Hi everyone that reads my blog! I decided to change my email address to my married name, which started a whole chain of events of changing everything I do with Google over to my new account. As such, I've transferred my blog over to a new address, j-squaredonlife.blogspot.com, and that's the blog I'll be updating going forward. I'd love it if you switched over with me.
So Bill and I have decided that it's a really good thing that we got married, because together we've discovered we're quite lucky. I don't think I've won a single contest in my entire life, and neither has Bill. Since we got engaged, we've managed to get ourselves 3 trips and won a bunch of free stuff. In August we're going to San Diego for a couple days. The plane tickets and hotel are all paid for, plus a free dinner.
In May we're going to Cancun. We have a 2-night 3-day trip with hotel and all entertainment and food paid for. We have to buy the plane tickets, but that's what tax returns are for, right?
Oh, and we have a couple nights at a hotel paid for in Lake Tahoe if we want to do it sometime before August. As you can see, we're a little busy, so that might not happen, but that won't be the worst thing in the world.
What with all these great trips this year, and since Bill had to be back at work and school on Tuesday this week, we took just a couple days for our honeymoon and went up to Ogden for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. We planned to go snowboarding and possibly to to this indoor adventure center that has rock climbing, a surfing machine, and indoor sky diving, plus a snowshoeing trip, but once we were up there we ended up doing more relaxing than all the activities. Sunday we did get to go snowshoeing up Ogden Canyon. It was tons of fun. We found a little canyon to hike up and climbed up to the top of one of the sides. It was beautiful!
We would have gone snowboarding Monday, but it hasn't snowed for a few weeks, and I've never been snowboarding, so learning on ice just didn't sound like that much fun. Instead we went to a movie, Marley and Me, and wandered around old town Ogden.
We visited antique shops and cute furniture stores and that kind of thing. We found a cute little coffee shop to get hot chocolate at. 
On the way down to Provo stopped by IKEA to go shopping. I love that store! We didn't have as much time as we wanted, so we'll definitely be making a return trip sometimes soon.
Monday night we decided to invite all our family still in town to come over and watch us open our wedding gifts. It was so fun! My brother Mark and his family came and Tori and her family as well as my parents and sister Natasha that live here in town. I was glad I got to see them before they left, since I don't see them very often.
I have to say it was a perfect honeymoon. Not super long, but so relaxing and so fun and just what I wanted. As one of my college professors and dear friends told me, every vacation together is a honeymoon, so this was just the first of many in years to come. Next on the list: Cancun!!!
In May we're going to Cancun. We have a 2-night 3-day trip with hotel and all entertainment and food paid for. We have to buy the plane tickets, but that's what tax returns are for, right?
Oh, and we have a couple nights at a hotel paid for in Lake Tahoe if we want to do it sometime before August. As you can see, we're a little busy, so that might not happen, but that won't be the worst thing in the world.
What with all these great trips this year, and since Bill had to be back at work and school on Tuesday this week, we took just a couple days for our honeymoon and went up to Ogden for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. We planned to go snowboarding and possibly to to this indoor adventure center that has rock climbing, a surfing machine, and indoor sky diving, plus a snowshoeing trip, but once we were up there we ended up doing more relaxing than all the activities. Sunday we did get to go snowshoeing up Ogden Canyon. It was tons of fun. We found a little canyon to hike up and climbed up to the top of one of the sides. It was beautiful!
We would have gone snowboarding Monday, but it hasn't snowed for a few weeks, and I've never been snowboarding, so learning on ice just didn't sound like that much fun. Instead we went to a movie, Marley and Me, and wandered around old town Ogden.
We visited antique shops and cute furniture stores and that kind of thing. We found a cute little coffee shop to get hot chocolate at. 
On the way down to Provo stopped by IKEA to go shopping. I love that store! We didn't have as much time as we wanted, so we'll definitely be making a return trip sometimes soon.Monday night we decided to invite all our family still in town to come over and watch us open our wedding gifts. It was so fun! My brother Mark and his family came and Tori and her family as well as my parents and sister Natasha that live here in town. I was glad I got to see them before they left, since I don't see them very often.
I have to say it was a perfect honeymoon. Not super long, but so relaxing and so fun and just what I wanted. As one of my college professors and dear friends told me, every vacation together is a honeymoon, so this was just the first of many in years to come. Next on the list: Cancun!!!
So I've been married for 5 days now, and let me tell you, being married is great! The wedding turned out so wonderful! I can't give enough thanks to mine and Bill's families for making sure everything was perfect.
And it sure took some effort. The reception was particularly troublesome. You'd think with all the churches in Utah county, it wouldn't be difficult to schedule one for a reception. Not so! My lovely visiting teacher pulled through for us and got us into her parent's building, which happens to be a stake center. We were scheduled for Saturday afternoon for our reception, but not any other times to decorate. We didn't realize that would be a problem until we found out that there was a youth basketball tournament that morning. No problem though, we'd just decorate the walls the night before and quickly move the stuff in between the sealing and the reception, right? No! Because since we weren't scheduled for Friday night to decorate, a singles dance got bumped up at the very last minute from a church down the road who had double-scheduled. There we were with our entire family at the church eating dinner, ready to decorate, and instead we had to leave everything and vacate the premises for the dance. I made a conscious choice not to be stressed about everything, and just enjoy all the events, so I did surprisingly fine, but Bill was stressed out of his mind. When he got to the church after a full day of school and work Friday, he had to eat and unwind without a billion people around before he could face everyone. Poor guy! I had the day off and had gone and gotten pampered with my sisters, mom, and sister/mother-in-law with manicures and pedicures, so I was as stress-free as you can get in the situation.
So my sister-in-law Hillary deserves an award for the best sister-in-law ever. She is studying interior design, and she took over all the reception plans and got it set up in between the 11am sealing and the 4pm reception. Way to go! She put fliers on all the doors of the guys in her ward and got a bunch of them to show up and decorate. It turned out beautiful! Nevermind that our centerpiece flowers froze in the fridge overnight and were black and limp when they arrived. They went and bought some roses and it was just beautiful.
Wedding day was amazing all around. The weather was beautiful. Warm and sunny (well, 40ish degrees. That's warm in Utah in January :) ) and just perfect. I got my hair done at 7:30 am and then headed up to the Salt Lake temple with my sister and niece. All of my siblings were there for the wedding, save for one who I saw two days before. I couldn't have asked for a better present than to have them all there, although the present they got us was really nice too. :) Bill and I sat and waited in the celestial room for probably half an hour instead of the few minutes we expected because we found out after that the girl getting sealed before us had forgotten her dress. Poor girl! So our sealing ended up being at 11:20 instead of 11am. It was wonderful. A family friend of Bill's parents sealed us and it was amazing, just like I knew it would be. My two best friends came with their husbands, plus some of my dear friends that still live here in Utah, and of course my family and Bill's. My grandparents were there, which was just great, and I was pleasantly surprised to have Bill's grandma come up all the way from Tempe, AZ to attend, as did several of my aunts and uncles.
Our photographer and videographer are a couple that we got connected to from one of my old roommates. They are amazing! They spent a couple hours with us taking pictures at the temple, and then came down to our reception just because they wanted to, as it wasn't a part of their contract. Thanks Nickell and Aaron!
After we finished taking pictures, we headed down to Provo for the reception. Just as we were passing Sandy I realized I had forgotten my bouquet at the temple. I was so sad! But my aunt and uncle came to the rescue and went up and picked them up and brought them down in time for me to have them for the last half our the reception. You are amazing Paul and Bonnie!
Like I said, the reception was wonderful. So many good friends and family came and it was just so fun to see them and do all the fun things like cut the cake and throw a bouquet and garter. Bill and I danced together and then I got to dance with my dad and with Bill's dad, who is already like another dad to me. I just love his family! I couldn't ask for better in-laws. They're fun and generous and so accepting of me and I just love them!
What a wonderful day! It was definitely everything I could have hoped and dreamed for my wedding, and the fact that I'm married to the most amazing guy in the world sure makes it even better!
It's been a busy few weeks, seeing that the wedding is in 5 days!!!! I'm just a tad excited, if you can't tell. :) Lots has happened since we got back from Christmas in Las Vegas.
Bill and I moved into our new apartment. Well, we moved me and all our stuff in, and he sleeps at his brother's house a few blocks away, but only for one more week. Yay! It is so nice to have our own place! Married housing is a lot less hectic and crazy than single student housing, and I'm loving the change. Here's a picture of Bill in our living room this morning about to leave. He's going to love that I posted this. :)
Last night Bill and I, with the helpful mentoring of my super cute old roommate Becky, created a wedding cake out of a foam mold for our wedding on Saturday. So much fun! Since cakes run upwards of $300, we decided we'd do a fake cake and then have a little one to cut. We finished 2 of the three layers and it looks awesome! See for yourself.
It's going to have red and silver ribbon and flowers on it at the reception, so it'll be even better this weekend. Fun times!
Bill and I moved into our new apartment. Well, we moved me and all our stuff in, and he sleeps at his brother's house a few blocks away, but only for one more week. Yay! It is so nice to have our own place! Married housing is a lot less hectic and crazy than single student housing, and I'm loving the change. Here's a picture of Bill in our living room this morning about to leave. He's going to love that I posted this. :)
Last night Bill and I, with the helpful mentoring of my super cute old roommate Becky, created a wedding cake out of a foam mold for our wedding on Saturday. So much fun! Since cakes run upwards of $300, we decided we'd do a fake cake and then have a little one to cut. We finished 2 of the three layers and it looks awesome! See for yourself.
It's going to have red and silver ribbon and flowers on it at the reception, so it'll be even better this weekend. Fun times!