Congraduation!

Last Saturday, our sweet little Samson graduated from PetSmart puppy class, along with his darling friends Magnus the rottweiler, Ginny the yellow lab, and Kai the mini schnauser .  

He can (almost always):

-Sit

-Lay Down

-Wait

-Stay

-Leave it

-Drop it 

-Walk Fast

-Walk Slow

-Shake Hands

-Roll Over

-Come

Even though I feel like I look similar to Jaba the Hut in this picture, I'm going to post it anyway, because little Samson in his graduation cap is just so cute.  

Pi Day

Did you know that March 14 is International Pi Day?  Like the number in math 3.14...

In Jr. High, there was a guy in a lot of my classes named Carlos Santana (no kidding!) who had memorized pi out to the twentieth digit or something like that.  I think of him every time I think of pi.  

And I also think of PIE! 

Did you know that on Wednesdays, Village Inn gives away free slices of pie when you buy a meal or a drink?

Did you know that this year, the stars aligned and Pi day and free pie Wednesday were on the same day?  

One free slice of warmed up cherry pie for me

 And one free slice of coconut cream for Nathan

And that's how I failed Lent.

Looking Young

Our sweet Samson is in puppy training class right now.  One of his newest skills is learning how to politely walk on a leash.  And he's doing pretty good at it, if I dare brag a little.  :)

Since the weather was so lovely today, Samson and I went out for a practice walk around the neighborhood.

Then, a boy about 12 years old came out of a house across the street.  He stopped and stared at Samson and me, and then waved like he knew us, but I didn't recognize him at all.  I tried to rack my brain of all the deacons at church to see if I could place him, but I don't think I'd ever seen him before.

"Cute dog!" he said.  And so I invited him over to come pet him if he wanted to.  This little boy was so friendly, asking if I was new to the neighborhood and where our house was. I told him we were pretty new (Although we've lived here for more than 9 months now.  Is that still new?) He wanted to know if I walked my puppy down this road regularly and how far we had left to go.  He seemed like he was ready to invite me into his house to play a round of welcome-to-the-neighborhood Monopoly or something.

"You look like you're about my sister's age," is what he said next.  I could tell he was ready to introduce me to his sister so that she could be new best friends with the new girl in school and her cute dog.

"How old is your sister?" I asked.

"Fourteen."

Bless his heart.  Bless him for being so friendly and welcoming and adoring of my puppy, but so far off on my real age.

"I'm actually 26."  I said with a smile.

"OH!  Well, maybe I'll see ya around..." He was embarassed and definitely surprised.  And suddenly ready for the conversation to be over.

"Ha, yep, see ya!"  Any time I start worrying about looking too much like an adult, I'll see ya around, kid.

I'm not catholic.

But I like the idea of Lent.

Today is Ash Wednesday, which is the first day of Lent, which lasts until the Thursday before Easter.

What I like about it is the idea of fasting or temporarily giving up things that are hard to do without.  And relying upon help from God to do without them.  In doing so, the idea is to come closer to God in order to have a more meaningful Easter celebration, and a deeper understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Heaven knows that I could use a spiritual boost.  I am ready to stop being lazy and uncommitted- in many corners of my life.  I am ready to be a happier wife, a more connected friend, a better house keeper, a more diligent student, a healthier eater, a more patient puppy owner, a more invested teacher, and a better Christian.

So, for Lent, as a symbol of forsaking and strengthening, I am going to give up sugar.  Sweets are one of my most favorite things to eat.  I crave them!  Which is why it is good for me to let them go- To prove that I can master my physical self.

Plus, I have a genetic predisposition to diabetes, and already display high triglycerides in my blood.  So, hopefully I can start to develop healthier habits as well.  


I already know from reading food labels that living completely void of sugar is somewhat unrealistic.  Bread, almond milk, cashews, fruit, veggies... they all have sugar!  But I am going to try to keep my daily intake lower than 20 g a day.

Until Easter.

And then I'll share my results.  My spiritual, mental, and physical results.

Happy Ash Wednesday, everyone!

To Celebrate Love

Valentines 2012

Nathan bought the gift 2 weeks in advance 

He was so excited to give it to me

Every day he asked me if we could celebrate Valentines Day early

or if I had snooped around to find the gift

But I told him he had to wait.

On February 14, we both woke up early. 

 He brought his present to me while I was still in bed

I opened it without my contacts in

I didn't need to see it, just smell it

Happy In Bloom from Clinique.

He knows me. 

I made him love breakfast

Heart toast with an over easy egg in the middle

Orange Slices

And new breakfast tea- My Morning Matte.

I know him.

While I made breakfast, he enjoyed my present to him

A new straight razor with disposable blades

from The Art Of Shaving- cool man store! 

A smooth face with no razor bumps?  Winner! 

Then work and school and such.

Every hour, on the hour, a text message 

of what he loves about me.

Then at the end of my last class

A text saying that he was waiting for me

in front of my school.

Rushed to the Gateway to catch 

Surprise dinner reservations at Thaifoon

Our favorite! 

Sweet

Surprisey

Delicious

Gifty

Wonderful 

Valentines Day! 

On a different note

We saw this movie on Saturday night

And loved it.

Sweet Story!

Beautiful actors.

Based on true events

We recommend it!

We're So Boring!

I haven't written in the good ol' blog for too long!  But what is there to write about when not much is going on around here?  Here is what I'm hoping will be a fun version of what could potentially be a really boring update.  Don't pictures usually make things more interesting?  

First of all, I've been doing a LOT of cello teaching!  My good friend and awesome cello teacher, Carey Cheney, has been galavanting around New Zealand all month, and while she has been gone, I have taken over one days worth of her stellar cello students.  My Wednesdays have been busy with 4 of my students, plus 5 of hers, but it has been a total blast!  I also had the amazing opportunity to substitute teach the cellists of my alma mater, Utah State University, while their mother hen was galavanting around Brazil.  Someday I'll be the fancy cellist doing the galavanting, but in the mean time, I sure have a blast teaching in their absence!  

Nathan and I have both been really busy with school- mostly Nathan, which is awesome!  I'm so proud of him and how hard he is studying this semester.  I feel like I might finally be getting the hang of the delicate balance between giving enough time to school while also spending enough time with my husband.  

I got a haircut!  It's about 7 inches shorter, with layers and BANGS! You can't tell from the picture, cause I pinned them back today, but they are there and always in my face.  :) This is a fun new change, and I really like it.  This might sound kind of crazy, but I just told the stylist to do what ever she thought would look really cute.  And I think she did a really good job.  

AND.... we bought a new car!  It's a 2011 Toyota Carolla.  It looks just like the one in the picture, but white.  Nathan had to do a lot of convincing, but we decided to sell our salvaged Chevy Cavalier- which was getting old, and almost had 100,000 miles, and was probably on the verge of being unreliable.  We got a great deal on the new car- 0% interest for 5 years, and a $1,000 rebate since I graduated from a University in the last 2 years.  The new car is way fun to drive.  A cello fits better in the back, with 4 doors instead of 2. (And I suppose a car seat will fit better for the same reason- when the time comes).  It gets great gas mileage!  And hopefully it will last us for many many years.  I'm a happy driver.  And now we are a two Carolla family! 

Basically, we're pretty boring.  But I wanted to let the blogging world know that we are alive and happy!  If anything cooler than this comes along, we'll definitely keep you posted.  :) 

Our First (real) Christmas

Last Christmas, Nathan and I had been married for exactly one week.  We spent Christmas Eve on a beach in Mexico, and Christmas day in various airports and airplanes coming back home from our honeymoon.  We didn't buy anyone a single Christmas present.  As wonderful and amazing as it was, it didn't really feel like a real Christmas, ya know?

So even though Christmas 2011 was technically our second Christmas together, it feels like our first.  And it was really fun.

We bought our first stockings this year!  I was feeling kind of picky about what kind of stockings to buy.  I wanted them to look traditional, but not cheesy.  And when we have kids, I wanted to be able to get more that matched.  I found my favorite ones at potterybarn.com.  Then came in the mail perfectly the day after Thanksgiving, and it was fun to see them hanging in our living room all month long.  This is Nathan and Samson, modeling the stockings for you.  One day, when Nathan had asked me about my day, I told him that I had gone "stuffing stocker" shopping.  It took me a second to realize that what I said isn't what I really meant, and Nathan got a good laugh.  Now the phrase has stuck.  Anything that goes in those stockings is called a stuffing stocker.  We got impatient and couldn't wait until Christmas eve to stuff the stockings.  So, Santa came a little early to our house and stuffed the stockings the Wednesday before Christmas.  :)

 On Christmas Eve, we had a big party with my family.  My Dad saved the bone from the spiral cut ham as a Christmas Present for Samson.  We were so excited to give it to him- his first taste of human food ever- but we made ourselves wait until Christmas morning.  That night, neither of us could sleep.  I'm not usually one to be too exited for sleeping EVER, sleep always comes first, but Christmas eve was an exception.  We stayed awake till 2:00 am watching Harry Potter 7 part 2 with my Adam and Andrea.  Then we got home, got ready for bed, and just layed there not sleeping until 5:30 am.  We decided that was Christmas Morning enough, and decided to wake up and start the festivities!  Samson's present was very first.  And it kept him busy throughout the entire day.  He freakin' LOVED it!

 All of these pictures feature our SUPER early morning faces with no sleep.  Don't judge.  This is Nathan next to our first Christmas tree.  We decided to go with a tradition of getting a real tree every year- something neither of us grew up with but always wanted.  And we loved it.  The blanket over the folding chair barrier was to keep Samson out- he loved drinking the tree water, and chewing on the ornaments.  And there was one present- a tablet USB adapter- that he really really wanted to open every time he got his jaws on it.

 Merry Christmas Morning!

 Nathan and his stocking...

 Me and my stocking...

 Samson and his ham bone...

 This is Nathan's pile of goods.  I gave him the 4th book in the Eragon series, a case for his Galaxy Tab, an invisishield, HDMI cable, and USB adapter port for the Galaxy tab, new razors, a new after shave balm to try, hot sauce beef jerky, reeces, take 5, orange tic tacs, a blood orange, and a cara cara orange!

 My pile picture is incomplete.  On my birthday (Dec. 10), Nathan was so excited for a Christmas present that he already got for me that he had me open it early.  So my awesome knee-high rider boots are not featured in this picture.  Also, I ate both my blood orange and my cara cara orange before this picture was taken.  And the chocolate mint rooibos tea that is in my glass came in a bulk envelope that was on the kitchen counter top when this picture was taken.  Besides that, Nathan got me that to-go tea steeper, banana grams, eyelash enhancer, a Sees candy vanilla sucker, Starving Student Mix, Seacret nail buffing cube and accessories, and two awesome new cookie sheets with snap on lids.  OH! And fuzzy brown boot socks.

Nathan also bought for both of us a new game called Time's Up.  We first played it at the Bell's house, and loved it.  It's been really fun playing it so far.  Want to play it with us?  Give me a call!

Out of everyone who gifted us this year, I think my Dad takes the prize!  From him, we got an awesome new juicer and a powerful pet hair vacuum- both of which we have put to good use already! We got a great new food processor from our secret sibs Em and Dave and I can't wait to make delicious  fresh salsa.  I've worn the cute grey fuzzy slippers from Katie every day since our girls party, and I devoured the homemade brownies from Ashley faster than I'd like to admit.  The new dish towel and tea pot from Ash both look really cute in my kitchen.  Nathan's Mom gave us a bag of frozen shrimp.  I recently found out that shrimp is one of Nathan's favorite foods, and I've never ever made it before.  Crazy the things you can still learn about a person after knowing them for 8 years! Looks like I need to learn some good shrimp recipes.  And Nathan's sweet sister made us some cute home decor- much needed, thank you!

This was a fantastic Christmas!  There were so many parties and family dinners and visits, but that's what makes it wonderful, right?  We were constantly surrounded by our favorite people, celebrating the love and joy and peace that comes from our savior, Jesus Christ. It's not so much about what we got, or what we gave, but having people in our lives that we love and appreciate enough to give to!   We are so lucky, and unbelievably blessed!

We love you!  Merry Christmas!