It's Official!

I just (well, last night) signed up for the Salt Lake City half marathon! 

It's on Saturday, April 21st aka the day before my birthday!  So happy birthday to myself.  I'm excited but super nervous! 

I was thinking the other day though about how I am nervous to run this but then I thought "Ya know, a half marathon is just half of what other people can do."  Haha so that was a bummer thought.  But maybe someday I will be brave enough to run a full one.

February Fun

Hey guys!  I've got just a bunch of random stuff to blog about.  Woo!

First, every time Billy leaves work, a brigade of waddling ducks run happily over to his car...its so funny!  He always takes pictures and sends them to me and I decided to blog about this one because it was just too funny.  It's just scary when he drives away because he has to be so careful not to hit any.  I love ducks!

Next, something so weird happened!  In the pack of toilet paper rolls we got there were some without rolls!  Have you ever seen this before?  I thought it was so weird and I just wanted to share.  Hopefully it's good luck or something.

My mom sent us another awesome Valentines Day package this year!  Included in the package were these awesome candy hearts that I finished in like 4 days.  And also some other delish treats that I don't have pictures of probably because we ate it all so fast.  Gross but awesome.  Thanks Mom!  I love Valentine's Day!

Speaking of Valentine's Day...look what Billy did for me!

Well, I had originally started decorating the house with hearts but I was so busy I ran out of time.  So he finished decorating the house and wrote me a nice note.  It was a bummer that we were so busy on Valentine's Day to do anything.  We are going out to dinner tomorrow though as a week late Valentine's date :)

Oh and last Sunday marked our 1 1/2 year anniversary!  Billy got me flowers on Monday for that/Valentine's.  Crazy we've been married for that long!

 

Last night we went to the BYU Philharmonic Orchestra thingy because Billy's friend Darren played the bass and Darren's wife Stacy plays the cello so we went to go see them play!  It was really fun and a good way to get a little more culture into our lives.  The only annoying thing was that a girl in front of us shushed us!  I was whispering to Billy for like 2 seconds and she turned around and just shushed us right in the face.  We were both annoyed by that.  And then these people behind us were whispering super loud the rest of the time and I could tell those girls in front of us were going crazy.  They kept looking slightly over their shoulders and then huffing and shaking their heads.  It was actually hilarious and helped keep me entertained during the slow parts.

Anyways, after the show me and Billy, Matt and Amy Keller, and Matt Nixon all went and got some ice cream :)  Way fun.

Well, that's all the pictures I have.  A few more updates:

-Billy's sister Jody had her baby on Tuesday the 14th!  That was our very exciting news of the week :)  We have another cutie niece!  Welcome Cecilia!

-Billy just got set apart today as Elder's Quorum President in our ward.  Pretty awesome!

-I was studying ALL last week for a Genetics test that I finally took on Friday!  I'm still not sure what I got because I was too scared to look at my score.  I studied so hard I just didn't want to be disappointed, ya know?  So glad that is over!

- Billy is really enjoying volunteering at the Slate Canyon boy's detention center place.  He goes there 3 times a week now and volunteers in study hall and in the classroom.  He has connected with a few of the boys there, which is always fun to hear about :)

Well, I think that's all there is to update.  Sorry we don't have any kids to give some super fun crazy updates on.  Someday our blog will be filled with cute kid pics...but until then you get boring college updates.  I'm so glad there is no school tomorrow!  Thank you all presidents for living and therefore giving us President's day!

Derek's Mission Call!

A few weeks ago...I don't even remember exactly when it was...Derek got his mission call!  It was sent to San Diego first, then my mom overnighted it to Rexburg so Derek could open it first.  Me and Billy decided to drive up to Idaho to be there when he opened it!  It was so much fun!

The anticipation...

 INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI MISSION!!!  He leaves June 13th.  So awesome!!  Everyone thinks Derek will do really well there.  The call opening was so exciting!  I had some major adrenaline pumping!

We got the whole thing on video too (thanks Travis for filming :) ) so here ya go (hopefully it works):

 

Woo hoo brother!!

Everyone that came to support!  (minus Cami, Gene and Michele...they were there too!  So fun!)

We stayed the night at Travis and Cami's (thanks again guys!) and the next morning went to see Derek's basketball game.

Derek was the tallest one out there!  It was way fun.  They had a heartbreaking loss by one point.  So sad.  But that made for an exciting game!

We headed back to Provo right after that because we both had homework and stuffs to do.  It was such a fun weekend though and we are so excited for Derek!!

Snow & other updates

So a lot has been going on lately with starting a new semester and everything.  A few updates that probably should be mentioned:
- I know most of you know, but I quit Jamba Juice.  I got a job as a Biology 100 TA!  Woo!  It's fun.

-Billy has 2 capstone internships he is working on currently.  He is working on getting psychological tables organized and translated into Spanish for a professor (not really positive about the details of this one...he'd have to tell you) and he is about to start working at Slate Canyon which is a school for troubled boys (I think, I'm probably getting this info wrong.  I should probably just wait until he is home to do this but oh well).  Should be an interesting semester for Billy!  Some good stuff to put on grad school apps!

-My computer went crazy and we had to get a new hard drive for it.  So the only pictures currently on this computer are the ones I'm about to post :(  so sad, right?  Don't worry, we backed up all the other pictures on an external hard drive.  It's just sad they aren't on the computer anymore.  And the computer is like a brand new computer now which is kind of annoying because it doesn't know anything.

- It finally snowed!  A ton actually.  I can't decide if I'm happy about it or not yet.  I think I like it this year though for some reason.  Yikes.

-Billy is working 6:45 am- 11:45 am now!  Crazy early!  So he has to get up at 6 every morning.  It's sad not having him around in the morning but it's SO nice we get to have dinner at a normal time now!  Rather than 8:30.

-Billy is still a TA for Psych 101 and he enjoys that.  He's such a hard worker!  So many jobs!  Well, just 2.  But that is way more than one.

-We've almost been married for a year and a half!

-My birthday is 3 months from Sunday...so pretty soon.  Everyone better start preparing.  Haha jk I tell Billy pretty much everyday to start preparing for my birthday and it's pretty funny but I'm always kidding.  Or am I?

-I went rock climbing with my friend Adrianne the other day which was way fun and my arms are still sore.  It's fun having a girl friend I can have girl time with.

-Well, I think that's all the updates for now.  I could go into more detail on our school schedules if people want to know...and maybe I will later just for posterity's sake.  ANYWAYS, on Saturday me and Billy took advantage of the snow and did something we've been meaning to do for YEARS but haven't gotten around to doing...we built a snowman!  A few actually.

We started out by making some small ones on Bill's car.  Haha so funny and cute.  They were partying

Woo!

Then we made a REAL snowman in the grass in the front of our complex...the snow was perf for packing!  This was Bill's first time ever making a snowman.  Boo ya.

Using pine needles for hair

He looks like a homeless/monkey snowman...but we like him that way.  He's got his scruffy man beard and everything

That was way fun.  We have fun together.

P.s. notice my AWESOME snow boots.  They are great and I just discovered that I had them.  Also notice how wet Bill's shoes are :( poor guy!  Snow is cold.

White, Mormon girl, from beach town and brothers

My Cultural Diorama

For all of you who may follow my blog, this post is for a school assignment :)  enjoy!

I'm a Mormon

This is a picture of the San Diego LDS Temple. We have this picture hanging in our home (it was actually taken by my father-in-law, who is a photographer!).  I grew up in the LDS faith.  Growing up in this faith has probably been the biggest and best factor in my life that has shaped me into who I am today.  My friends growing up were mostly all Mormon, and they are who helped me follow a good path in life and make good choices.  My church leaders and teachers were always there to help me when I was struggling and to inspire me and get me through hard things.  As I developed a testimony of my own, the knowledge was solidified in my mind that there is a bigger purpose to this life.  Keeping that eternal perspective in mind has helped me get where I am today and I am so grateful for this joyous gospel in my life!

I am so glad I was able to be married to my eternal companion in this temple, partially because I dreamed of being married in it since I was very little, partially because it is the most beautiful temple in the world, and mostly because now I am sealed to my best friend forever!


Baseball

For a lot of my early life, I was the only girl with three brothers.  Sports, and especially baseball, were very popular in my house.  Attending my brother's baseball games, throwing the ball around with them, and simply observing my parents being so supportive of their interest in the game has helped me develop a love for baseball.  When I was 15, my parents decided to have another baby.  I was 100% sure it would be a girl, and I could not wait to have a sister.  Ha!  How could I have been so silly?  Lo and behold, a baby boy was born and I was now the only girl with four brothers.  Since I was old enough to be a big help around the house, I feel like I partially helped raise my little brother.  What a blessing he has been in my life and in the life of my family.  Another little brother equaled even more baseball!

Growing up with my brothers, and being old enough to help be a mommy, has helped me learn patience, love, and gratitude.  I was definitely humbled when I found out I was going to have a baby brother, and I learned that Heavenly Father has a bigger plan for us then I do.  I'm not sure if a little girl could have brought the same joy and blessings that my little brother has brought to our family.  Heavenly Father knows best!

Psychology

The subject of Psychology has played a big role in my life.  We have lots of psychology books like this one lying around my home.  My Mom never finished getting her degree when she first attended college.  Because of that, she has always told me that no matter what, I would get my undergraduate degree.  She has put this idea in my mind every day of my life.  I was really grateful for this when I was in my senior year of high school because I never wondered what I was going to do next in my life, I knew I was going to college.  My Grandparents have always been very supportive of getting a higher education, and have helped me achieve my degree by helping me financially and by inspiring me through their academic achievements. My Mom is now back in school finishing her degree in Psychology.  My husband is about to graduate with a degree in Psychology.  I love the subject of psychology, and I am sometimes surprised that I didn't pursue a degree in Psychology.

One other reason I love this subject is because I have a brother who has made some interesting choices in his life.  Because of these choices, I was able to attend a lot of seminars and youth camps while I was younger that were aimed at attaining self-confidence and understanding how the human mind works and what it has power to do.  I always found these fascinating and was able to more fully understand why people did a lot of the weird things they did, even why I did a lot of the things I did, and thought the things I thought, because I attended these psychological seminars and was exposed to these ideas.


These three artifacts in my life, along with countless others, have helped me to become who I am today, with my personality and character.  They have helped shape me culturally and have given me the views and opinions on life I now have.

Mom comes to visit!

Since Christmas and the reunion and everything was so busy and went so fast, I didn't really get very much quality time with my family and specifically my mom so my mom, being the wonderful, loving, caring mother that she is, flew up to Utah after all the festivities to spend some quality time with me!  We had lots of fun to do, so we were a little stressed at the beginning trying to fit everything into a 3 day schedule haha.

We picked her up late late on Wednesday night.  Thursday morning we went for a much longer than anticipated walk (probably like 5+ miles).  I was pretty sick and Mom was getting over a cold which is why we walked instead of ran just fyi haha.  Then we went to go get my haircut!!  Let me just tell you that I HATE haircuts (which is why my hair was so long).  They are scary and what if the person messes it up and what if its too short and you hate it etc etc.  But it had to be done my hair was almost to my waist!  So we went to this salon and the girl started by cutting 6 inches off.  But we both thought that wasn't enough so she cut another 2 off!  8 INCHES PEOPLE!  It was crazy and felt so good!  I'm sorry I don't have any pictures.  Well I do have this awkward one I took with my phone to send to Billy...

It's way shorter but still way long!  And I love it so much I'm not even sad at all!  And the girl had no one after me so she taught me how to curl it :) 

After the haircut me and my mom went shopping boo YA!  It was kind of a quick shopping trip because we had to get home so mom could teach me how to make dinner (haha) and then we could get to the Draper temple because my/our dear friend Abbie was taking out her endowments!  Lets just say dinner took longer than expected and we were very late to the temple...but made it just in the nick of time!  It was embarrassing because we had super front row seats.  But it was great being there.  We got to reconnect with old ward members and friends.  Yay Abbie!!

On Friday we went out to breakfast at Magleby's!  It was the most delicious breakfast ever.  I wish I could eat those pancakes every day of my life.  After that Billy had to go to work :( so me and my mom went shopping again!  We went to Banana Republic and bought me this jacket we saw the day before that was super on sale and such a good deal and that I'm so excited about.  It looks like this:

except navy blue.  I had to include a picture to break up all the words.

We also went to the make up place in Nordstrom and got my face color matched with the right make up for my face.  Yay!  Then we went home to cook a delish dinner of chicken taquitos with cilantro ranch dressing to bring to Billy during his break of his 11 hour shift!!  Poor guy.  He was working all day while we were playing.  Here's some pictures of the food.

Yummy!

Oh yeah and we made chocolate zucchini bread!  I look like a turtle in this picture...but with rosy cheeks this time.  I'm good at looking like a turtle in pictures.

Then me and my mom watched The Help.  It was really good yet sad yet happy and made me want to read the book still!

My mom cried.  I didn't.  I don't cry during movies.  Except during movies that have little boys named Jayson die from being hit by a car.  Then I cry like crazy. (The Hereafter.  I don't recommend it.)

Saturday morning we made a delicious breakfast of these apple cinnamon rolls, cider and smokies wrapped in bacon!!  YUM!  It was so good I could have died.  Not really.

They were so good I was way excited to have the leftovers yesterday for breakfast :)

Then we all decided to try and go up to Fashion place mall and go to H&M and Crate and Barrel.  BAD IDEA.  It was so so crowded I was going to scream!  H&M was crazy!  You would have thought it was black friday times 10!  Yikes.  Crate and Barrel was better.  We love that store.  It was just so crowded everywhere there that it wasn't very fun.  We went over to John and Barbara's later that night for dinner and for mom to meet Hayley's new bf Dan!  That was way fun.

New years eve wasn't very eventful.  We played a few games and when it turned to midnight we all said "woo hoo!" and then went to bed.  Pretty awesome.

We started out the new year great by driving my mom to the airport at 7:30 in the morning, and getting a speeding ticket on the way.  Cheers to the new year.

Sorry for all the words and lack of pictures.  I realize our blog is not the funnest to read, and my new years resolution is to change that.  I realize these posts are lacking in humor and abounding in words, so again I apologize.  I will be better.  Bye.

Christmas in Arizona!

On Thursday the 22nd we flew out to Arizona to spend Christmas with Billy's fam!  We got in late Thursday night so we just had some late night tacos and ice cream (hehe) and chatted then hit the hay.

Friday we spent the day playing with little Sierra and Whitney (and Karen was watching a boy from the family she works for, Ty...he was a super cutie as well)!  We went to the park and played around the house.  It was really funny because at the park Sierra wanted to play Rapunzel and I was "Mother" so she kept yelling from across the park "Mother, come help me!" and other people were there and they probably thought I made my daughter call me mother.  Hahaha

Billy and Whitney had such a special connection over the whole trip, it was so so so so so so cute!  Jenny told us one night she got up in the middle of the night and kept saying "uh wuh Bilwy, uh wuh Bilwy"  (aka probably I want Billy).  So precious!!  Then another time on Sunday we got to church the same time as Jenny and Jason and the girls but came in different doors and Jenny saw us and said "Oh look!  Its Auntie Caitlin and Uncle Billy!" and then Whitney sqiggled her way out of Jenny's arms and ran over to Billy and put her arms up and he picked her up and she gave him such a big hug!  It was the cutest thing I've ever seen and I'm pretty sure Billy got a little emotional :)  Here's a picture of Whitney trying to take Billy's temperature haha

Saturday on Christmas Eve I can't really remember what we did all day but later in the day all the grown up kids went to go see Mission Impossible which was so fun!  Then at night we all went over to the Olson's house for the Christmas Eve tradition of dinner and a white elephant gift exchange party!  It was super fun!  Me and Billy had also bought a puzzle earlier in the day and so when we got home we worked on that for a few hours!

Then apparently we fell asleep on the couch :)

And Sierra put out cookies and milk for Santa!

Bruce is a very talented photographer.  He took a few pictures of us on Monday before we left and it was really fun and really nice of him.  He is so talented!

Christmas morning was so fun!  Sierra got to see her new bike from Santa and she was so excited!  And Whitney got to see all her princess dolls!  It was so cute and fun.  Then we went to church and that was really great.  After church we all opened presents and played with all our new toys :)  Jon and Kara were over too and Scarlett was so cute with all her toys!  Scarlett is such a funny cute little grunter.  We have the cutest nieces!

Sierra and Ty

Little Whitty at church :)

Christmas evening we all worked hard on the puzzle and finally got it finished!  It was super hard to do!  All the pieces looked exactly the same but we all worked together and got it finished!

Woo!

Bruce checking the underside of the puzzle to make sure all the pieces matched up correctly :)

Such an accomplishment getting it finished!

Unfortunately we had to leave the next day to come back to Utah because Billy had to work :(  So our Christmas trip was really short but really fun!

Bruce did a photo shoot of us on Monday and took some really awesome photos!  Most of you have probably seen that one of me and Billy on Facebook and he took a lot more cute ones and I'm so excited about them!  Thanks Bruce!