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.

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.

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!

Perfection

The last couple of mornings after Jesse goes to class I move into the kitchen and do the dishes while listening to James Taylor. Can't think of a better way to start off my day. It actually makes doing the dishes a peaceful time instead of a chore. James Taylor reminds me of sitting in the boat at the river with the sun beating on my back. That's heaven.

Mustache March and a New Addition to Our Family

Jesse has been growing his mustache out for March and it has even gotten him free food. On Mondays at a burger joint called Sammy's they offer free grilled cheese sandwiches for people who come in with real mustaches. Below are pictures of Jesse's mustache in the creepy stage where it hasn't quite grown in yet. The mustache is reminiscent of both our fathers' mustaches back in the day. This weekend we went and got free cones at McDonald's and then went bowling with friends. Saturday I went shopping at Gateway while Jesse worked and then he met up with me in Salt Lake. We bought an entertainment center and with Jesse's tax return money he treated himself to an awesome new TV, which he so deserves and I'm benefiting from greatly. The TV is the new addition I'm speaking of... not a child. It honestly transforms our little one bedroom apartment. Saturday night we went to dinner with Jesse's aunt and had the most delicious dinner ever. We ate at Market Street Grill and it was fine dining to say the least. I ordered the lobster bisque that was heaven and melted in my mouth. All in all it was a great weekend.

He had to do the creeper smile just to top it off

Jesse was giddy the whole night whlie putting together his new baby

We all nominated Tressa to lift the TV with Jesse, who would trust me with that job?

So exited about our baby Sammy (Samsung) and the modern entertainment center