Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Pet Names? HELP!

If you know me you know I hate mushy things pertaining to relationships, including pet names. I like being called Brittney or Britt, I mean that has been my name for the past 23 years. This also means I like calling Jesse by his name too. The occasional "babe" might even be used in our household, but that is the extent of it. About a week ago Jesse tried casually throwing some pet names into our conversation and I screamed in horror. He tried using hunny, sweetie, and sweetheart. He thinks it is funny that those names freak me out so much, especially "hunny". Now he throws those names out just to creep me out and his friends even get a kick out of it and encourage him to call me them. I would think after being together for five years there would be a clear establishment or lack there of, of pet names. Some people think these names are terms of endearment (whatever floats your boat), but it is much more personal to me to be called by my given name. It is a funny thing to listen to the pet names couples use for each other. I have always taken notice of this and can honestly say there are some comical pet names used in my immediate and extended family as well as with some of my friends and their significant others.


Superman

Sunday I came home early from church because I was so sick. That night I knew I wouldn't be able to get any sleep because I would be up all night sick. Well....good thing I married superman otherwise known as Jesse. It's one in the morning by this time and he walks into the living room where I'm laying and watching TV. He blows up the air mattress and sleeps on it with me there so I can watch TV all night and have something to take my mind off the pain. What a winner! He knows just how to comfort me with the little acts of true kindness that I live for.

P.S. notice his nicely shaven face (no more mustache) and new haircut

Another One Bites the Dust

That's right another one of our friends, Josh, got his mission call this past weekend. He got called to Argentina and we were able to attend the temple with him and his family when he took out his endowments. We went to the Salt Lake Temple, which does a live endowment session and it was a really unique experience. The artwork in that temple is unreal and all the other detail work of everything from the carpet to the doorknobs was gorgeous. All in all we had another fun weekend with friends.


Jesse even got to hold a new puppy

Saturday, March 26, 2011

A Joyful Parting

On Thursday evening we had a full house. All of Jesse's old roommates and their girlfriends came over to watch the BYU vs. Florida game. Jesse grew out his mustache for "Mustache March" and the deal was that when BYU lost he would shave it off. Well the game was really intense and super close, but secretly I was rooting for the other team.....somewhat because I don't like BYU, but mostly because I wanted that mustache gone. In the end I got my wish and BYU lost. Jesse wanted some final pictures with his beloved mustache. He got a haircut and shaved the mustache off and oh how happy I am to see my clean-cut, adorable husband's face again. I don't think we will be trying to grow that one back again, although Jesse is still having trouble coping with not having his extremely hairy upper lip.

The many creepy faces that accompanied the mustache





Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Born with a Camera in My Hand

Someone once asked Jesse about me...."was she born with a camera in her hand?" Pretty much. I have always loved taking pictures. Even from the time I was little and would pose Travis and Paige around the yard and take pictures of them. Lately I've been playing around with editing my photos in an easy way. Retro pictures are my favorite and I'm kind of jealous that most of my grandparents' photos naturally look like the ones below. Everyone looks good in the retro setting and I love the way these turned out. I'm not claiming to be a photographer I just enjoy taking pictures with my family and friends and then posting them for my enjoyment and if others enjoy them too that's a bonus.

Bowling 2011
Family pictures/Christmas break 2010
La Jolla beaches/summer 2010/PJ, Me, Paige
October 9,2010 Jesse's b-day

Monday, March 21, 2011

Grams

I got a call from my grams last night. Nothing out of the blue just a nice little chat. We actually talk on a weekly basis and sometimes even a daily basis. I know we have a really unique grandmother-granddaughter relationship. We are very close and always have been. Most of the people I know love their grandparents, but not like me. I love being around my grandma and seeing her whenever possible. I have said throughout my life she is my best friend. I am blessed to have this kind of relationship with my grams. Our conversation last night consisted of talking about the weather, the fact that it was the first day of spring, how we both were doing nothing and bored at that moment, and trying to figure out when we would see each other next. When I was little both my parents worked so my grams watched me most of the time....at least that's honestly the only person beside my other grandparents that I remember being with most of the days. I always tell Jesse that when you live so close and spend that much time as a child with a grandparent you have a special relationship with them forever. I hope we live close to our parents when we have kids so they can experience what I have with my grandma. As I got into my teenage years and even now I will go and spend weekends at my grandmas. We will go out to our favorite spot, The Cheesecake Factory, and watch Shall We Dance or other old movies in bed as we fall asleep. She definitely keeps me laughing and entertained. We are two peas in a pod and I love that I have had my grandma as a close friend and wonderful example for my whole life. These are some pictures I came across. I have so many more pictures with my grandma, but these are the only ones I have access too.


Virginia Leona Conley








Can you tell we enjoy each others' company

Party Weekend

Friday night we went out to dinner with a bunch of friends for Tressa's birthday. After dinner we went to the ice skating rink. The girls danced while the boys ice skated. Then we watched the boys play broom hockey. I think it's hilarious to see the boys get so into a weird sport. On Saturday we woke up early and went to watch Tressa play rugby and then went to her birthday party after. Throughout the weekend we watched a ton of basketball since March madness is going on. After the party we all went out to dinner and by the time we got home we were exhausted.







Friday, March 18, 2011

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I love St. Patrick's day! My mom always makes corn beef and cabbage and I miss little family traditions. Sad to say this year St. Patrick's day snuck up on me and I totally forgot about it. I wanted to make an all green dinner and make green Jello and do other festive things, but I guess I'll have a year now to prepare for next year. Despite the last minute celebration we still had a blast. Our friends, Emma and Matt, came over and we made a fajitas bar and watched the BYU game. The dinner was delicious and we decorated sugar cookies for dessert with green frosting. I made my mother-in-law's sugar cookie recipe and they were divine. Later that night I went with Jess to his inter-mural basketball game....it is the playoffs now. The game was so intense the whole time and they lost by one point when the other team scored a basket right at the final buzzer. Not to mention Jesse fowled out of the game with three minutes left to go. All-in-all we had a great holiday and we are excited for the weekend because we are gonna party til we drop in honor of Tressa birthday.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Have You Heard? There's a Rumor in St. Petersburg!

Last night our good friend, Tressa Tenney, opened her mission call. It was so exciting and such a fun thing to be a part of. I took some pictures of the night and even a video. We love Tressa or should I say...Sister Tenney. She got her call to St. Petersburg, Russia. Anastasia has always been my favorite movie so I thought she got most exciting call ever. We sangs Anastasia songs after and went to In n' Out after to celebrate. We are so happy for her.

They love each other
The roomies after the call
Jesse, Tress, Dave

No one guessed Russia

When it Rains it Pours

Isn't that the saying? Well let me tell you....it is pouring tears at our apartment today and almost flooding it. Who is crying you ask....ME! I rarely cry, but yesterday I lost it. I sobbed like I haven't since I was probably a toddler....like can't catch your breath, heaving sobs. We got back from being stranded in Vegas and paying $400 to have a brand-new radiator put in our car on Monday. On Tuesday I jumped in the Jetta to go have a nice night in the spa with Kira. I went to put the key in the ignition and it would even slightly go in. I had my home teacher try it and Jesse. The next day I had to have it towed, which made me cringed because since the car wouldn't start they couldn't put it into neutral to roll up the bed of the truck, so they had to drag it through the parking lot onto the truck. We towed it to the dealership and yes as luck would have it another $400 to fix the ignition cylinder. This bad luck streak we have going here is starting to become laughable. Lately I have appreciated the action of removing myself from stressful situations like this. So after I found out how much the Jetta would cost I soaked in a hot bath and read a good book. The blessing in all of this is that the TV we splurged on plus the two car fixing payments all equal the exact amount we got in a tax return this year. AMAZING! YEs it is disappointing that we could put that money into savings, but I think the Lord helped us out in postponing these expenses to when we had the extra money. I mean at least we aren't dipping into our savings account for school yet. There is always a silver lining in a storm. Oh and as I was chatting with the tow-truck-man on the way to the dealership he made a comment that put everything into perspective. He said, "at least our Earth ain't shaking over here." Japan has been hit hard and I'd rather give all the money I have to fix our cars than to loose my family, friends, home, town, business, or valuables. It could always be worse. So at least our Earth ain't shaking over here.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Bachelor Finale

Here's a little tip you might not know about me. I have watched every season of the bachelor since it has been on except one, which doesn't count because it was the first one. I live for this show and I love how entertaining it is. I always look forward to Monday nights when it is on. This season I have been watching it with Kira and Tressa. Every Monday we meet at my apartment and analyze Brad's every move. The finale was tonight and he picked the girl we have liked from the beginning. We screamed and cried and absolutely lost it when Brad picked Emily. It was the best moment I've seen on TV and I want to replay it over and over again. We were so happy we couldn't contain ourselves. We've loved Brad this season and he is a southern version of my brother, Travis.
I talked about tender mercies in my last post and another tender mercy from the weekend is that when Kira and Tressa showed up for the finale they brought Jesse and I sodas and our favorite candies. I love having great friends that I can surround myself with.

Stranded in Vegas...not my cup of tea

Well this weekend began with my worst nightmare and then simmered down and turned out to have really confirmed the fact that counting your blessings always makes bad situations seem not as terrible. We experienced everything terrible you expect from Vegas:

1. heat....check
2. crowds.....yep
3. smoky casinos...you bet
4. a cracked radiator....unfortunately
5.traffic....obviously

Oh ya! That's right I said a cracked radiator. When we arrived in Vegas our car got extremely hot and it turned out to be a cracked radiator. To top it off the car wouldn't be fixed until Monday afternoon so we were stranded in Vegas. We stayed in a ghetto hotel that night and to top it off the spa was closed and the thought that I could soak in the spa at the hotel was the only thing keeping me calm through this nightmare.

Despite the pit to our weekend. My wonderful husband helped me to see the tender mercies through the weekend. Tender mercies:

1. having my husband with me
2. my wonderful uncle knowing a mechanic in the area and lending us his company car to get around for the weekend (amazing I know)...Thanks Uncle Bob!
3. Jesse's companion let us stay at his house all weekend and fed and entertained us....we got to catch up with his companion and meet his family
4. We got to eat at our favorite sandwich place, Capriotti's
5. We got to visit the Las Vegas temple, which I didn't know existed
6. We got to see Jesse's family in Vegas because they came up to go to the basketball finals with Jess
7. I got to walk the strip with Jesse one day and his mom another and see the beautiful hotels
8. I got to see some really interesting people on the strip...that's putting it lightly
9. Our car made it to Vegas before breaking down...it could have happened half way and that would have been way worse
10. We made it home Monday evening just in time to watch the Bachelor finale with friends
11. The car ran perfectly the whole way home
12. It was a fun road trip with my hubby


The road trip looked like this the whole way

Sharing our 20" sandwich at Capriotti's (yes we finished it and yes Jesse ate most of it)
My grandpa's favorite restaurant in Vegas....my Dad introduced us to it
The lions at the MGM hotel




The gold man and his gold stuffed-animal dog. They were frozen until you put money in their jar then he would yell and dance around.
The Michael Jackson impersonator that was so fun to watch, but he creeped Jesse out
M&Ms


Las Vegas Temple



All in all I still don't want to spend anymore future weekends or vacations in Vegas but the tender mercies definitely came two-fold when the trials came our way. I love having a husband that can handle hard situations and help me to grow from them. I love that my Savior let's me know that he knows me well and knows what I need and how to cheer me up when I'm in a really hard situation. I'm truly blessed!