2.5 Weeks

I created this lovely illustration one day when I should have been working, but decided to daydream about graduation instead. Is it a masterpiece or what?

This post is relatively pointless now that I think about it. Pretty much the only reason I created it was to say how incredibly stoked I am to finally graduate. Provided I pass all my classes this semester (knock on wood), I will be a free woman!! Wow!

It's kind of crazy to reflect back on the last four years of my life. Being married and owning a home while working full time, going to school full time, and serving in young womens, has been completely insane. My house is never as clean as I want it to be (we run ourselves dry of clean dishes during finals), I rarely get around to exercising, and sleep has continuously been put on the back burner.

As hard as it's been though, I'm glad I did it. I'm not sure why, but for whatever reason, I know that college was something I needed to do in my life. There's just no other explanation as to how we made it through as a poor newlywed couple in our apartment, putting both of us through school without any sort of tuition reimbursements, etc... It was an absolute miracle that we were able to make it work. It became clear early on in our marriage that our paths were being lead by a higher power and that we just needed to hold on for the ride.

At long last, that section of our ride is finally coming to an end and I'm ecstatic. Tyler still has three more classes ahead of him, but even just having one of us free from school will be excellent.

This post is turning out to be a lot longer than I anticipated, but I can't help it. I'm just absolutely thrilled!! I love learning and I'm so thankful that I decided to major in Public Relations and Advertising. It has been so interesting to learn and to write about the minds of the consumer and to learn about a world that so few people know about in spite of the fact that it drives society on a daily basis.

2.5 weeks 'til takeoff. Bring it on!

2 New Posts

It has recently been pointed out to me that I haven't posted for a while. Looking back, it has been a rather long time. Let it be known however that I misplaced my camera cord. Now that I've found it, here are two new fresh posts.
We hope you all are doing well and as always, love hearing from you!
-Tyler and Shaela

Tyler's FIRST candy bar!

This post makes me laugh because I totally sound like a doting parent posting pictures of my child's firsts. Really though, this is seriously his first candy bar! Can you blame me?!
Here's the story behind that happy face:
Tyler has long been a semi-sweet chocolate chip snacker. He loves chocolate, but he can't have milk and has always been told that semi-sweet is the only chocolate he can have. This misconception was put to rest one day at Wal-Mart when I took my dark chocolate dove bar and compared the ingredients to his beloved (and somewhat putrid) semi-sweet chocolate chips (which we've been debating were the same thing for a few years now). The final verdict? A perfect match! I was squealing and jumping like a little girl while Tyler looked at me like I'd lost a few screws.
I'm a firm believer that the closest thing you can get to milk chocolate, is Dove dark chocolate. Seriously, Dove knows their stuff.
After making this discovery, I invited my sisters over to enjoy, what else? Tyler's first s'more. Here is a play-by-play:

The man of the night prepping his mallow.


First bite!

Is it just me, or is this face screaming out, "I'm not sure about this"?


Sorry, these pictures appear to be in the wrong order, but here he is going in for the kill.

The final verdict? Me again squealing and snapping pictures and Tyler, happy to have eaten his first s'more, wondering what all the fuss was about.

A trip to the desert and a walk through history

We took a fun trip out to Little Sahara/Cherry Creek/Jericho, etc... with some family and friends. Honestly, people call it so many different names that I never know how to properly cite the location, so I usually stick with 'the desert'. Easy enough?
Anyway, it was loads of fun! Tyler is getting so good at riding! He still can't beat me... my one claim to fame. But he is getting dangerously close. I've been considering taking some secret practice runs in order to prevent him from getting any closer.
Sadly, my bike was out of commission. Just as I was ready to burst into tears, a friend offered to let me borrow his for the weekend and I was in heaven. Thank you forever Taylor!!
Now that we've got that out of the way, let me show you what we found:

This is a really cool old house that sits alongside one of the trails. It's old and clearly falling apart so naturally our first thought was to climb on in.
This location is commonly visited because it contains Porter Rockwell's cabin. Porter Rockwell just happens to be a crazy cool small pioneer man who scared anyone and everyone who crossed his path, which is probably why he was selected to be Joseph Smith's body guard. Pretty cool, eh? Anyway, people usually stop and take pictures by this house because they think it was Porter's. Not so my friend. This is simply a cool old rickety house. This next picture on the other hand, depicts his REAL house, commonly depicted as a shed (and rightfully so if you ask me).

Here is a pic. of Porter Rockwell's real house. And an added bonus, a fabulous shot of helmet hair. I'm not ashamed.

An even better shot of helmet hair :) Seriously, this house is so tiny! Even still, we can't help but cheese it up a little for the camera.

Here we are with the rest of the clan in the cabin. What an incredibly fun trip it turned out to be!!

Politically Speaking

In today's world, speaking candidly about political issues is often viewed as cliche'. Thankfully this is my personal blog, so I can post whatever my heart desires and I think this music video is spot-on! Plus, I'm seriously considering adopting some of his dance moves--- they are fabulous! For anyone who is interested, check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO2eh6f5Go0&feature=player_embedded

Tyler's attempt to blog

Shaela was kind enough to let me go to the All Star Game against Everton FC. We got great tickets from Don and Heather.
The above itallisized sentence, along with the picture, is Tyler's sole contribution to this post. He was insistent that we post about our fun anniversary celebration last week, got two sentences into it, and then handed the computer to me. Haha! As hard of a time as I've given him for this however, I can't help but be thankful because without his initiation, I probably wouldn't have posted.
So here's the story behind the great photo mentioned above:
Our anniversary was on a Sunday this year, so we decided to celebrate earlier in the week by attending the MLS All Star game at the Rio Tinto Stadium. It was a truly awesome celebration! Tyler took me to Olive Garden before the game and it was so nice to get away and spend some time with just the two of us.
.....Tyler wants me to say, "Holden was a retard and passed the ball to the wrong person." Needless to say, Ty's voice was rather weak after a wild game with slip-ups such as Holden's.
It was an intense game where the winner was finally decided after a shoot out.
We also now have R.E.A.L. scarves and shirts to remember our night by, thanks to Don and Heather.
It was so much fun!

2 years and counting

As of August 2, 2009, we will have been married for two whole years! This merits a posting for sure.

It's hard to believe that we could have served an entire mission with the amount of time we have been married now. I always planned on serving a mission. I even informed Tyler of this when we began dating. He however, had different plans and I'm so glad he did. As my cute in-laws often remind me, I'm still serving a mission, just a different one.

I don't want to get too mushy for all of you unsuspecting readers out there, so I'll just say this: Tyler is one of the best things that has ever happened to me and he reminds me of that time and time again. He is so thoughtful and goes out of his way to make me happy every day.


We've come a long way from our days of getting lost in the desert together, tying bed frames to the car with twine, and bailing water out of our bathroom sink. Despite the growth our relationship has experienced however, we are still determined to remain eternal newlyweds. The past two years have been the best of my life and I look forward to many many more to come!

Here are some of my favorite fun memories from the past two years:

• When we got married, we bought a tool set since neither of us owned any ourselves. Being a major tight wad, I refused to let Tyler buy more since we already had a full set. While installing new floors this past summer, one of the guys helping us asked for a hammer. When we handed him Ty's hammer, I wasn't sure if he was going to laugh or panic. "Where'd you get this, a happy meal?" was all he could say. To which my Dad replied, "All you need is a little pink bow on it." Tyler was relieved to have some back up and begged for a new "manly hammer".
  
  Apparently I went a little overboard with the hammer. A month later when I presented him with a new standard-sized hammer adorned with a pink ribbon, I realized how small it actually was. I'm not even sure that thing was a 12 ounce. Poor Tyler.
  

• Tyler likes to surprise me and consequently, I like surprises! Some of the fun surprises he has given include: a luv sac, pearls, treats, new windows (long story), a wedding band (during the ceremony), flowers, freshly mowed lawn, etc...
  

• Once while Tyler was gone to soccer, I locked myself out of the house. He'd just left, which meant he had an entire game to play, followed by which he was going to make a trip to Lowes. For those of you who don't know, guys (or at least my guy) will invariably spend HOURS at a single "trip" to Lowes. It was pitch black, my windows were barred shut, my neighbors were in bed, I had no phone, no keys, and I was in stilettos, carrying a knotted pillow case filled with rice Tyler made for me one night to keep me warm (I heat it in the microwave). I did the only thing I could. I walked to Lowes. It was scary. I borrowed a random stranger's cell phone to leave Tyler a voicemail instructing him to find me at Lowes. To make a long story short, Riverdale Road is very scary to cross on foot, but once I made it, Tyler was waiting for me on the other side. Needless to say, we made our first spare key that night. He takes such good care of me.

• We once tried reading Harry Potter together. Tyler was unhappy with the slow pace at which we were reading and snuck out to the living room to read the book all night. I didn't find this out until the very end when it became obvious through forced "oooh"s and "aws" that he already knew what was going on. My initial reaction was outrage. Thankfully we joke about it now. While I was definitely taken aback by his deception, I now appreciate his sincere desire to spend time together. To Tyler, reading the book meant more than just following a plot, it was spending time together, even if he already knew the ending. It's taken me 2 years, but we've finally started reading another book together. ... we'll see how it goes this time around.

This post is looking rather long, so I'll stop here. The picture above is our 2 yr. picture, engagement style (thanks for the picture Rachelle! Don't be angry at me for posting it already, okay?). Happy anniversary honey!



Love,

Shay