Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Tales of a Happy Home Nevening

That's what my sister used to call Family Home Evening. 

Last night, we had an interesting one. Nothing worked out as it was supposed to. Oh well. It made for a very interesting nevening :)

Originally we wanted to hike the Y. I've never done it before so I though it would be fun to take a little hike and have a picnic at the top. But when Seth got home from work, he was exhausted. He plopped down and almost fell right asleep. So we realized we weren't going to hike; even if it's just a short one. 

Seth wanted to take a nap, but I still wanted to spend some time outside. I feel too cooped up during the winter. So Seth, sweet man that he is, agreed to come up the canyon with me to have dinner and maybe take a short walk. 

All the meals I had planned for this week were bigger, at-home type, meals. I didn't really have anything that would be good to take on a picnic. However, I had a discount for this place called Smokehouse Pizza and BBQ in Provo, so we decided to pick up a pizza and take it up the mountain with us.

When we got to Smokehouse, we realized that it was more of a sit-down place. Oh well! We decided just to stay and have dinner there, then go up the canyon. It was a tiny little restaurant with only a few small tables. It was a cute little place and they had this cool clock wall that I liked :)

Only four of the other tables were occupied. When we walked in the door, a waiter told us to go sit wherever we wanted. Hm, must be a pretty chill little place. So we picked a nice little seat next to the window. All of the people at the other four tables were already eating, and some looked like they were getting ready to leave, so we figured our orders would be taken soon.

So we waited.

And waited.


And waited...


And figured out how to take panoramic pictures on Seth's phone...


And then waited some more. 

It was probably about a half hour that we sat there waiting, staring the waiters down and wondering when they'd get to us. Ok, so in their defense, there were only three people working. A younger boy, girl, and an older woman working in the kitchen. However, as we looked around, they weren't really busy. The woman in the kitchen was lazily wiping a rag around on the already cleaned counters. The boy and girl were talking to each other. Then the girl moseyed over to the front and started looking at a piece of paper. The boy approached a table two away from ours and gave them their tab started helping them finish up. They were so close to us that we figured he would come right over to us after they were done. Instead, he left their table and started chatting with the woman in the kitchen. What was going on here?! We finally just got up and left. On our way out, the girl standing by the door didn't even look up. Hm... probably won't go there again...


* * *


Neither of our original dinner ideas worked out... and we were starting to get really hungry. So we just headed up to Smash Burger in Orem. Now, I'm not a burger person. Or a meat person in general. But I do like Smash Burger. We went there before the Muse concert for my birthday. Their burgers are really fresh and homemade tasting. But my favorite thing is their fries. SmashFries are cooked in olive oil and rosemary and taste just like the bread you get at Macaroni Grill... mmmmm. We both got a burger, fries, and a shake. Our meal was about $25... for burgers! Yikes! We could have actually gone to Macaroni Grill for about that... *sigh* oh well. At least we finally got to eat. 


* * * 

From dinner, we finally headed up the canyon. It was almost starting to get dark so we knew we wouldn't be able to spend very much time. We got on a short trail that we walked once while we were dating. We reminisced about the things we had talked about on that walk, just about a year ago. We had some deep discussions... good times.

Then we decided to write a novel. So we started coming up with random characters and plot ideas. Well, I made Seth do most of the story telling. I think I just wanted to hear him talk :)

The weather was so nice. There were tons of people up there, making fires and probably having ward FHE activities. There were so many fires that it felt like they were warming the air all through the canyon. You could feel that it was a little chilly, but it felt like most of the air was full of warm patches that had just come off the fire... it was a very nice night :)




* * *


Well, that's the end of my story. I think I just wanted to rant about that pizza place... it was actually pretty funny though.


PS, what they say is true. It is a little hard having FHE with just two people. If anyone has good ideas for a couple, feel free to pass them along!




*amber*

I know I haven't been blogging very much lately. Life keeps taking some unexpected turns... but I have some news that I have to share.

I have a new brother!!!

Ok... so not really a new brother, but he's new to me! Elder Daniel Dickson came home from his two year mission to Sapporo Japan on Friday. Because of this, I have never met him!! I feel a little bit like I'm on Oprah and just found out I have a long lost brother! K, not really. But I hope to be able to meet him soon!


So what do missionaries in Japan really do? Well, they're trained as samurais... but don't tell anyone I told you that. Otherwise, they'll be after us.


* * *


Because Daniel was off being a missionary ;) in Japan land, he was not able to be at our wedding. And now that he has poofed into existence as my new brother, this saddens me. So I made a decision. As of now, Daniel was officially at our wedding. He was just too stealthy so no one saw him. 

Except... I did discover one picture that must have captured him right at the second that he happened to fly in front of our picture. See?


Yep. Daniel was definitely at our wedding. Anyone going to try to prove me otherwise? Good, because this picture says it all. 


Welcome home brother!!!


*amber*

Friday, May 7, 2010

La Mia Bella Vita (my beautiful life)

Yesterday was such a good day. My mom came down and helped me paint our living room. Thanks mom! Seth also helped me finish painting after work. Look how cute he is... *sneak peak at the color*


It looks so much better now. I'll post some picture as soon as the furniture is all back in place and I can get some good ones. I also tried a new recipe for Apple Crisp and I think it's going to be one of our new favorites. With vanilla ice cream.... yum. Seth and I played games on our bedroom floor and played with the painters tape after taking it off the walls. Our house was all torn up from painting which would usually drive me crazy, but I had fun being silly and acting like a little kid.

I wish every day was like yesterday. I just had so much fun. Lately, I've been stuck in a rut. Seth works full time and I work afternoons. After he leaves for work, I always seem to get sad and lonely. I'm not exactly sure why. Yesterday was so different though! Maybe it was just because I had company, or maybe it was because what we were working on made such a difference in the mood in our house... I don't know why. But I'm making it my goal to keep that good mood. In the mornings when I'm all by myself, I'm going to find things to do that keep me cheerful. I have a few projects planned that will probably help with just that. I also want to start writing more. It's been awhile, but I might look into a little freelancing this Summer... we'll see.


* * *


I saw this video this morning and it brought me to tears. It made me so thankful to have such a beautiful life. 



It also gets me excited to celebrate mothers in two days! (more on that later.)


*amber*

Monday, May 3, 2010

Il Mio Tavolo

Last week, we finally got a dining table! I'm still so excited about it. And still loving the fact that our new house has room for one!

Last night, we had people over for dinner for the first time since we've been married! It was so exciting. I love cooking and having people over, so dinner parties might become quite commonplace now. 

My old roommates Jessica and Averyl were our first official dinner guests. We had fish tacos, cilantro lime rice, and black beans, and rasperry cream filled lemon cupcakes for dessert. 

I'm really becoming a little obsessed with cooking... I think I can blame a lot of that on our HUGE new kitchen. But it's not such a bad thing... right? I mean, there are worse things I could be obsessed with. 



*foreshadowing*
And thus began the Summer of countless dinner parties... (just sayin'...)


*amber*

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