last night

me: ugh, nothing good on TV.
hunter: yeah lets just turn it off.
me: and do what?
hunter: we could just talk or something
me: okay
hunter: well...
me: hm?
hunter: let's just check these other channels.
me: yeah good call.

bahahahahaha. i love marriage.

Best July 4th Week(end) ever!

Virginia is heaven on earth. The humidity, gnats, itchy grass and all. I love everything about it.  Top off my visit home with family gatherings, BBQs, water balloon volleyball, lunch dates with mama and sissies, reading on the porch, thunderstorms, shopping, mini golfing, cuddling with/torturing cats, and going to a lake house down in Southern VA, and I'm in heaven.

 

 The men were too busy with the rousing game of volleyball, so Mom stepped in as grill master.

 My favorite niece, who I trained to call me "pretend mommy."

 The MOST DELICIOUS and patriotic trifle ever. Complete with sparklers.

 Waiting for the fireworks, and praying there were no police patrolling the area. My dad literally smuggled them across the border.

 

 Best home fireworks show ever!

 

 

 

 

 

 This is the view from the lower deck of the lake house. It belongs to Nate's friends and I tagged along the mommy-son vacation. So glad I did!

 Cute little pup that didn't know how to swim-hilarious! He had to wear this life vest every time we went down to the water.

Marley and I became fast friends, although she drooled a lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Couldn't believe my mom jumped off the top deck. I def was not about to do that.

 Couldn't resist posting a couple pics of the shmoopies. Fat Melia and demon eye Maxie. Look carefully at that pic- not photoshopped! Possessed!

 

Love and marriage

On Monday Hunter and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary! This is a huge milestone because the first two years were wonderful in every way, but man! they required a lot of compromise and work. It is finally starting to get easier and I heard that after 3 years it is smooth sailing. I also have finally learned the lesson that the more pressure I put on holidays to be romantic and wonderful, the worse they turn out. So we both decided to make it easy and fun. We went to a deliciousssss dinner at one of my favorites, Cheesecake Factory, and then we came home and ate ice cream cake (we even cut it together for old time's sake) and watched a movie. Hunter bought me "snow puma" kitten (which was born on Sunday!) for our 2 year and I got him an exercise ball, a couple shirts, and a heart shaped Dairy Queen cake. It was perfect in its simplicity. No this is not an Ilovemyhusbandsomuchblog, but it was our anniversary so I get a free pass to say these were the best two years of my life!

Here is a picture of my new shmoopy:

We are probably going to pick one of the white ones! We will go visit them in a couple months then they don't look so much like wet rats and see which one has the best personality. I am shocked to report that sometimes I think Hunter is more excited than I am. Any name ideas????

Congraduation!

Congratulations to my amazing sister Kate for graduating from LMU with her Masters degree in Public Education! She did this in two years, all while teaching full-time at an inner city school for the Teach for America program, being a full-time wife, coaching the step team, and teaching Sunday School. Good job sissy!

getting creative

For some reason lately people keep asking me if I have any kids. I want to respond "no but also yes I have 28 kids." I love my babies. Yesterday I was feeling really down about my job, the tiny baby pay and a couple problem children and someone threw up and also there was a surprise bad word in my playlist (and my boss heard it, trouble). So it was too perfect that today was teacher appreciation day, and even though I wasn't invited to the teacher apprecation luncheon, some of my students still recognized me as an educator of sorts and brought me chocolates, bath and body works, mugs, cards, etc. And big hugs.

The best part about kids is they are so funny without knowing it. Every day we do the butterfly stretch, and I ask them what color their butterfly wings are. I never get a normal answer. Never. Kids are really getting creative with the color wheel these days. Actual answers from today:

"rainbow and purple and rainbow" (extra rainbow)

"cat colors and glitter" (sounds like a stripper butterfly)

"blue and pink and fashion" (....fashion)

"Ariel colored and Tiana colored"

"very green"

"crayons and gray"

Seriously. These are all for real. My favorite is "fashion." That one pops up at least once a class. I want a fashion colored blouse.

Keeping up the good work

I'm so good at blogging lately. As Hunter would say "life is all about rhythm."

First things first, 

Bin Laden is dead! Of course a few of you may all ready know this, if for some reason you don't turn to my blog for breaking world news. We have been watching the coverage for the past couple hours, so I thought I would throw in a shout out to America, our brave soldiers, Virginia friends that are partying on the Mall right now, Americans, Americanism, the war on terrorism, and President Obama.

 *Worth noting: Hitler is also estimated to have died on May 1st.#historyrepeats

Moving on, we are anxiously awaiting the birth of our first born cat. She is due May 6th. #babysnowpuma

The weather has been gorgeous here. Yesterday we rode our bikes to the beach and ate some 25cent hot dogs and cheetos from the grand opening party of the 7/11 by the pier. It was almost ideal if the wind hadn't been blowing against us both on the ride there and back. My knees are achy today #i'm70yearsold.

On Friday night we were eating some gyros from our favorite Greek restaurant and about to leave to the movie theater to see "Rio," when we suddenly became possessed by the idea that we needed to be more spontaneous. Hunter remembered the comedy club in Irvine and called from the dinner table, bought the last 2 tickets to the sold out show over the phone, we boxed up the rest of our food and cruised down. We were so excited about how cool we were being...until we arrived and realized this was no BYU Humor-U stand-up. Everyone around us was either half-drunk or half-dressed or smoking or cursing. It had slipped our minds how comedians are never PG-rated, so Hunter went to get refunds on the tickets. He may or may not have told the manager that his mom was in the hospital. The night ended predictably but satisfyingly. #redboxandchewysprees

Ilovemyhusbandsomuchblogs

Let it be known....

This is not one of those mushy-make-me-throw-up "Ilovemyhusbandsooooomuch" blogs. You know the ones I'm talking about- with the cutesy photos of so-and-so's husband posing awkwardly in a blanket and pillow fort they "flirtatiously" built and supposedly slept in the whole weekend, braggy posts about how so-and-so's husband had a four course pot roast dinner and flowers waiting for them when she returned from studying late in the library, referring to their significant other with outrageous pet names that there is no WAY their husband appreciates in real life, blogging short "silly/adorable/clever/flirty" conversations they had that are tweaked so much the original connotation is completely abandoned, writing about how hot/sexy/boyishly handsome her husband is (while I hope all people are attracted to their spouses, it is very important, posting it on the internet is screaming for validation), or just straight up proclaiming love for their husband via blog "Love youuuuuuu more than life shmookie bear", as if you don't see them multiple hours every day and couldn't just tell them in REAL life? You know, the place we exist and interact with other human beings?

Seriously. Blows. my. mind.

Perfect example: (taken from actual Ilovemyhusbandsomuch blog)

Me: OK hon, well I'm gonna go start gettin' some stuff done. My to-do list is seriously this long today.
Husband: Honey, no. No, you don't. You don't have to do any of that stuff today. Just stay here and cuddle me.
Me: Actually, yes. I do. I'm not joking right now. We still have dishes in the sink from last night
Husband: No. I'm pretty sure I don't remember that. There's no dishes. I told our housekeeper to do them last night.
Me: Cute. I'm getting up.
Husband: OK but wait. My arms hurt real bad. They need some loving. Can you please just give them a quick hug before you get up?
Me: Oh fine. There. Niiiiiiiiice hug. I've seriously gotta get up now Tys.
Husband: Wait ... but my lips. They hurt too.
Me: Nice try. Not playing that game pal

What I'm betting really went down:

Me: Hey husband can you help me with some stuff today, I have a lot to do.
Husband: Honey, no. No, you don't. Just let me lay here a little longer.
Me: Actually, yes. I do. I'm not joking right now. We still have dishes in the sink from last night
Husband: No. I'm pretty sure I don't remember that. There's no dishes.
Me:  I'm getting up and you better come help me.
Husband: Uhhhh... My arms hurt real bad. I can't help you.
Me: ....get up now husband.
Husband: No.
Me: I hate you.

That being said, to avoid any confusion, let it be know that I truly,
truly,
truly
love my husband.
Crazy amounts.
He is my 100% perfect match.

But that will be the only time I post it, for your sake.

I teach dance

The great thing about teaching children is all the funny stories I get to come home and tell my husband. There is one particularly hilarious little 4 year old girl that always manages to unintentionally make me laugh. For the sake of not exposing my little ones' identities to internet prowlers, I'll change the names. On Monday we gathered in a circle and I asked each dancer what they did over Spring break. 

Amy: "I went with my fambly to Hawaii!"

Casey: "I went to Disneyland!"

Kaylee: "I went to my friend's house and we painted Easter eggs!"

..."and what did you do Stacy?"

"ummmmm....I went..I went to....I went with Kaylee to her friend's house and we painted.."

           "NO YOU DIDN'T STACY you're lyyyyyyying!" -a very indignant Kaylee interupted. Stacy looked at me wide-eyed and mortified.

Yet she continued, "and we painted Easter..."

           "STACY noooooo you didn't! She didn't Miss Aubrey!"

It was so strange how straight faced Stacy was that I wasn't sure who to believe!

S: "I went to... her friends houseandwepaintedEastereggs!!"

           "STACY no you didn't you're lyyyyyyying!"

S looked around the room and apparently changed her mind.

S: "I went to Hawaii with Amy!"

           Amy lunged forward "NO YOU DIDN'T STACY you're lyyyyyying!"

S: "I....I went to Disneyland! With Casey!"

          "NO YOU DIDN"T STACY you're lyyyyying!"

S: "YES I DID!"

          "NO you DIDN'T! You did NOT go with me!"

Upon this, Stacy gave up, and we moved on.

Apparently Stacy didn't do anything for Spring Break.

NY, NY

Last weekend I spent a brilliant 72 hours visiting my bestie Ashley in New York City. lets just say we took a huge bite out of The Big Apple. Literally. We spend approx. 20 hours eating, 5 hours standing in lines to eat something, 5 hours talking about how much we loved things we had eaten, 20 hours shopping, 24 hours walking, 5 hours on the metro, 4 hours loving my life in the MoMA, 9 hours getting ready in the morning, 8 hours watching Laguna Beach Reruns late at night, 5 hours trying to get a decent pic of ourselves, 50 hours gossiping and chatting, and 70 hours laughing. Don't worry about adding up those numbers.


Here is some proof of how much we ate

 

 

 

 

And here are some other pictures, that don't involve us eating. There are not as many.