Be a Hero!

The lesson in Relief Society today was about honesty. The very first thing listed in the 13th article of faith is that "We believe in being honest". Honesty is so important in our life. Complete honesty is what is necessary for our salvation. President Brigham Young said  "If we accept salvation on the terms it is offered to us, we have got to be honest in every thought, in our reflections, in our meditations, in our private circles, in our deals, in our declarations, and in every act of our lives".
We are striving here on earth to be like God, and God is honest and just in all things (Alma 7:20).
The mormon message this week is on honesty. (I cried watching it)




"ill turn in the first one of you that cheats, and you better believe it!"
A few days ago I was watching one of the first episodes of 'The Office' and there was a quote about how to be a hero.

"Hero stands for honesty, empathy, respect and open-mindedness". -Mr. Brown
I think that the O should be changed to 'obedience' instead of open-mindedness. If we can just remember to be a hero (honesty, empathy, respect and obedience), I know that we will be able happier in life and be a better disciple of Christ.

My New (temporary) Ride!

Well a few months ago, Bruce (the car that my sister and I share) got into a little accident. Bruce was parked on the side of the road and had a car reverse up and onto the hood.

It happened right before finals, so it was hard for my sister and I to take care of it. But recently I was able to get a few estimates on it to give to the lady that caused the damage. After going to the place she requested I get an estimate, and also after going to another cheaper place I found, the lady ended up going through her insurance company where they had me drop the car off at their requested placed.
I'm glad we went that route because I got a SWEET rental car! Her insurance company told me that I would get a similar car to my mitsubishi galant, but when the car rolled up, it was the new 2011 dodge durango! It has been way fun zipping around town in it. Maybe they'll just let me trade when it is time to return it!

Dan the Man!

I love Dan, he does so many things for me without me even having to ask. Last saturday was cleaning check and Dan totally offered to come over early in the morning to help me vacuum, mop, and scrub.
Later that day my car wouldn't start and it was Dan that hopped on the phone to find jumper cables.
This past week my car died and Dan helped me jump it again. And on Saturday, my car died again... Dan drove me all the way to highland to work, drove around to 3 different stores to find a car battery, waited for an hour while it got changed, came home and then turned around to come pick me up.
He is so wonderful and I am SOOO excited to get married to him October 8th!

I love you Dan! Thank you for all you do.

Climbing on Rocks

Friday was SUCH a fun day. Dan took me rock climbing. At first when he asked if I wanted to go, I thought he meant at an indoor facility... it wasn't until the night before when I actually pieced it together we would be going OUTdoors. 7am came early and by 8am we were off to Rock Canyon. I have to admit, I was pretty scared, but not Dan haha, look at that smile:

As Dan was unpacking he was teaching me the rules. "See this rope? This rope can never get dirt on it because it will make it bristle and then you'd  die.... see this carabiner? this can never get tossed because if it hits a rock, then you'd die."

So Dan and I hiked up the back of the mountain and dropped down the rope to his brother so we could climb up the other side. I cut my leg on a stick.

haha cute dan

aww it's us! This was right after I finished climbing. I didn't make it up very high haha I was too scared

The boys as they get ready to tackle their next mountain.

Okay this picture still scares me. Dan is 'lead climbing'. You have to free climb up till you come to a metal ring that has been drilled into the rock and then hook in your quickdraw carabiner onto it once you reach it. If you fall, you're falling down to your last quickdraw. It's a pretty far fall. AND Dan in climbing on pretty much a flat piece of rock, just a small, baby crack to try and shove your fingers in to hold on.

Such a monkey, giving me a heart attack watching me from afar.

I am fake climbing in this picture haha, kinda looks like im scaling the side of a mountain though right?

Dan pondering life.

After climbing, I had to go to work. But then after we had a Dutch Oven/Hot Dog roast with the Barns and the Smith's! It was so fun, such a good night getting together with our old friends!

Look at those coals burn! We ran out of lighter fluid and the Barn's ran to the store to save they day.

Billy and Cait grillin their dogs!

Aaron and Cassie!

Dan and I!

Happy Birthday Dan!

Well today has just been so fun. It was my sister's and my fiancee's birthday (and i had two midterms, but that is beside the point).

I asked Dan what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday a few weeks ago and he said that he wanted a 'fun' cake. I also texted his mom to see what he liked and she told me, and i quote, "probably vanilla with neon food coloring and neon colored frosting. And sprinkles. Multicolor."
So, i put my baking skills to the test. When i got home today from school i filled on the tv, guess what show was on... Cake Boss (how appropriate). And from then on, I put my creativity to the test.
At the begining of the semester, the girls and I had a rainbow party and we made a rainbow cake. I liked how fun it looked when we cut into it, so I wanted to make a fun, multicolor cake that looked cool when I cut into it.
After calling my mom like 5 times to learn how to make frosting, i began my rainbow cake journey.

the first layer was my red, orange and yellow swirl and the second was my purple, blue and green swirl.

Into the oven they went:

it made a rainbow mess:

As they cakes came out and were cooling, I wrapped up Dan's presents. One of his favorite movies of all time is Footloose and he is proud to admit that, so I had to get it for him. There is a great scene in the movie where Kevin Bacon punch dances out his range that one of my all time favorite movies copied. That movie is Hot Rod. So I got Dan that movie too. (we watched it tonight, and seriously, that movie gets funnier and funnier each time you watch it)

I also got Dan a scalp massager. 1) because he loves to have his head rubbed and 2) he can do it himself and i wont have to anymore lol

And lastly, I got Dan a pair of crocs. He has always been secretly envious of mine, so i figured it was time he joined the croc club. 

After the cake was done and frosted, and the presents wrapped and ribboned, we went to Seven Peaks Waterpark (again, the best investment!) and had a blast going down some slides and floating down the lazy river!

THENNN.... we went to Fuddruckers. Yum.

Curious to see how the cake turned out?? Me too. I was dying all afternoon to see what it would look like once we cut into it! Here:

 the birthday boy!

Happy birthday Dan!

And I need to add a birthday shout out to jana, Happy Birthday Jan!

She is so tan!

Suave.

well i ran out of my wonderful avon shampoo that has been discontinued... it was a very sad day... and now that i have a wedding to be saving for, i have decided to opt out for a more cheaper hair care regime. i've used Suave before, smells good, and they have been advertising non stop about how their product is just as good as the high end beauty supply stores... so i bought a bottle.

first, watch this commercial

who can resist a gay hairdresser saying 'suave??!?' in unbelief?? I know i couldnt.

Anyways, after about two weeks of using Suave, i have noticed a horrible change in my hair. today has defiantly been the worst... see for yourself:

scary. Dan calls it 'jungle hair', except he says it in spanish. and it is, it is jungle hair. tomorrow i am buying new shampoo.

What have i learned from this experience?? it's great to be frugal... BUT there are some things you can't skimp out on ie-shampoo. and toilet paper.

A Date Has Been Picked!

we are very excited to announce that 

October 8th 

will be our big day!!

For more info you can check our our wedding website here: http://www.mywedding.com/danandlaur/

Good Things to Come

A great little clip we watched today. We love the Mormon Messages the church puts up online.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland recalls his days as a poor young father with a broken-down family car and testifies that for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, there are better days and good things to come.

What we need to remember is that "some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come." -Jeffrey R. Holland

Our First Big Purchase

So you wont believe how thrifty Dan and I are... we've been looking at apartments online and kept seeing ones we like that are in our price range... but the kicker has been that they only have washer/dryer hook ups. We want an apartment with a washer and dryer because let's face it... our quarters are better put to use playing Galaga. So anyways, I told Dan that maybe we should look into buying a washer and dryer (an investment we will eventually have to make anyways) and we found these beauties on the ksl classified website! The ad had only been posted no longer than 1 minute and the asking price.... you wont believe this... $25 for the matching set!
At first I thought it was a joke. For April fool's day this past year, my mom's old roommate's son had posted an ad on craiglist giving away her washer and dryer for free and posted her phone number. She woke up to a ton of phone calls asking about her brand new washer/dryer that she was giving away..... so naturally I thought this offer was too good to be true! But I called the guy, he seemed nice (I could hear a small child whining in the background, so clearly a family man) and he told me that he had just bought a new set and just wanted to get rid of this one!

So this morning Dan and his brother and friend drove down and picked it up, and now Dan and I are proud owners of a washer and dryer for $25 lol.
A funny side note, I texted this picture to my parents and they laughed. They bought a very similar set when they first got married!

Also tonight we made these delish cupcakes. Super easy to make and bound to impress anyone you make them for:

They are my grandma's specialty, but I didn't have all the ingredients to make them from scratch so I used a package of just normal chocolate cake mix (we used German Chocolate because it was on sale, and because I am German [if there was Canadian Chocolate cake mix, Id buy that instead]). Mix it up like the box says. In a separate bowl, mix:

a package of cream cheese

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

vanilla

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Pour the cake mix into muffin tins 3/4 of the way full, and add a spoonful of the cream cheese mixture. Bake for 25 minutes at 350. Makes 24.

We also watched King's Speech tonight. I loved it.

Oh my goodness, one more thing to add.... dan bought a Wii today!!!! It is black and it is so fun. He did his price shopping and found a great deal at Target. Now that we have mastered being experts in deals,  I need to work on my mario kart skills!

Bye Bye Nails.

Well, to begin... my laptop burned out its fourth charger two weeks ago and for the past two weeks I have been without a computer that was able to blog. It has been awful!
But I want to give a shout out of thanks to Dan's roommate Andrew for letting me use his old apple desktop. It kept me on task by not being able to load facebook, youtube, my email or this blog AND provided my quiet apartment with a quiet hum so I didn't feel so alone.
Anyways... Dan has just informed me that no one cares that I havent blogged in a while so I will just cut right to the chase of things we have been up to recently.

Number 1- best purchase ever... the Pass of All Passes. $49.95. Get's us season passes to Seven Peaks waterpark, unlimited activities at Trafalga, season passes to Owlz Games and Utah Flash games.
So far we have already gotten our money's worth. Last monday we went to the batting cages with Andrew and Catherine and last weekend we went to Trafalga and did laser tag, go carts, and bumper boats... WHICH reminds me..... Dan loves to start trouble. Well, not necessarily start trouble but he loves to instigate it. We were waiting in line for the bumper boats and this one little kid started to spray us while he was on the ride. Dan ran and grabbed a paper cup, filled it up with water, and flung it over the fence (cup and all) and hit the little kid. The ride operator came over and told Dan it was okay, as he too reached down, filled the cup up with water and threw it at the little kid. A water fight broke out... when the little kid's got off, the ride operator told their mother that he had taken down their information and was going to get their season passes removed but he said nothing to us. (As I re-read what I wrote it doesn't seem that funny... maybe you had to be there)

Number 2- Hygiene school (for me), I am sure dan is bored of me always talking about it, but I do LOVE it.last week i took my first radiograph... tomorrow i get to learn how to take blood pressure.... however last night was a little sad for me as I sat there, clipped my nails down to the bare minimum. I realized that I will never again have long nails....

Number 3- dan has just informed me that this blog is only about me so now I will write about him. he has been very busy with school.

Tulip Festival!

Yesterday Dan and I were reunited! He picked me up from the airport right on time and gave me three beautiful tulips to get me excited about the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point that we went to later that day!
The weather was beautiful and worth getting a cherry tomato red face for.

A little collage I made of some of the beautiful tulips!

Lauren is Almost Back!!

Tonight is the last night before my beautiful fiance Lauren gets back in town, so my brother and I went climbing and out to eat. We climbed for a while and had fun. Then we went over to a new burger place called JWCs. We each got the chile cheese hotdog with a bunch of fries. It was super good, but a hassle in the castle to get down haha. In the end my brother had a good laugh at my struggle and sent a picture to Lauren. I quote, Lauren: "loveeeee the pic your bro sent!!' We had a fun night and here are some pictures.

 Climbing with my brother. 

 This is the big meal.

After the big meal. 

What day is Prom?

I've picked my man, my ring, my dress, reception hall, food, type of flowers, colours, and today I got my shoes. We weren't planning on it, but my mom and I passed by a DSW today and I suggested we just go peak inside for ideas. I have never even been in that store before, but I have a great friend who rants and raves that DSW is the best shoe store ever. We walked in, I glanced around, and there I saw the cutest pair of shoes. Tried them on, decision was made.
As I was walking around in them, making sure they fit okay, a lady said to me "those are really cute shoes, when's prom?"
I laughed and should have been more quick on my toes to respond "it was three years ago" but instead all I said was "oh it's for my wedding". The lady blushed and quickly ran away haha.

But this has happened a couple times. When I went into try on dresses, the ladies at the front desks would ask me if I had come to try on prom dresses! I guess that's a good thing though!

Time Apart

Well this past week I went home to go visit my family in Chicago and Dan stayed in Provo to get started with school. It's been weird being apart, especially since last week we got to be with each other all day everyday! But we have helped pass the time by taking pictures and sending them to each other and skyping. I know, we are pathetic... can't stand being apart!! haha
Here is what we've been up to while apart:

My first day back in town my mom and bro took me to Portillo's, my FAV restaurant here in town.

Nate Dogg and my Momma!

Chocolate cake shake... yummmmmmmm

Toque and I went running, our housing development always has the prettiest flowers planted!

my ring... again. I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nate taught me how to play the kazoo! 

aww Toque!

My mom and I outside Lou Malnatis... one of the best deep dish chicago pizza joints!

My mom and I coordinated our outfits 

My mom is much better at the model face than I am!

Nate and I

Delish pizza!

Cazookie for Nate's birthday!

Me and Nate's baseball game!!

Dan rock climbing!

Dan playing Galaga!! On our second date we went for a walk down on Center Street. We walked by a window and Dan did a double take. I turned to him and asked "were you looking to see if that PacMan was a Galaga machine?"... ever since then, Dan and I have loved playing Galaga around town. The best machine we've found in down at the dollar theatre. The machine in the basement of the wilk is terrible.

*** I also want to add in the fact that Dan is sporting our awesome friendship bracelet we made for each other.

Dan's been so productive on his homework while I've been gone! Maybe I should leave more often!

Um...I don't think thats a good idea!