindeer and filled our shoes with small toys and candy. If you're bad he leaves coal. Thankfully, Santa is a little biased and has always given me the benefit of the doubt. =) This tradition is one of my favorite and I remember years of excitedly waking up and running down to see what Santa had left in my shoe! Quite honestly, this wasn't just a growing up thing. I've done this every year since I was kid, whether at college or at home, with roommates, boyfriends or family...this tradition means a lot to me and doing it with Mike was awesome. We did our secret shopping separate from each other the day before and got to wake up the next morning to see what we'd surprised each other with. Here are our night before and day after shots.

Needless to say, I love our traditions. Even the music playing to this blog, which most of you probably can't stand (don't worry, Mike is nearing that point as well) is a tradition for me. I woke up morning after morning hearing my mom listening to Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton downstairs throughout Christmas time. Having a husband this year to combine traditions and share everything with makes the season just that much sweeter! We still have more on the agenda and can't wait to go home and do more fun things with our family. But here's just the beginning of a great Christmas season at home and together... year #1!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-06T09:06:00.001-08:00

Well Thanksgiving this year came and went faster than ever. Mike and I went to both our homes for Thanksgiving and it was lot a food and family for one short break... but we loved it. These are the pictures from Thanksgiving at my house as we prepared to have all the cousins, aunts, uncles and friends over for the day. This was our "potato peeling party". 4 bags of potatoes, 5 people, one cut finger from a peeler, 30 minutes later... mashed potatoes to feed the masses. It was really fun in the kitchen with everyone! (p.s. Jonny doesn't usually wear war paint to attack the cooking but he'd just returned from playing football with the Murpheys... which apparently, requires war paint!?)

Mmmm.... Turkey and a bowl full of my Aunt Linda's homemade rolls! This year I tried new recipes. Lemon cake and bacon, spinach and asiago cheese stuffed mushrooms... yum!

The best thing about Thanksgiving this year was getting to laugh and play with family. The highlights of the break were probably playing around-the-world ping pong after the Thanksgiving meal at my house, Mike and the boys dirtbiking at his and all of his family showing me the movie "A Christmas Story" for the first time ever...

Tag I'm It

2008-12-05T15:23:00.000-08:00

1. Where did you meet your husband? Outside some apartments in Logan when I was on my way to a rodeo with my boyfriend

2. How long did you date before you got married? 9 months

3. How long have you been married? A year this month (December 20th)! Woohoo!

4. What does he do that surprises you? I'll come home from a long day and the huge pile of dishes we've both been too busy to do will be gone, the bathrooms will be clean and our bed made. There is no sweeter surprise than that. He's amazing!

5. What is your favorite feature of his? His adorable face. Eyes, smile, hair... he's handsome.

6. Does he have an annoying habit? Sometimes the dish doesn't make it all the way to the sink and stops just inches away =)

7. What is your favorite quality of his? His ability to be himself... he can have fun, make me laugh, kiss me in public, and be goofy no matter who is watching.

8. Does he have a nickname for you? Schatzy

9. What is his favorite color? Blue but it probably depends on what he's picking out

10. What is his favorite food? Chinese but he won't pinpoint a favorite meal for me

11. What is his favorite sport? Volleyball and Tennis. His whole family loves softball and I know he really enjoys that but he also plays basketball a lot in the winter.

12. When and where was your first kiss? On my doorstep outside my apartment in Logan.

13. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Go anywhere together. We have so much fun shopping, driving, watching movies, playing games... whatever. We are goofy and what I love best about him is that he still loves me when so often, I'm weird!

14. Do you have any children? Not at the moment... but as soon as we can... we will.

15. Does he have a hidden talent? He's very insightful and once he learns something... he remembers it!

16. How old is he? 24

17. Who said "I love you" first? Him

18. What is his favorite type of music? Alternative, Rock and Instrumental

19. What do you admire most about him? His ability to love, forgive and support me even when I know I shouldn't be.

20. Do you think he will read this? I highly doubt it.

What bites about Twilight

2008-11-24T09:18:00.000-08:00

I said I would blog about Twilight and so here's my take...

Mike and I went to see this Saturday night. We'd gone on a date earlier and funny enough, everywhere we went where people were talking about "it" turned out to be a discussion on what their review of Twilight was. It appeared to be either a love/hate relationship for everyone that saw it. I'd read all the books so I suspected I'd hate it but went in with no real expectations. Surprisingly, after Mike got pushed out of the way by some 35 year old women racing to get seats... I actually enjoyed it! (Mike might characterize it differently if he looked over at me in the middle of the movie and saw me grinning ear to ear.)
This is what was good about Twilight. One: it doesn't take huge creative liberties with the book. For the most part, it stuck pretty close to the book (even if events were out of order in some cases) and even had some direct lines from the book which is fun if you've read them. Two: I read the books... I knew it was an completely unbelievable, teen novel. What makes me laugh about people that talk about Twilight is when they say they hated it because it was sappy... uhhh, hello?! Did you read the books? This movie was based on the book, which hate to disappoint the people that thought it was somehow going to magically become an action-packed horror film but it was targeted to teen girls. If you can't get on the same level with that to tolerate what is going to appeal to teen girls (or middle aged woman, apparently) then you're better off going to see Quantum of Solace (although, let's not get started on how unbelievable James Bond is). Finally: I wanted to see a love story with all the good "love story" inclusions... the beginning love/hate relationship, boy pursues girl, jealousy, love triangle, mystery, action, boy saves girl... it's all in there. So I got it!
So what bites in Twilight? Edward. (ha ha) But really, surely there is another actor out there that can pretend to be 17, make-up his face white, wear gold/black contacts and dye his hair reddish brown to be Edward? The criteria for that actor couldn't have been that ovewhelming since they were going to change everthing about him anyway, right? Just one thing: he was supposed to be good looking! I could even got over Bella's buck teeth and the apparent need to keep zooming in on them during the movie but Edward is supposed to unbelievably good looking and the actor playing Edward really was pushing "cute" at best. I will admit after awhile he grew on me (more because of the characterization he had to fulfill than how he looked). Beyond his looks, I had a hard time not laughing at his "i'm-completely-confused-and-the-world-is-too-overwhelming-for-me look" he constantly wore throughout the film. Surely, as he is a vampire that's lived over 80 years all over the world with two medical degrees... he'd be able to latch onto situations a bit quicker.
Despite my disappointment in Edward... I loved Twilight (how that works when you're so upset with the main character is beyond me). In fact I loved it even to the point that I may or may not have attempted to convince Mike to go buy tickets for the showing that followed so I could watch it all over again. =) Aww... the life of a 22 yr old stuck in a 14 yr old fantasy... I feel no shame. =)

Another one bites the dust...

2008-11-23T13:34:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I caved. I made a blog. Yes, it's very near the top of my list of things I have less time to do... and yet here I am. And all for one simple reason... I can't stand that everyone in mine and Mike's family has a blog (even my parents!) and we don't. Mike thinks that's a funny reason to create a blog and asked me the classic question about if all of you jumped off a bridge would I do it? Well...apparently this blog's existence answers that question. =)
I also credit this sick turn of events into the blogging world to all my friends who created cute blogs that in the last week I couldn't help but check... thanks a lot both Brittany Griffin 1 and 2! Ya, I saw Twilight too and darn it...I want to blog about it! ;)