Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Let Me Count The Ways

Today we mark 3 years of married bliss!  

What a ride it has been!  We went to dinner last night to celebrate our anniversary.  We chatted about the things we've accomplished in three years and made an impressive list.  Andy earned his associate's degree from LDSBC, worked on a number of projects around the Utah and Salt Lake Valleys' including; the Provo Tabernacle, the states alcohol distribution center and many projects up at the University of Utah.  He's earned a couple raises and is inching closer and closer to wrapping up his Bachelors in Construction Management at BYU.  I've moved up the salon latter at Cookie Cutters and became the store's manager earning myself a pretty good raise.  We've moved around Davis county, finally landing ourselves back in Bountiful.  We've paid off our car and saved a good chunk for a house (one day).  We've traveled to Vegas a number of times, Disneyland, the beaches of California and San Francisco.  I think our most impressive accomplishment however has been creating a home of love and where the spirit is always present.  


I love Andy in so many different ways.  He is the most hard working person i know, and serves so selflessly. I learn so much from him, and work hard to be a loving wife to him.  Its hard for me to remember life without him.  3 years is a milestone for us, as with every anniversary, but i honestly feel like I've been married forever.  Andy makes me so happy, and life with him is truly magical.  
Dinner at P.F.Changs to celebrate our anniversary.  We have never been there before and it was amazing.  We splurged on this GIANT slice of chocolate cake (the great wall of chocolate).  Delicious!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Home Is Whenever I’m With YOU

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(My new favorite song, warning it will get stuck in you head)

Last night was a pretty spectacular date night.  Andy took me to my first demolition derby at the Davis County Fair that’s happening all week.  While I’ve never felt more redneck in my life, I’ve got to say it was a total blast!  Andy was such a little kid during the race, laughing a giggling (yes ladies my man giggles) at every smash and crash.

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As we were finding our seats I found a familiar face in the crowd.  One of my little clients
(Fisher) was in the stands with his family and I saw his mom pointing at me, trying to get my attention to say hi.  Of course Fish Man got super shy and embarrassed but I waved and called out a hello.  Now what does this have to do with anything?  Might I explain a little mores as to why this made my night.

After A and I got married I had a huge case of homesickness.  I’ve left my friends and family in Boise to start this new life with the man of my dreams in Utah.  It was not all fairytales at the start, in fact it was many tears and long phone calls to Idaho every week.  I didn’t want A to know about most of it because I didn’t want his feeling hurt or to think I wasn’t happy.  I was terrible happy to be married and spending my life with him.  I just never felt “home” here in Utah.  My “home” has always been Boise and I didn’t want anyone to take that away from me.  I feel like the way my week has played out, feelings were bound to be changed. 

During sacrament meeting last Sunday we had a speaker who shared a story that I felt like I related to.  She also was from Idaho and had to deal with a giant move to New York shortly after she got married.  Listening to her story of a changed heart made me determined to have an attitude overhaul.  So last night when a familiar face made an effort to say hello I realized that I am home.  I have friends and family here.  I have a good job where I get to meet new people everyday and make them feel good about themselves.  I have clients I can run into at community events!  And most importantly I have my sweet loving husband, who has given me everything!  It doesn’t matter where we live because home is when we are together.  I know that the future will bring lots of moves to new places but those things don’t matter so long as we have each other to lean on and to hold. 
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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

I Was Here

I feel pretty blessed to have such amazing in laws.  And I'm not just talking about Andy’s parents but his grandparents, aunts, uncle’s and cousins.  We just got home from a pretty brilliant family reunion from the Rockn’ R Ranch in Antimony Utah.  To say we had a good time would be a complete understatement.  Our day’s were filled with activities and lots of family.  I think our total count was roughly 64 people in our party.  The ranch we stayed at was an operating cattle ranch.  And what an operation it was.  It rested on over 1,000 acres of land and catered to hundreds of cattle and visitors each year.  Our activities included trail rides, roping lessons and barrel ridding.  We did archery, tubing, line dancing and ended the trip with a price family rodeo.  Each morning we woke up to a planned day ahead.  Andy loved tubing and I enjoyed the trail rides.  The family rodeo was definitely the highlight.  I learned how to barrel race and Andy took a ride on a calf.  The pictures really tell it all on how much fun we really had. 

The theme of this years reunion was “I was here.”  The message from this is to simply make sure that the things you do in this life leave behind a mark that says I was here and perhaps I did something good in this life. 

I want to give a BIG thank you to Andy’s grandma and grandpa for paying for this reunion.  Because of their hard work they were able to put us up in a comfortable lodge where we were fed good meals and kept entertained.  We enjoyed ourselves soooo much!

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Andy roping with his sister Amy and nephew Christian

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Bobbing for apples with Uncle Daryl

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My father is a total cowboy and it was so much fun watching him barrel race that horse

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This is our little cousin Kyia.  She asked if she could “ride the sheep”  She was so brave Muttn’ Bustn’ and did so good!

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Here he is…. my cowboy.  He didn’t quite last 8 seconds but with no broken bones, he’s a winner in my book! 

Off to Idaho…again

WOW, what a busy, fun-filled summer we are having so far.  First of all lets talk weather.  I love this time of year and i know its no secret to my family and friends.  I've come to a conclusion this summer that i am a desert dweller.  I LOVE the heat.  Often when i get off work i get into a car that has been baking in the heat all day.  I love nothing more that to drive home with my windows rolled up and no a/c on.  Some nights when i get home from my "sauna" ride Andy refuses to hug me until i cool off.  We were out last night doing some grocery shopping and i said to Andy, "I'm feeling kinda sad that summer is coming to an end."  Rolling his eyes he say's. "Lauren we still have two more months of this heat!  What's there to be sad about?"  I just don't want it to end i guess.

We kicked off the summer with a trip up to Idaho to see the Browne gang.  Kimberlee and Candace made a trip down for swimming lessons and a very special baby blessing.  I got to spend a week up there and i kept busy doing glitter toes and getting to spend more time with our newest niece Cambri Christine.  We stayed busy with swimming, cupcake making, microwaving soap (see picture below)  and those sparkly glitter toes. These kiddies kept us all pretty busy.  Thank you to my amazing family for making it possible for us all to get together.  I just love these sweet nieces and nephew and truly cherish getting to spend time with them and making lasting memoriesDSCN0702DSCN0707

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Saturday, June 2, 2012

A Wonderful Surprise

2 Blog posts in one day????  Am I just really on top of it, or is it just a Saturday where I don’t have to work and Andy does so I find myself super bored.  Definitely the later but you’ll love these pictures.
My sister surprised me with a text Thursday saying they have last minute decided to make a trip up to SLC for their nieces graduation.  They rolled into town Friday afternoon and Andy and I were able to meet up with them at the Church History museum.  They have a terrific Book of Mormon exhibit for kids and we had a blast!  After we walked through temple square and we took them across the street to City Creek for dinner at the food court.  I finally got to meet little Kambri.  She is beautiful and I love her!  These girls are getting so big.  Adrianne cuddled with me for most the time and I love it!  See is very standoffish and Kimberlee says she must remember who I am cause she came right to me.  I love these girlies and I can’t believe there are 4 of them.  Way to go Kimber and Steve for braving the drive with a van full of estrogen!  We can’t wait till we get to see them again in just a few weeks in Idaho for Kambri’s baby blessing and we are joined also by Candace and Scott!
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I Do Hair

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I love my job.  Making the decision to go to hair school and become a licensed cosmetologist was without fail the best decision I made for myself.  I feel like I have found the perfect career that allows me to be creative and personal with others.  I also feel blessed that when the time comes for us to start a family I can still help contribute by doing hair on the side.
I work at a salon that caters to kids.  On more than one occasion parents tell me I'm going straight to heaven for wrestling these wiggly, screaming, crying kids day after day.  I hope they’re rightSmile  My job is hard but very rewarding.  It’s always a treat to watch what were scared crying kids get brave over time and sit so good now for their haircuts.  But lets be honest here, it’s not so much the kids that make my job hard… It’s their parents.  Here is just a taste of what we hear each day at the salon.
“Can you cut it so that it’s longer?”
“We want to shave it so that it grows back thicker and faster.”
“Can you do a bobble head haircut?”
“You don’t know what a bobble head haircut is?  Where did you go to school?”
“We watched Tangled this morning, than I found her with the the scissors and all this hair on the floor.”  
“Her brother said he wanted a little brother instead of a little sister so he cut her hair.”
Oh it’s all in a day’s work.  I’ve learned to just smile at these parents and try my best to cater to what they are asking me to do.  after all I'm a beautician NOT a magician!

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Spring Fever

Spring this year in Utah has been AMAZING to say the least.  It has been so warm this year and we are taking advantage.
Andy is about half way through his spring semester of school.  It is a quick 6 week semester but we are glad to get as much school in so we can be done!  He is enjoying his construction management program and seems to be doing super well.  He has a big advantage over the other students in the program because he has been around construction his whole life and has worked on job sites for almost 6 years now.  Andy works so hard in balancing work, school and a needy wife.  I’m so proud of him and all the responsibilities he takes care of on a weekly basis. 
We have been having many adventures with our roomie, our child, our third wheel or you can just call him our cousin.  Scott lives above us in his parents town home in Farmington.  We love having someone to play with when we are feeling bored.  We have our Wednesday line up on T.V. every week, Sunday morning breakfasts and weekend adventures.  He is so much fun and we love getting to live so close to family (literally).
Here are some pictures of what we’ve been up to.  Overall we are enjoying life right now and are working hard like always.  We are so excited for summer to come around and are looking forward to yet another school year!
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We flew kits after church a few weeks ago.  Any gave me these kites as part of my valentines present and we FINALLY got to fly them.
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Last Week we made pin hole projectors to watch the solar eclipse.  Here is Andy and Scott.DSCN0656
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Sunday night watching the eclipse.
 

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We ultimately just watched it through this telescope.  It was soooooo cool. DSCN0670
Yesterday we went the the Kennecot copper mine visitors center with Andy’s cousin Matt and his wife Maren.  This is the largest man made hole and can be seen from SPACE!!!! 
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This is just one of eight tiers used for their monstrous trucks to hull the copper away in.  One tire costs $25,000 and will only last 9 months. 
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We discovered the UP house.  It is like having a little piece of Disney Land here in Utah.  I loved it!