My (not so) Secret Hobby

So... basically anyone who knows me will soon come to realize that I LOVE weddings. No seriously, I am obsessed. I worked at a reception center when I was 13 and I think that's where it all began... I saw all kinds of weddings. I even worked at one on Halloween that was completely decked out and everyone had to wear costumes. They had a creepy grim reaper organist and a cake covered in bugs and cobwebs everywhere and the lights dimmed and the bride, dressed as a zombie bride or something, emerged from a cloud of fog. It was intense. I missed trick-or-treating but SO worth it! Haha when else would I have an experience like that?? I love creativity in weddings so when it came time to plan my own, I had a complete BLAST. I didn't do anything outrageous but most of the creativity for me came from putting together a wedding that was affordable but I would still look at years later and remember as beautiful. You can see pictures of our reception here.

Anyway, part of me thought that after I had my own wedding, some of my obsession would wear off. WRONG. Now I just know more about wedding planning which has possibly made the obsession worse. I love when I find something creative or unique that someone has done for a wedding. Today I found a good one that I just wanted to share. You can read the original story here, (Copywrite: Joann Goddard at A Cup of Jo) but here's most of it. (Plus I just LOVE the artwork.)





"Illustrator Guy Shield knew he wanted to propose to his beautiful girlfriend Liz, but he didn't know how. Then, late one night, an idea struck him: He could draw a comic strip that would look normal, but, when folded up, would cleverly spell out "Will you marry me?"

"Guy covertly worked for days, weeks, months on the comic, and finally, during a trip to Bali, he was ready to pop the question. "When the day came, I was a nervous wreck," he says. "After necking a beer at a nearby bar, I laid the piece across the hotel bed and asked Liz to fold it together." As she read the final message, he brought out the ring and dropped to one knee."

How Cute is that??? I know... props Guy Shield.

*amber*

The "Official Wedding Pictures"

The pictures of Seth and Amber at the Temple have now been uploaded to facebook. Feel free to view, them for NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE, here!Also, classes are over. WOOHOO! Now if we can make it through the next week, all will be well.

Also, I was just asked to choreograph a lyrical dance for some girls from my old studio. I'm psyched! I haven't choreographed a group piece for a long time so this will be fun. If you have any good song/artist suggestions, please give me a shoutout.

LOVES!

*amber*

Yes, we fell off the face of the planet. But we're back!

Where to begin, where to begin. Well, since I haven't posted anything since the day before Thanksgiving, perhaps I shall start there. Thanksgiving was a lovely day. Seth and I drove up to my Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's house for dinner at 1. We ate and ate (although the food was put away too early in my opinion,) Seth tried to get the antique tv to work so he could watch football, took a nap, woke up and ate dangerous amounts of my mom's chocolate mousse and frozen strawberry pies, chatted with the aunts and uncles, watched my baby cousins wrestle for awhile (best thing ever! I wish I had taken a video,) tried to talk over 5 screaming babies and toddlers, then everyone started trickling out. Then it was time to go see my dad's side of the family but apparently they finished sooner than they had thought so we just followed my parents to Pop and Babe's (my dad's parents) house. We chatted for a bit, my brother got into the endless stash of soda and candy, I started craving mashed potatoes because apparently that craving hadn't been fulfilled earlier, couldn't find any, finished up at their house, and we were on our way home. And it was only about 7 or 8! Everything went so fast; usually my family takes their sweet time but this Thanksgiving was very efficient. But we were ok with that because we got to head home earlier. We went on a quest to find mashed potatoes but alas, every grocery store in Provo was closed. Finally we found one box of instant mashed potatoes at Rite Aid. Then we went home, made the potatoes and, I think we watched a movie or something? I can't remember.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving was the Holy War! (aka the BYU Utah rivalry game.) I had never been to a BYU football game before this year so Seth made sure that didn't happen again by getting season tickets. He is slowly trying to turn me into a football fan. (to be honest, I don't think it's my thing, but we have fun. And I like seeing him get all excited about it.) At first it looked like we would win for sure but then they cought up and tied the game at the last second, taking it into overtime. However, BYU came out victorious and we rushed the field along with a million other people. I tried to take a picture of the scoreboard to show my dad (a hardcore U fan) but it was shaky because people were going crazy! It was really fun though. Very exciting and, seriously, when would I have ever done something like that on my own? Thank you honey :)

The next Sunday at church, two exciting things happened. First, we actually made some friends! We love our ward but it has still been a little hard to get to know people. It's a family ward (not a byu married student ward) so there are a lot of families and older people that have been there for a long time, but there are also a lot of college students coming and going so it's sort of hard to get used to it and feel established. However, in sunday school, this couple started talking to us and asked us if we would want to hang out sometime. Their names are Mary Elizabeth and Adam and they were really outgoing which is good because I tend to be shy and have a hard time opening up to other people like that. We decided to have family home evening at their house the next day. It was really fun because fhe with two people can be a bit odd sometimes... plus they have an Adorable little boy named Kasan (sp?) who has the most expressive face. We watched an inspirational video about gratitude (watch it here, I love the guy with the long hair!) then made gingerbread (or graham cracker) houses. We made ours the two story dollhouse kind. Upstairs, sever gummy bears danced around a gummy tree but ended up looking like a cult. On the bottom floor, Seth created a lovely fire out of an orange gummy bear and three other orphan bears shivered around it in the barren room. What a lovely house.

Ok and the second thing that happened at church was we got a calling! It was very exciting. We are teaching the 12-13 sunday school class! We'll definitely be the coolest teachers ever. (candy bribery galore.)

When we got home, we decided it was time to put up our Christmas tree! Woohoo! Here is Seth with the tree.
This is what the tree did to our floor. All over the room. We got to have a lovely vacuuming party afterwords :) Usually I'm not a fan of the trees with fake snow but I don't think this one looks too bad because the snow is realistic looking. Plus, it was free! Thanks grandma.
And here it is all done up! Only problem: we live in a basement and our ceiling is very low. The tree barely fit (we had to bend the top branch down) so there is no room for my pretty star on top. I'm thinking maybe I'll make a pretty bow or something for the top but life is too hectic right now so we'll see if I get around to it. Just maybe, no one will notice there is no topper!
And here it is all lit up! I love Christmas trees..... ahh. So magical.
Here are some closeups of some of the decorations. Here we have the lion and the lamb. Aren't they darling?
Next, we see the lonely top branch of the tree and one of the big turquoise ornaments.
This is my favorite ornament. Such a pretty sparkley snowflake! And the glittery ball ornaments are pretty too.
Here is a nice sampling of the ornaments. Blue, green, silver sparkle, little wooden nativity, glass ball with sand and seashells, and pine cones.
And last is just a closeup of the picture before. I like the pine cone in this one. It almost looks like a drawing, not a real pine cone!
So that was great. I LOVE decorating (as anyone who knows me already knows) and our tree now casts a lovely majestic glow around our living room. Now all it needs is a topper and a few peacock feathers sticking out. We also got to put out our two nativities. The first is a tiny one carved out of olive wood (you can see it on the little table in the whole tree shot) and the other is the Willow Tree nativity. We got the first set for our wedding and hopefully throughout the years, we can collect the other pieces until we have the whole set. It Love it.

Since then, we've just been trying to finish up the semester, prepare for finals, make final arrangements for Christmas, and Christmas shop on our tiny budget. We're finding it can be a bit tricky to be sneaky when we both spend so much time together and have a tiny house with no place to hide gifts. But I'm managing :)

Now, we finally make it to this week. Sunday, we were asked to sit in on our new sunday school class combined with another one, just so we could meet them. Then we'll start teaching next Sunday. Sunday morning, we woke up to Seth's phone ringing at 8. It was his boss Edwin telling him that the snow had finally come to Provo and, guess what? He got to go in for snow removal! If you didn't know, Seth works for BYU Grounds and they are basically subject to being called in any time of the day or night (or usually wee hours of the morning) and any day for snow removal. So he left and I got up and got ready for church. Finally I realized he wasn't going to make it home in time so I left without him. After sacrament meeting, I called him and he said it was still going to be awhile. He worked longer than his normal shift and missed all of church which was sad because he didn't get to meet our class. It consists of three 12-year old boys. Mark, Christian and Christian. I don't think we'll have a hard time with names.

Sunday night we went to bed and were awakened at 4:30 by Seth's phone again. Guess what? More snow removal. I drove him down the dangerous streets (more so because we REALLY need new tires) to work and then came home. I went back to bed but realized I can't sleep without him because it's too cold. I ended up watching Lord of the Rings until it was time to get up. I went to school and gave the car to Seth so he could go home because the ceiling guy was coming to fix our bedroom ceiling (long story short: there was a leak in the sink upstairs and it soaked down through and our ceiling started sagging. Kinda scary.) Then, he came back to campus and we got our swine flu shots, then drove back home for lunch. After lunch, I drove him back to work for his normal shift because the snow still hadn't let up. It was a crazy day and we hardly got any schoolwork done. Not good because this is the last week of classes.

Yesterday, we were woken up at 4 for another day of snow-filled adventure. Usually I love the snow but this is getting out of hand. I miss my husband, I can't sleep without him, it's SUPER cold (-4 today) and I woke up sick that morning. I was hoping it was just side effects from the shot but I'm still sick today and it seems to be getting worse. Great. Luckily, one of my classes was canceled so I took the opportunity to stay home sick. However, I wasn't really at home much because after work, Seth and I went to get him a new phone and plan. He got a really cool new phone and it's his new toy. He's having WAY too much fun with it :)

Some big news came last night as well.... I got a new job!!! I will be working for BYU Broadcasting. I've been applying everywhere all semester but hadn't gotten even a call back from anywhere. However, this was the job I really wanted, and it's the one I got! I'm excited because I'm a Journalism major and, even though it's broadcast and not print, journalists today have to be extremely well rounded so I hope to learn a lot!

Today has consisted of: snow removal at 6, staying home sick again, trying to overdose on orange juice and anything with vitamin C, ceiling guy coming to work on our ceiling again, trying to take a nap but not being able to breathe=no sleeping, and now I'm just waiting for Seth to come home from class.

WHEW! That was a lot. I'm sorry if you read the whole thing, that was probably WAY more than you wanted to know. Sorry I just had to vent. Fun times. Now I think I'm going to start working on my Comms final and get some dinner going. Love you all and... CHRISTMAS IS SO CLOSE I CAN TASTE IT (not well however because my stuffy nose makes things taste funny.) We wish you all a happy season and, although I COMPLETELY understand that it's very busy and stressful, promise me you'll take some time to relax and listen to Christmas music, drink some hot chocolate, and give some good hugs.

Love Love Love,
*amber*

More Wedding Photos

Our family pictures at the Temple are now posted here. Sorry I'm still lame and not updating what's been happening but I got sick yesterday so I'm going to bed right now to try to sleep it off. If I feel better when I get up, maybe I'll put up some pictures or something. We'll see. :) haha it's amazing how finals make me want to be so lazy. But tomorrow is the last day of classes! So close!

*amber*

I've put up some wedding photos

So it's been a while since I've written anything. Needless to say, life has been CRAZY now that we've made it to finals. I promise I'll get everything all updated and put up new pictures as soon as possible but for now, here's something I just finished doing. I posted a very select sample of our "coming out of the temple" wedding pics on facebook. Yes, it's select and there are still a ton. Sorting through our over 1000 wedding pictures has proven quite the daunting task. And I'm still not done! But I put up some of the good ones from right after the sealing. If you'd like to see them, click here.
Have a lovely evening. And if I don't get around to finishing the update tonight, I will as soon as possible. Love you all! And for those of you who are also in the middle of finals, hold in there! We'll make it!

*amber*

:) Thanksgiving Eve

Yesterday was the last day of classes before Thanksgiving break. However, this morning, Seth and I woke up at the normal time so I could get him to work by eight. The whole campus was closed so he had to sneak into his locker room through the pool. Then I went home, showered, and started studying. At noon, I met Seth on campus, we ate lunch, he showered, then we started studying. Seth is at the end of his major so he is very busy, and I am too because I'm taking 15.5 credits. At BYU 12 credits is full time so this is quite a full load for me. However, I do have friends who take 18 each semester and I don't get how they do it... all I do is study and I always feel behind! Hence, today has been spent in the Talmage Building being a busy little bee.

Seth is in a computer lab working with his group and I am out in the hall. No one else is out here and the building in feeling very lonely and empty. It is now 5:45 and I've been sitting here since about 1. That's a long time. I miss my husband. This would be a very good time for me to start complaining (ok so I've already kind of started...) and feeling sorry for myself but... TOMORROW'S THANKSGIVING!!!

I seriously cannot feel down today. Which is strange because I feel that I would be completely justified if I did. But I found a cozy little corner where the sun shone on my face (until it set) and today has been lovely. I've gotten a lot done and I know it will help me have a less stressful holiday. Plus I know as soon as Seth is ready to leave, we'll be out and having a wonderful relaxing rest of the evening. And tomorrow we will just eat and lounge ALL... DAY... LONG. Oh bliss. I cannot wait. I think at this point, I am expected to write my list of things I'm thankful for. This is so hard right now because I'm so thankful for so many random things. The big things are obviously Seth, my family, my new family :), my wonderful friends who have helped me throughout my life and the newer ones I've made in Provo, the temples (Seth and I went to Bountiful on Saturday after my Great Grandma's funeral. It was so beautiful. That was a good day.) sunshine, heaters that work, feeling healthy, yummy food, our own apartment, school (sometimes) my dreams for the future, and... I think I'm going to start getting carried away. So there you go. There are a few things. Maybe someday I'll do just a thankful post. For now, I'm going to get my husband and go do something fun and worry free. Have a lovely Thanksgiving everyone!

*amber*

Stabbing Update

The three cuts reported last time have been healing up quite nicely. However, yesterday I was making stroganoff and as I was opening a can of cream of mushroom soup, the lid sliced my right ring finger. This is the first cut on the right hand. My right is the favorite of my two hands, so you can only imagine how distraught I was. I don't know what to do anymore!

Seth said he won't let me touch anything with an edge anymore. He didn't say sharp edge. Just an edge. I told him he has edges. Touche.

Cruel cruel world.

The stroganoff was yummy though!

*amber*

I'VE BEEN STABBED!!!

THREE TIMES!!! This is no joke people! This is serious. Lately, I've been having a little trouble in the kitchen. The knives have apparently decided to band against me. The last three times I have decided to do some serious cutting, they have cleverly wriggled their way out of my firm grasp and thrust their razor sharp blades into my helpless fingers. Here you will see all three victims of the stabbings in chronological order.

The third stabbing was committed this evening at around seven o' clock when I was innocently slicing a tomato for a delicious dinner of BLT's. Then, the knife violently turned on me. Why knife? WHY???!!! Seth has threatened to discontinue my knife privileges, but I am the victim here! Apparently it will remain up to me to put down this revolt of the demon blades and restore peace to my humble kitchen.

Knives, you better watch out. Knives and daggers may cut through matter but... um... spoons will never hurt me. It is resolved. I will resort to a boycott of all sharp kitchen utensils and opt for spoons until the this rebel band of cutlery decides to enter into peace negotiations. Take that.

My fingers hurt :(

*amber*

"Becometh as a child..."

So, I'm not sure this is exactly what King Benjamin meant when he said this, but I love acting like a kid. Seth and I have this joke that I am perpetually a four-year-old; and it's true! I love to be silly and giggle and speak in toddler language. I've totally mastered the little girl pout when I'm "sad" about something or have a "boo boo."Sometimes I get a little carried away and Seth has to remind me of my age. But what can I say? I love being a kid!

In all seriousness though, I think it is good to act like a kid sometimes. Being an adult is too stressful and boring. Children always live the moment to its fullest. They are always playing some imaginary game or discovering something new about the world. That is my favorite thing about children. They seem to be fascinated with everything. There is nothing like seeing the amazement in a child's eye when she sees the first snowfall of winter. Or when the leaves on the trees change color, a bug walks across the sidewalk, or a balloon floats up into the sky. Every experience is a new adventure and the simplest game or gesture is the greatest thing in the world. That is something I try to do. Rediscovering the miracles of life is what makes it beautiful. How else can we be truly grateful to our Heavenly Father if we do not really take in all the things He has put in place for us to enjoy?

At this time of year, the colors/smells/feelings of Fall amaze me and I cannot help but rediscover my world. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, I don't really have to take the extra effort to find things to be thankful for because I've been appreciating my blessings every day. I think this is why Autumn is my favorite time of year. More than Spring, to me it is a time of reflection and renewal.

Now that I have attempted to explain why children are so cool and we should all try to be like them, here's the reason I thought of writing this. Seth and I both goof around like kids almost all the time we're home. Sunday night, we wanted to do something fun so we built a fort in our living room. Yes, a fort. I hadn't made one since I was probably in elementary school! But our fort was awesome and we crawled inside and played phase 10. Then when it got late, we decided to go to bed. But first, Seth said he was hungry. So he asked if he could have a spoon full of sugar. I thought he was kidding. No. Dead serous. I know it's a song but... really? I couldn't believe him when he told me he'd actually done it before! I mean, I love sugar too but... plain? I told him no, that was gross so instead he started eating plain chocolate chips (I'm ok with that.) Then the sugar got to his blood and he went crazy. He suddenly got hyper and started bouncing on the bed and wanted more. Keep in mind, this was at about 1 in the morning. It was cute but I was tired, so I told him no, go to bed. I'm going to be such a good mom someday :) haha. What's funny is he's usually the one that has to tell me no.

Anyway, I really enjoyed being in our fort and feeling like a kid. Luckily for me, I am still four so I enjoy being a child every day of my life! (and it's not only with Seth. One time my roommate pointed out that when I eat an ice cream cone I hold it with both hands and sway which makes me look like I really am 4. Yep. Case closed.)

I was going to give a recap of our week... but I don't really remember what happened except study study study (another reason this is such a fun time of year...) As for the rest of the week, It will be even busier than the first half. Tomorrow I'm doing nursery for the other ward's Relief Society activity, Friday I'm having solo practice with my sister, Saturday is Great Grandma Nelson's funeral, and Sunday is Keaton Shoell's farewell. Then next week is Thanksgiving week so there's no telling when I'll be on here next. But until then, Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the world around you!

PS: so I added this pretty font for my post titles but for some reason, my old titles still show up. Anyone know how to fix this? I've tried and Seth has too but we just can't figure it out. I don't want to get rid of my pretty new typeface! Ok, the end.

*amber*

I love being married... *sigh*

Tonight, Seth made me curry for dinner. Japanese curry, not Indian. If you didn't know, Seth served his mission in Sapporo, Japan (where a new temple was announced last month! Read about it here) and curry is kind of the staple meal for missionaries there. The first time he made it for me, I was a bit skeptical. First of all, the little blocks of curry look like chocolate. Then, once you've made the curry, it just looks like a brown stew (see above.) To be honest, I was doubtful that it could live up to all the hype Seth had given it. Plus, it didn't look at all like what I thought curry should look like. I thought it would be yellow or some lighter color and look, well... more... Asian... However, after my first bite, I had to take this all back. It was very good. Tonight we made it for the second time and I think I've officially become hooked because just the smell of it cooking, which I thought was weird before, was amazing. Even though I wasn't very hungry due to pre-dinner snacking, I ate until I was completely full. Yum. Then we just sat on the luv sac and Seth told me more about his mission. I love hearing about Japan and we hope we can go there together someday. Haha assuming someday we'll actually have some real money ;)

As students at BYU, it is needless to say that we don't have a lot of free time. We are always busy busy busy and there's always more to be done. Sometimes this can be very tiring and makes me start missing Seth. True, we may be sitting only feet from each other in the living room, but we're both so absorbed in other things that it's not really hanging out. I love the rare chances we get to just enjoy each other's company. Tonight was a perfect example of that. Yummy dinner and then relaxing and talking. I realized tonight one of my favorite things is being in our (tiny tiny) kitchen, cooking dinner or doing dishes together and just talking about random things in our day or joking around. It's just so nice to spend time together. And hey, I just love that guy :) Right now, we're back to our separate ends of the living room, eyes glazed from staring at our computers, but I am just so thankful for those moments that we get. We didn't go anything or do anything particularly special, and yet I am completely content and had a beautiful evening.

As for the rest of you, I hope you can take joy in these moments as well. I think sometimes it is too easy to disregard them because we are so busy. What are some of your favorite simple, sweet moments?

Also, tomorrow is Friday. That was a fast week, but huzzah for the weekend! I hope yours is lovely. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! I hope you enjoy your weekend away!

*amber*

On a happier note...

Now for some happier news... yesterday I started making earrings again! For those of you who don't know this about me, when I was 14 (well really 13, but 2 months away) I designed my own line of earrings. For Valentines Day that year, I was trying to figure out a gift for my mom. I wanted to make her something special so I started playing around with random things we had around the house. One of these things was a box of paper clips. I realized that, using some needle nose pliers, I could shape the wire and make some pretty cute earrings! I started making more and more and had fun making interesting, whimsical designs. Soon after, I went to the craft store and bought some real earring-making supplies. I liked making my own earrings because I could make exactly what I wanted to go with any outfit, and buying jewelry was so expensive! That's when I decided to sell my earrings. Because I was fed up with the price of cute earrings in stores, I decided to make original earrings for a reasonable price. I designed a line of earrings, made cards to put them in that said "Earrings by Amber" and started selling them at boutiques and consignment shops. I actually made quite a bit of money (for a 14 year old,) and I loved doing it. I custom designed a few pairs for clients who couldn't find exactly what they wanted and I loved doing that too. At one point, I took pictures of all of my designs and made a catalogue along with all the bead and color options. Maybe someday I'll post some of those pictures. Looking back, some of them were kind of funny :) but I was proud of my work and loved being creative with it.Sunday night, Seth and I went up to my parents' house for dinner. While we were there, we grabbed my old earring supplies. Last night, we were just hanging out in our apartment (something that rarely happens) and Seth was reading his book, so I decided to make some earrings. I hadn't done it for so long and it was so much fun! I'll definitely need to make a shopping trip one of these days to replenish my supply and get some new stuff, but i made four new designs. (sorry they're sideways)

This design (above) is my favorite. The picture is a little hard to see but it's different than anything I've tried before.

I like the cool oriental-looking carvings on these beads.

Seth helped me make these ones :) he wanted me to make some BYU inspired ones.

I also used my supplies to make the little crown thing that for my Audrey Hepburn costume that I mentioned last time (for which I still need to find an event so I can wear it!) I basically used some flexible wire to string pearls and some other beads through a crown from my dance competition days (oh, and I broke the pointy top off, so it doesn't look like much of a crown now.) I just need to attach it to a little comb and my Miss Hepburn ensemble will be complete!

Yesterday, I also set up my own Etsy shop! Although it is still empty and I still need to dress it up, I hope soon I can get my earring business going again! We'll see if I can have any success in the Etsy world.

Secondly, my NEW FAVORITE recipe! My mom handed this to me on my way out the door Sunday night and told me to let her know if it's any good. IT IS! Oh my goodness. I just can't help but share it...

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

• 4 T. flour
• 4 T. sugar
• 2 T. cocoa
• 1 egg
• 3 tsp. milk
• 3 tsp. oil
• 3 T. chocolate chips
• small splash of vanilla extract
• 1 large coffee mug (microwave safe)

Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in milk and oil and mix well. Add chocolate chips (it says optional, but I say they're not. WAY too good) and vanilla extract and mix again. Put mug in microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise a little over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed. Allow to cool (careful, it's REALLY hot and takes a while to cool... ok so it's not exactly 5 minute cake... I know it's hard to be this patient.) Then, tip onto a plate if desired (or eat straight out of the cup! I used a knife around the edges so it comes out clean.) Eat!

This can easily serve 2. Plus, it's pretty rich. I cut it in half to share with Seth and served with ice cream. (Note, if you can, take the bottom half. More of the chips sink to the bottom :))

... My mouth is watering again. Now for my thoughts on this recipe.

Pro's: Delicious, so quick and easy, it's cake made from scratch and it's still easier than a cake mix, makes perfect serving sizes, would be so easy for little kids to make, you could even frost the two halves and decorate them to make adorable little cakes! (I might have to try that)

Con's: Too delicious (especially with how much sugar I've eaten lately,) feels too easy, like I said, it comes out very hot and takes a long time to cool but I hardly have that much patience when making chocolate cake so I may easily burn myself, and, to quote the warning on the recipe "This is the most dangerous cake recipe in the world. Because now we are only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night." Use this recipe with caution.

:)

*amber*

Get Well Soon

Yesterday, Seth had to have surgery on his foot. It's the fifth time he's had to have this surgery and it's really not a fun one. Just ask him about how it feels to have big needles stuck into your toes. He'll tell you, "It's like death. Like a migraine in your toe. It's the worst pain I've ever felt." I'm actually the one that made him make an appointment to get his toe fixed because it's been pretty bad for awhile. He said he would rather live with an infected toe than go through that procedure again. He keeps threatening to grab my hand and squeeze as hard as he can and scream, "YOU DID THIS TO ME!" when he's in pain. I'm still waiting for it. Needless to say, the last two days have not been the funnest.

After the numbness from the surgery wore off, the painkillers (all 3 kinds) didn't really help much so he was in pain most of the night and this morning. Today he stayed home from work and school and had to stay in bed all day. Because he can't really get up, I brought him breakfast in bed. We ate apple streusel muffins and orange juice (yum!) but he still wasn't doing too well. When he does get up to walk around, he limps :( It makes me so sad to see him in pain. This morning when i got home from class, we took the bandages off and soaked his foot. Taking off the bandages was very painful and he almost got sick. Poor guy! So, in an attempt to distract him from the pain, I turned on a movie. It was "The Man Who Knew Too Little," one of his favorites. Then we ate spaghetti for lunch and took a (long) nap.

Really, I just hope he feels better soon because I HATE to see him in pain. And he can't even get up to do normal things like go grocery shopping with me. I miss him. So I decided to write him a poem to make him feel better. Here it is. Get well soon sweetheart! I love you!

*amber*

The Big Reveal

Drum roll please... dududududududududududududududududuDUDUDUDUDU! Tadah!!! Yes indeed, we were Mario and Princess Peach. For those of you who don't know, Seth LOVES the game Smash Bro's. And his character is Mario. Mine is actually Kirby, but I decided not to be a big pink blob; as cool as my beloved character is. Instead, I opted for Mario's love interest, Peach. Although I went BLOND and wore ALL PINK which are really... well not at all me, I thought the costumes turned out great!

As noted by my previous post, yes my costume was made out of my sister's old dance costume. Then I found a pink satin sheet that I bought for my bed years and years ago but never ended up using (it served as a makeshift curtain for a while) and used my incredible sewing skills (ha!) to craft a skirt. Then all I had to do was attach my turquoise broach to the front of the dress, fix the turquoise earrings that I made, turn my brother's old frog prince costume crown into a Princess Peach crown, and find some long white gloves at my mom's house. Alas, I did have to buy one thing. The wig, because the blond wig I had belonged to my sister and was too small. So there you go. I actually really liked the wig (as weird as it was to be blond) and some of my family members told me that I should go blond. Um.... no. Thanks. haha

Seth's costume was, strangely, trickier and more expensive. We found the overalls online at JC Penny's because overalls don't exist ANYWHERE anymore! Not even the DI! Then the red shirt and white gloves from Target (thanks mom,) and I bought the hat online (even though, when it came, it wasn't the one I ordered, argh.) For the finishing touches, he wore his brown shoes, I made the little M emblem for the hat, added the cartoon-ish design to the gloves, and put big yellow buttons on the overalls. Oh, and we found the mustache at my mom's house for the party the night before. On Halloween, I drew one on him that looked like the real Mario mustache.

Yep, I love costuming. Alot. I get really into it. I always have my costume picked months before Halloween (if I haven't decided the day after Halloween the year before.) There is one problem however. I wish Halloween came more than once a year. I have SO many costume ideas (that would be so easy!) and no way to use them. Tonight, for example, I realized I could (and did actually) pull together an awesome Audrey Hepburn ensemble using only things I already have!
Problems: Halloween just ended. I already have at least 3 other ideas for next Halloween. But I need to find a place to wear it to! Seth and I were trying to figure out if there was a way we could have a costume party or something.... ugh, it's just too much fun!

Anyway, that's my little shpeell about our costumes. Sorry for the rant, I sort of have a passion for it. Next time, I'll write about what we actually did for Halloween, and maybe post some better pictures of our costumes. Sorry, no pictures of our Halloween party, my camera is dead and her charger cord is missing :( Sad day. Oh, and perhaps next time, I will thrill you all with yet another passionate rant about the sad demise of Halloween. In the meantime, I have a test to study for and a warm bed calling my name. Goodnight, and happy weekend!

*amber*

Hug Someone Today

Hug. It's a roundabout way of saying "I love you."

*amber*

I LOVE This. Alot.

A Little Q&A Action

So my sister in law just tagged me in this question thing on her blog. Usually I don't do these things but hey, I'm on a roll with this blog! (In one month, I've created more posts for this blog than I did on my old blog in a year!) Plus, I just don't really want to do my homework at the moment. So here goes...


1. Favorite Season: Autumn. I love the richness of the sun, especially on crisp afternoons, the deep colors, crunching leaves, freshly harvested vegetables, breaking out the cozy sweaters, scarfs, and boots, Halloween costumes, free candy :), little kids playing in the leaves and their cute cold weather clothes, the very natural but with almost a hint of spicy smells, and the reappearance of hot chocolate in my life. There is just something magical about Autumn. It is a time that I can look back on the past year and reflect. I could keep going but basically, I loved everything about the season. Oh, and as far as style (as it is often referred to,) I'm an Autumn :)


2. Favorite physical feature: His smile. When he is really really happy, his whole face literally lights up and it makes my day. I love seeing him smile more than almost anything. Or when it's like a content or "I love you smile" (which is the best kind of smile,) his face just has a softness that absolutely radiates whatever he is feeling. I love it. I love him :) Oh you were asking the question about me? My eyes I guess. If you look at them, they have almost every color in them. They are predominantly green or blue or grey (and look different with different outfits,) but there is also a lot of gold and I've found some brown and even purple! And sometimes if I wear the right outfit, the crazy colors come out too.


3. Chore you most detest: All of them. No, that's not true, sometimes I like doing some chores. Sometimes. I guess putting away laundry. Doing the laundry itself is great and I think i just love the smells. But once it's done, we are always too busy to put it right away so it becomes this ominous chore that it seems always needs to be done... that's why someday I plan on inventing a machine where you hang up your clothes in one side, they are washed and dried on their hangers, the mechanically moved to the other half which is the closet. Viola! Clean laundry!


4. Color your hair regularly?: Never have. I have considered it a couple times but I knew I would never keep up on it so it would grow out and look bad. But besides that, I like the hair color God gave me! And even when I've wanted to color it, the colors haven't been far off my natural color (once I wanted honey-ish highlights with my hair color still, and once I wanted to go a shad darker.) Plus, I'm a little bit of an all natural girl... ask Seth, he'll tell you all about it haha.


5. Top item on your wish list: Money. So we wouldn't be so poor and so we could travel and stuff. Haha that would be nice but really... hm.... I don't know, maybe a flip? And that's probably just because I was looking at them last night but they're these nifty little video cameras that record in HD and have little USB's that "flip" out so you can upload your video directly to your computer. Journalists are even starting to use them to take video for multimedia packages. (hence my interest.) Pretty cool when professional news stations take video on little, inexpensive devices like this (and that the quality is good enough!) Or even on iPhones... it's happening people! Welcome to my obsession with journalism and the media haha...


6. Favorite way to 'scent' your house: I love candles even though they are kind of a hassle but I love the extra scent the flame adds to it. Especially when you blow it out (yes, I am one of those people who will light a match just to blow it out because I like the smell.) I really like those plug-ins from Bath and Body Works, although after a while, the scent kind of dies. And after I clean, I like the give the room a quick spray of air freshener (right now we have "Spring and Renewals" and "Clean Linen" yum)


7. What are you eating for dinner tonight: Oh, apparently tonight was not the night to fill this out. See, last night I only slept for two hours (3-5) so, obviously, I was tired today. So after school I came home and took a nap. After work Seth joined me and we slept til about 8. Then we got up, realized it was late, and just had cereal and sandwiches for dinner. But I usually do make him real food, I promise! Like, for lunch we had leftovers: Tuna Casserole, his mom's recipe. Yummy!


8. Are your toenails painted?: Actually no! I usually Always paint them (because I have dancer feet and think they're ugly.) However, since I took off my nail polish from our wedding, I haven't repainted them. Weird, I've never done that. I'm just giving them some time to heal because nail polish is hard on your nails. And I'm not wearing sandals everyday anymore so, it's ok right?


9. One thing you splurge on even if $ is tight: Good food. I really never could bring myself to live on the starving college student diet of Ramen noodles (although I do really like Ramen.) I NEED fresh fruit and vegetables, the best ingredients, (extra-virgin olive oil vs. cheaper kinds, etc.)sometimes a loaf of sour dough bread, maybe tofu (I like so called "health foods") and occasionally a carton of fresh berries, even if they're out of season and a bit expensive. I justify myself because berries have SO many good things in them, so it's ok right? I just can't bring myself to eat cheap food. And it is kind of sad that it is so much more expensive to eat healthy. But that's a sacrifice I am willing to make.


10. Post the most recent photo of you: My old roommates and I had a girl's night at the mall. We found these cardigans at the Gap for $15! We had all wanted one so we came out with matching cardigans! This is us being manikins, can't you tell?


Tag 8 friends: I'm not sure if I have 8 blogging friends (at least that read this blog.) So, Seth (because he still has yet to write anything on here and I want to see his answers,) Jessica Croft, Briana Shipley, and... ya I think that's about it. Maybe Lauren Shipley if she ever stumbles upon here. How about if you happen to read this blog and see this post consider yourself tagged. There.

Also, Happy Anniversary today Mom and Dad Dickson!!! I hope you both had a wonderful day relaxing and enjoying each other's company. I hope you know how much we love you and are grateful for everything you do for us. We cannot wait to see you at Christmas!

*amber*

2 Months! New Yummies! 1 Week! and Dancing!

Wednesday was our 2 month anniversary!!! Holy cow, it seems so crazy that we've been married for 2 months! In some ways it feels so much shorter, but in some ways it feels like we've been married for years. To celebrate, we headed up the canyon to see the leaves because it was a sunny day and we wanted to enjoy what was possibly one of the last nice days of the fall. However, by the time we got up there, the sun had sunk behind a cloud. But we still had fun driving through the canyon looking at leaves and waterfalls. Then we went out to dinner. Can you believe it? Seth had never been to Macaroni Grill! Tragic, I know. So we decided to remedy that problem right away. We had a good time and some yummy yummy food. After dinner we stood up and... BAM! You know how people always say they feel like they're gonna pop? Well, after dinner, I was literally SURE I was close to popping. I don't know how my stomach let me get away with eating that much (we had two loafs of bread, an appetizer, a pasta entree each, and a big piece of super rich chocolate cake. And several refills of water.) Oh my goodness, my stomach was filled to its maximum capacity. I couldn't even eat the mint I got at the end of the meal because I was sure it would send me over the edge. WOW. But hey, I'm just getting prepped. Thanksgiving, here I come :) Anyway, it was a great anniversary and it was so nice to just get out of the house and go on a nice date again. I love you so much sweetheart! Happy two months!

Second item on the agenda (the topics follow the title. And I AM limiting myself to 4 paragraphs. I always get carried away writing on this thing) is that last night, Seth and I had an absolutely WONDERFUL snack. Before he got home from work, I decided to whip up a little treat from a new recipe. Here's it is in case you want it. I would have posted pictures because they even LOOK yummy... but alas they were eaten too quickly... So here you go!

Raspberry Coconut Bars

3/4 c. Butter

3/4 c. Brown Sugar

1/4 c. Granulated Sugar

1 c. All Purpose Flour

2 c. Sweetened Coconut

1 1/2 c. Quick Oatmeal

3/4 c. Raspberry Preserves

Preheat oven to 375. Beat butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until fluffy. Add flour, 1 cup coconut, and oatmeal. Mix together. Set aside 1 cup of dough. Press remaining dough evenly over bottom of a 9x13" pan. Spread raspberry preserves over the dough. Crumble remaining dough over the preserves. Sprinkle 1 cup of coconut over the dough. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares and serve.

You can eat them as bars or here is my suggestion: Once they are cooled and have been cut, reheat a square. Top with softened vanilla ice cream and fresh raspberries. (We didn't have the raspberries but I was fantasising about them and I'm positive they would be amazing. It's good with just ice cream too.)

Third, and crucially important item: ONE WEEK TIL HALLOWEEN!!! Ok people, it's crunch time. Make sure your costumes are ready and your houses stocked with candy. I love Halloween, can you tell?? I LOVE dressing up and part of me wishes Halloween came more than once a year so I could use more of my awesome costume ideas. This year, Seth and I are being... oops! I can't tell you. I like to keep my costumes a surprise. However, here are some hints. It has to do with one of Seth's favorite games. And for part of my costume, I will be wearing my sister's dance costume from when she was 10. Here it is (Alyse is the one on the right.)

Ok ok, yes I am wearing a 10 year old's costume. So what?? Don't judge me! Haha but have you guessed it yet? I doubt it. Today we are going up to Sandy and I will have access to my mom's sewing machine so I can finish our costumes!

Speaking of dance costumes, but mostly dancing, the reason we're going to Sandy today is because I am practicing with my sister! Last year, I was able to choreograph her solo. It was such a fun experience and amazing to watch her grow as a dancer. Here is a video of her solo last year. It is to "The Call" by Regina Spektor.

(video coming soon. my computer likes be crazy sometimes.)

Anyway, I am SO excited to be able to choreograph again this year and I think our idea for this year will be awesome. Today should be a good indicator. I miss dancing a lot so choreography is SO much fun for me. I'm so excited! And tonight, Seth and I are going to Odyssey's Thriller up in Salt Lake. If you haven't heard of it, it's a Halloween show put on by Salt Lake's (arguably) best contemporary dance company. The show is AWESOME and I go every year. Exciting crazy day. Whoo! Happy Saturday everyone, I'm off to finish up a normal weekend's worth of stuff before we have to leave. Toodloo!

*amber*

Our Little Friends.....

I HATE bugs. Hate em. Just so you are aware, this post is not about adorable babies dressed as some of the cuter members of the insect family (I was a ladybug for my first Halloween too... aww... how cute). It is about the harsh reality of these nasty nasty little creatures that love to torment humans. I couldn't bring myself to post a picture of one of those because even the pictures give me the total heebe jeebies. Yep, it's been one of those days...

This morning I woke up at 5:30 for one of my early morning writing sessions. I stepped out our bedroom door and blearily, looked around the room. A small movement caught my eye. In the crack between the tiles in our entryway was an earwig or some kind of long, disgusting creature with lots of wiggly legs, squirming around. GROSS! I watched it for a minute and it wasn't really going anywhere, so I just kept my eye on it. Then another movement caught my eye. About a foot away, was a potato bug, crawling on our carpet. I took Seth's flip flop (the one designated for bug killing,) and rolled that rolly poly right back onto the tile. When it finally gained the courage to open up from it's safe little ball again, alas it was on its back. I watched it struggle for a long time but it could not flip over no matter what it did. I began to feel sorry for the little guy, but I wasn't letting him out of my sight. Needless the say the writing wasn't going so well. Turns out I am a very diligent bug sitter.

As I watched my two little companions, yet another movement caught my eye. Seth and I have been aware of the small crack under our front door for sometime. However, we have never actually seen bugs get through it. I think we thought it was too small (but I was pretty sure that was where my two friends came from, seeing as they were right in front of it.) WRONG! From under the door popped a little ball, it almost looked like a little seed. Then the seed opened and another potato bug started crawling toward the carpet. This one was smaller. Perhaps the bigger one's baby, come to find its mommy in our house? More carefully, I rolled this one onto the tile as well. When it finally opened it was stuck on its back too. Poor poly bug. Although it was kind of funny that they both somehow ended up on their backs.

These three new acquaintances kept my company until Seth woke up. I showed him our little zoo. He went straight to the bathroom, grabbed a wad of toilet paper, smashed all three into it, and flushed them down the toilet. All the while I was protesting and dealing with my inner conflict of attachment to my new friends. However, once the reality of their deaths set in, I realized that they had only acted helpless to win my love. After that, they probably would have swarmed and done who knows what gross things buggies do. Evil little tormentors, evil.

After my only class of the day, Seth and I headed home from school (9:00 am) to make a yummy omelet. We realized that we were out of sour cream! So I rushed to the store to pick some up. On the way back into our house, I saw another nasty. We have these little eight legged friends that live in our entryway. They are actually not that small and look EXACTLY like black widows except they have a white spot instead of the red hourglass. They scare the life out of me. Imagine if one of those got in our house... joarjhflkanfnanlkasdnf AHHHHH!!! I would probably faint. And then wake up and be sick. Anyway, we've found three of these so far. I opened the door, yelled for Seth, he came running and heroically slayed the beast. So scary.

Later in the day when Seth was at work, I decided to take a shower. I started to water to let it warm up. When I decided the water was sufficiently warm, I opened the shower curtain to find a BIG BROWN SPIDER swimming for its life! Oh yes, we also have these brown spiders in our house. We have seen them many times. Our first was before we actually moved in to our house and were hanging out watching a movie. Since we had no furniture yet, I laid down on the floor. I felt something moving against my arm. I jumped up and saw one of the spider scurrying away. EWWW! Since then, there have been many more encounters. Anyway, back to the issue at hand, I skillfully used what little movement our shower head allows to manipulate the spider down the drain. Then I turned on the tub faucet full blast and scalding hot, just for good measure. Then I put in the plug and proceeded to take my shower. Yes, the shower filled up with water, but I wasn't taking the chance of having that little nasty come swimming back out at me.

However, on a more positive note, I KILLED A SPIDER TODAY!!! I can never do that. I am so afraid of them that I can't even kill them (as you may have been able to tell by my waiting for Seth to kill all the other bugs today.) When I was younger, I made my brother kill the spiders in my room. When he was older and less gullible, I bribed him with small toys, candy, even money. But today, I faced my fear. True, I was several feet away from the spider. And also true that there was no way the spider could have actually gotten to me. But regardless of circumstance or argument, I did it. I feel so accomplished.

In conclusion, bugs are gross. They love to taunt and torment me. If you see one, stay away. Or find a boy to kill it. The end.

*amber*

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Sleepy Heads

Some of you may be wondering, why am I up writing on our blog at 7:20 on Friday morning? Do not worry my friends, your question will be answered in time. I told Seth the next blog post was his. But as it has been an insane week (that's an understatement,) I thought I would fill you all in, in case you think we've dropped off the planet.
The main thing that has been weird about this week is my sleeping pattern. You must first understand that usually, I am ALWAYS sleepy and most nights fall asleep on the couch or love sac and Seth has to drag me into bed. And of course, as college students we never get enough sleep anyway which probably makes it worse. Well Saturday, Seth and I stayed up pretty late. Maybe 3 or 4ish? At the end of the evening, Seth was sitting on the couch reading his book, so I went and sat down next to him; expecting to fall asleep as I always do. However, when he was finished reading and said my name, I was surprised to find that I had not fallen asleep. We got in bed and soon, Seth was breathing deeply. I was still wide awake! It was the strangest thing because I knew I definitely had not slept enough the week before. I should be exhausted! The rest of the night was spent with my eyes wide open staring into the darkness. It felt like I was thinking deeply about something but I could never figure out what that something was. I may have drifted out a few times but they were only for a few minutes each. When Seth got up for church, I hadn't slept the whole night. I think he was a little worried but I felt fine!
We went to church and even when Seth's eyes were drooping, I was completely awake and alert. When the closing hymn started, I took a deep breath to start singing. Suddenly, I couldn't get any air. My lungs closed up and for a minute, I was in shock. For those of you who don't know, I have asthma. After the hymn, Seth asked me why I hadn't sung. I told him I thought I'd had an attack and it was still a little hard to breathe. Now, this is strange because usually I have attacks from exercising or when the air quality in Utah is really bad. I've never had one from trying to sing before. At the same time as I was trying to get some air back in my lungs, my head and stomach started hurting. Seth suggested we go home so I could use my inhaler. I did and started shaking. He was worried but that's what the medication does to me, especially after an attack. Then, since we had been fasting, Seth got me some food in hopes that it would help my stomach. It did. Thank you sweetheart. However, the headache was still there. It was in the same place as where I get my tired headaches; right above/behind one of my eyes. Weird stuff.
Later that night, my old roommates invited us to dinner. It was so good to joke around with them again and we had a lot of fun. They made us salmon with pasta (SO GOOD,) salad, biscuits, and choc chip cookies with caramel for dessert. It was a great Sunday night.
When we got home, it was later than we'd anticipated. I still had quite a bit of homework to do since I knew the next week would be crazy so we went to bed and I set my alarm to get up really early to do homework. Four hours later, I was up and going and not the least bit sleepy. Mmmm, this was getting a bit strange. But oh well, I wrote my paper and then went to school.
A similar thing happened on Monday night. I got a little more sleep but when I woke up, I was not at all tired. this equaled approximately 10 hours of sleep for 3 nights. Strange. And day by day, I was becoming more awake and alert to the point where I was getting a little hyper. On Tuesday, I dropped Seth off at work and had an hour or so before I had to meet in the library to prepare for a group presentation. I realized that my current situation probably wasn't healthy so I decided to just put the seat back and take a quick nap in the car. It took a while to fall asleep but finally, I crashed. My body had finally had it and I slept through my group meeting. Woops. I drove home, emailed my group, and went to bed. I didn't wake up until I had to go get Seth. Woohoo, I was finally sleeping again! Although now, I was SO tired. It seemed impossible to get out of bed in the mornings.
Wednesday was a crazy crazy day for me. I had a paper due in my first class, a group presentation in my second, and a speech to give in my third. I did all I could to prepare the night before but by the time I went to bed, I hadn't really gotten anything done. The next day was going to be interesting...
I went to my first class and although I was not fully prepared, we didn't even go through the things I hadn't done. What a blessing. AND I found out I didn't have that class on Friday! (Which is why I'm still home. It usually starts at 8.) For the group presentation, the was a lot of craziness. The group before us had presented what we thought was our chapter so we hadn't known what to do. Apparently, none of the group members had met so we had not decided what to present or how to split it up. So we met a half hour before our class started and put together the random resources we had all collected in hopes it might pass for a real presentation. Luckily, my portion was just questioning some of the traditional ethics of journalism which started a long debate and my professor became very involved in the discussion. This took most of the time and finally, I had to cut it off so the rest of the group could present. At the end, my professor told me great job and he really liked the discussion I provided. YES! This day was going great so far!
The next task, my speech. I was to give a four minute informative speech, mostly from memory, to my public speaking class. Problem? I hadn't yet prepared my speech. The week before, my instructor had informed us that he hoped we'd all practiced our speech at least a few times. I hadn't even picked a topic. By the day of the speech, I had finally picked a random topic about a modern cultural trend, but I had not put together my research, let alone written out the speech or practiced. I finished writing about an hour before my class started. While I was straightening my hair, I had the speech on the mirror and tried to memorize it as I worked. This wasn't really that effective. By the time I went to my class, I had not practiced my speech out loud. Oh great, this was going to be good. To make matters worse, we were being filmed which made me all the more nervous. And when I got to class, I realized I'd left my visual aid at home. With shaking hands, I gave my speech the best I could. I am sure it wasn't great but I did my best. Good news? I finished exactly on the 4 minute beep. Perfect timing! And now it's over so I've decided not to worry about it any more. *sigh of relief* I made it through the impossible day!
Now on to the latest installment of the story. I woke up and it was really dark. I knew I didn't have to get up for class but Seth did. He was moving so I asked him what time it was. He started laughing and I was really confused. He asked what time I thought it was. I didn't know and he kept laughing. This was getting frustrating, why was he laughing? Finally he asked me if I remembered going to bed last night. I didn't. Then, I remembered that we had both been so tired that we'd decided to take a nap. We knew we wouldn't be very productive when we were that tired. That was at 5:30 on Thursday night. Now, it was just after midnight, Friday morning. Holy Cow! Seth had gotten up at 10:30, thinking the same thing, that it was morning. Once he realized that, he got up and did some homework, then came back to bed around the time I woke up. He'd gotten about the same hours of sleep that we usually get, and I'd had more. We turned on the lights and read for a bit, then went back to bed around 1:30? 2? I woke up at 7 and couldn't get back to sleep, which is why I'm writing on this blog. Seth is still in bed but will have to get up for his class in a little bit. But what a crazy night! Great finish to such a crazy week haha!
Sorry if this was really confusing and hard to understand. I am still a little bit in sleep mode so my brain hasn't quite been activated for the day. And you lucky readers have the pleasure of seeing how I think when I first wake up! Lucky you!
As for this weekend, this is what I want to do:

• RELAX! Hardcore.
• Go to the temple (last night was ward temple night which, guess what, we slept through!)
• Go up in the mountains. Autumn is my favorite season and going up the canyon to see the leaves is one of my favorite things in the world. I love just walking through the trees and watching the leaves float down. It is so serene and breathtaking.
  

Also, for those who don't know, Where the Wild Things are came out this weekend! I think it was last night. That was one of my favorite books as a child (like many people) and I am super excited to see the movie. The New York Times gave it a great review this morning so I cannot wait!!!Well that's about it. Now you've had an update on our lives. At least my side of the story. I will try to get Seth to write on here soon. I hope you've all had a great week and happy weekend!!!

*amber*

Introducing... The Dicksons!

Warning: LONG POST

Hello out there bloggies! Today, I would like to introduce you to the Dickson family; which currently consists of Seth and Amber (future members to be introduced at a later date.) We were married on August 21st of this year! Anyone who knows me (this is Amber speaking, just so you are aware) knows that I LOVE weddings!!! So when it came time to plan mine, I knew exactly what I wanted and it was SO much fun. Now I know some of you may have the standard questions: how did you meet? Tell us about your first... (insert romantic dating moment here)? How did he propose? etc. etc. Well, as you may notice by the title of this blog, it is INSIDE Happily Ever After. Now we all love those adorable movies where the couple falls in love, has the perfect fairytale story, and the movie ends with them getting married. "And they lived happily ever after. The end" (said in a lovely, soothing British accent.) Well I am here to tell you my friends, the wedding is not the end of the story. In fact, there IS no end. The two statements seem to contradict each other. I tend to believe the "happily EVER AFTER" portion. That means FOREVER! Awww... so romantic right? But what does that really mean? That is my purpose in writing this blog. I hope to write about what happens in this ever after; the good, the bad, the random, and everything else!

So now that that's said, I will not be writing about any of the pre-wedding/ wedding details at this current time. Now I must emphasise, DO NOT FRET MY FRIENDS! I know all of you hopeless romantics like myself just want to see the adorable wedding photos, and don't worry, I will post them along with our romantic courting stories at a later date. For now, i will just write about things that are going on in our lives now. (Not even what happened right after we got married; too much has happened and there is not enough space to write all of that at this current time.

So in the past couple of weeks, we have had two major events in our house. Seth's birthday, and my first time trying Japanese curry.

Seth's birthday was on Sept. 22nd (I know, I'm behind.) The night before, I forgot to set my alarm but somehow my body woke up on its own at 6:00, just like I had wanted to! I snuck out of bed and decorated our apartment.

I then proceeded to the kitchen which was a HUGE mess. Dishes everywhere. I did the dishes (typically his job,) and then started making pancakes. This took several tries because we have really junky pans and they Insisted on sticking, no matter what I did. Plus I'm still getting used to gas stoves so getting the temp. right was tricky. Finally, I was able to salvage enough for a good breakfast. Then I went and woke up my sweetheart to a breakfast of pancakes and fresh strawberries. After breakfast, we got ready and went to school (poor boy, his birthday fell on a Tuesday.) I felt bad that we couldn't really celebrate very well because we had school so after Seth got off work, I took him to the Muse Cafe for lunch. It's a cute little cafe located on the top floor of our university's art museum (which I Love :)) The food is really good and it's a little pricey for us but I decided it was worth it to splurge! After a yummy lunch, Seth had to go to his classes. I headed off to the "library to study"... in reality I headed to the store to pick up the stuff for dinner that I didn't want him to find in our house. After making dinner and dessert (German Chocolate cupcakes- one of his faves and... a special surprise!) I got the presents ready and patiently waited for Seth to get out of class.



Then, I picked him up and immediately made him open presents. (You will see why. Yay, I love birthdays!)

oh...... look how cute he is!!!!!

Opening presents!

He got a transformers coloring book, Hannah Montana glitter crayons (he LOVES Hannah [hehe... love you honey!],) the new Dan Brown book, and......

His very own Special Plate!!!!! This is why we had to open presents first, so he could eat dinner on his new plate :)

Playing with his new toys :)

After presents, dinner was ready! We had lasagna (his favorite,) salad, and mashed red garlic potatoes (also his favorite, I kind of winged the recipe but he seemed to like them.) Then for desert:

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Sethy, Happy Birthday to you!" yes, I sang to him. Poor boy! And on his birthday!

And everyone knows you can't have cake without ice cream. So I made these little ice cream balls out of mint ice cream and crushed Oreos. They were surprisingly hard to make (kept wanting to melt, etc. geez ice cream,) but they were soooo yummy. Oh, and Seth loves mint and Oreos. So there you go.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!! I hope you had a good one. Also for his birthday, my family took us to dinner on Friday. We went to Happy Sumo and it was my family's first experience with sushi. Fun stuff! Yummy...

Ok, this post is going wayyyy too long. But last Sunday, Seth finally made me curry. He served his mission in Japan and Japanese curry is what the missionaries eat the majority of the time. I was a little sceptical when I saw that it was brown and just looked like stew, but it was SO good!!! Thank you honey :) We'll have to make it again. Also on the menu with curry was "TIM TAM SLAM!!!" But that's worthy of another post entirely.

Keep following and you will have the opportunity to read about more of the joys of married life! If you have any suggestions for post topics or questions, please leave us a comment. For now, I'm going to peace out for the night. Loves!

*amber*