November '16

November wrap-up...

Free Movie Night

The Linguistics club got a bunch of tickets to the pre-screening of "Arrival".

IT WAS SO GOOD. It was one of those movies that has you captivated the whole time and you forget about everything going on in your life. At least it did that for me!

I highly recommend it.


Election Night

We ate barbecue and watched the loooong election process, while occasionally putting on an episode of Arrested Development. (our favorite)


Goodbye Dick, Hannah, and Harper Hess

The cutest baby in the world is no longer living within a 30 mile radius of us :(

Dick (G's brother) and Hannah moved to Seattle 2 weeks ago for Dick's cool job promotion.

THAT'S SO FAR.

However, now we have a good excuse to travel to Seattle, a city I've always wanted to see! Plus, they were verrrrrry generous with us as they gave away like 90% of their belongings to friends and family so at least we have that to console us ;)


Week Apart
Giuseppe spent a week in Louisiana. It was terrible for me. To make things even worse, I thought he would be getting home on Sunday night and I didn't find out until the night before that he wouldn't be getting home until early Tuesday morning. Isn't that TERRIBLE.

However, he made some successful sales and it was all worth it in the end! Thanks for working so hard for us baby.


Fantastic Beasts

I loved every second of it.



Thanksgiving

I LOVE THANKSGIVING! We went to my parent's house and my dad's side of the fam came over. The food was so good, I am almost tearing up just thinking about it.

After feasting, my cousins and sisters and I participated in TAYLOR FEST. Taylor Fest is a game involving all Taylor Swift songs. Giuseppe played a 3 second clip of a Taylor Swift song and we had to name it within 10 seconds, along with the correct album. Carly, Rachel, Samantha, Ava, and I played. Callie and Jamie kept score. It was too easy for me, so G had to switch to 1 second. And hey, what do you know, I still won. ;)


Snowball Fight Gone Awry

Mallerie convinced Giuseppe to run Midway's annual "Turkey Trot" with her on the morning of Thanksgiving, so Graham and I decided to come and watch. After they took off we played in a nearby small field of fresh snow. Cute little Graham did some snow angels, and then he started pelting me with snowballs, so I fought back. This went on for about 10 minutes until I reached my hands in my pockets and realized my phone and G's phone WERE NO LONGER IN THERE.

I looked across the field at the tracks of footsteps and knew I was in for trouble.

Graham and I began searching immediately, looking for a rectangle shape in the snow, and kicking away the 3 inch snow from around our footprints. After about 5 minutes of doing this, 2 little girls came running to play in the field and I asked them to tell me if they found a pink or black iPhone in the snow. They ran to their mom and told her of my predicament, and she and her husband helped search. They are THE NICEST PEOPLE I HAVE EVER MET. She once lost her phone on a snowy mountain while snowboarding and she found it! After about 10 or 15 minutes of no luck, the husband yelled, "I found it!" I yelled back, "Is it the black one?!" IT WAS!! Yay! Giuseppe's phone had been found. Just a few minutes later G ran through the finish line and I supportively yelled, "Go baby! Go baby!" and tried to hug him but he was NOT having it. Now was not the time to tell him about his phone! So I handed it to him, told him to get some water, and ran back to the field to find my phone. After making NO progress and after the kind family left, and after Graham stopped helping me, I realized I could use the "find my iPhone" app on G's phone to find mine. I should have thought of that LONG before! So I found G, told him of the predicament, assured him repeatedly that his phone wasn't in the snow for very long, and then used the app. A few minutes later and my phone was found! And it's working fine.

Prayers were answered and miracles happened that day.



Black Friday

More like Black-Thursday-Night. G took Ava and Callie and I to the outlets and we got some beautiful clothes at G. H. Bass & Co, Banana, and Old Navy. I love shopping.



Savannah
Savannah, the girl that I nannied for six years, spent last Saturday morning with us while her parents went car shopping in Sandy. She's 13 now. We went to her favorite stores at City Creek, ate at the foodcourt, introduced her to Anthropologie, and watched a Pokémon movie. Savannah is the cutest!



Temple Square Christmas Lights
We met up with Rob and Angela, who we haven't seen in FOREVER to see the Christmas lights! I feel like I hardly saw any lights because we were talking the whole time haha. Happens every time I go, and that's they way I like it. Sky, their cute six year old son, is in French dual immersion at his elementary school and so I always try and get him to speak French with me, but he never does. I pointed out a sister missionary from France, and she started speaking in French to him. It was so cute when he responded, but after a minute he told her, "Can we just stop this now?!" and ran away. Hahaha.


Well that's our November wrap up! It's been a great month.

Here is some exciting news:

I don't think I've mentioned yet that I'm the YW secretary in the ward! I LOVE IT. I love the girls, the leaders, the weekly activities, the Sunday lessons, the presidency meetings, everything! I have been in this calling for about a month and a half now.

The even cooler thing is, yesterday Giuseppe got called as the YM secretary!! Haha isn't that perfect? So now we get to hang out on Wednesday nights once or twice a month.

This is what we do

Conference

We spent conference weekend with my fam, but we did go to temple square for the Saturday morning session and met up with some of Giuseppe's California friends and had lunch. G and I watched the session in the Legacy Theatre at the JSMB. It was great, except for when a child behind me dropped a bunch of heavy books on my head.

This is a picture of us in North Fields where we helped Ava find some bugs for her science project.

Vivint Bro

Something you need to know about working for Vivint is that as time goes on, more and more of the things in your house will have Vivint's name branded on it. Clothes, water bottles, camping accessories, shoes, backpacks, hats, blankets, speakers, pens, and more. At first, I thought this was pretty annoying.

But then Pep (one of Giuseppe's new nickname) brought home this awesome coat, and then I was like, "okay... this ain't so that bad." And a cool camping chair.

He has even started wearing flat brim hats, but don't worry, I am still attracted to him.


Tithing Blessings

So get this: Our poor $2K car has been through a lot this year- you know, driving across the country twice and whatnot- and its tires have been shredded up. Literally.

SO, just when Giuseppe decided we couldn't wait another mile to get new tires, HE WON A $300 GIFT CARD. All because he used Vivint's hashtag on twitter.

And what do you know, the cost for the tire replacement was $316. Sixteen dollar tires definitely fit in our budget. :) Thank you Vivint. Thank you Heavenly Father.


City Creek

We love living minutes away from the city! Especially City Creek, where we go often.Although we usually just end up buying Chick-fil-A. This is a pic of me chilling/judging in the children's play area.

Dinner Parties

We have started having dinners with friends! It has been super great. First, the LeBaron's, Lacey + Sterling, and the (future) Goodwin's, Rebecca and Parker. I love my Heber 6th Ward girls! And their husbands/fiancés are pretty rad too. We ate baked polenta and pao de queijo.

Then we had Mama Hess over for Taco soup and she told us the woes of working at Costa Vida. :( Good riddance to that job!

Then we had the Albright's (Kylie + Corey), and the Sorensen's (Stephanie and Landan) over. (Some of) my 307 girls!! We had barbecue and brownies and played a vicious game of Catchphrase, which the girls won ;)

Last Sunday we drove down to Spanish Fork for dinner at the Fox's (Taylor and Kaleigh)! They were our good friends in our singles ward (where they also met) and they got married 2 weeks before us. We ate chicken teriyaki and played Catchphrase (classic), which the Fox's won. (NOOOOO!!) Haha anyway it was a LONG overdue visit. We love the Fox's!


Treat yo self

(Parks & Rec reference anyone?) We are a fan of trying new places to eat, so when we saw a cute gelato place by the U, we tried it. This is G in his sweet new jacket eating the fruits of his homeland.

Elizatate

Liz & Tate were MARRIED on October 20th and it was a fantaaaaaastic day. Liz named me Matron of Honor. Even though being their third wheel in high school was totally fun, it's pretty cool that I have my G babe now for our future Hess/Stone adventures. The reception was SO fun. G and I got craaaaazy on the dance floor.

Extra wedding flowers left our apartment smelling all mmmmmm...

Mama Hess turns 60!

After window shopping at city creek, which is always a blast when your mother-in-law is hilarious, we treated her to our favorite Italian restaurant, Settebello. I am still crying over the delicious margherita pizza I ate and the mouth-watering passion fruit gelato afterwards. If you are ever in downtown Salt Lake and you are looking for an amazing fire oven pizza, you know where to go.


Sales Husband

This is my cute baby mid-date on the phone making a sale! How could I be upset about that?! He's so smooooth.

A Day In the Life at The U

Walking to my phonetics & phonology class.

Don't be fooled, this walk isn't as lovely as it appears. My Syntax class ends fifteen minutes before this one, and I have to BOOK IT across the entire campus to make it to class. It's the worst.

One time G and I met at a park during the day and we found a cute little art museum.


Albright Halloween Party

We celebrated Halloween with some of our favorite people! (The Albright's, the Sorensen's, Madi, Ally, and Siera)

And NO PICTURES WERE TAKEN. You will just have to take my word that it was the cutest Halloween party you ever-did(n't)-see. Kylie is the cutest hostess. We chatted and played catchphrase (I know, I know, enough about this game in this post) and ate food and witch's brew. :) And then after the scaredy-cats left, the Albright's and Hess' watched The Forest. CHILLS. It was a late night and a great one.

G and I dressed as a squabbling old couple. Hahahaha oh the fights we had :) This is a pic taken a few days earlier at Olive Garden where we met up with the Stone's for like 15 minutes. We ate their breadsticks and chatted and left. We are sitting down in the pic, so G's old man stomach doesn't look as great as it did. :(

Turn It Down

To my faithful blog readers,


A lot of you have told me that this blog is enjoyable to you, and I'm glad that this shenanigans can bring entertainment to your life, because it sure is fun for me to write about :)

I am a blog stalker. I love reading about people's lives, even people I don't know. I also love reading autobiographies. It is just a weird interest that I have.

I especially love reading the blogs of people who have horribly difficult things thrust into their lives and they share how they overcome these things- or at least live with them.

One of my favorites is Emily Meyers. Just, please... Go check this girl out.

Giuseppe just thinks I'm "obsessed with other people's sad lives", but he doesn't get it.

Reading about other people's lives is like making new friends. And who doesn't like that??

Anyway, I really would like to post more on this blog. Not for your sake at all, but as a little online journal for myself. :) I'd like to remember the small moments and what it was like to be a newlywed living in Salt Lake with my adorable husband.

So, here is a random moment in the life of the Hess'.

One afternoon I accidentally took a very long nap (don't you HATE that??), which subsequently led to me having a hard time falling asleep that night. My restlessness and whispered questions were really getting on Giuseppe’s nerves, so I decided to distance myself from the exhausted boy and listen to my new favorite song, Still Falling For You on my headphones.

I told Giuseppe my plan, but he told me that would be even more annoying because the light from the phone and the faint sound from the headphones would REALLY bother him. Even worse, he said, I had already listened to that song 10 times that evening and he couldn’t stand to hear it one more time.

Is it just me, or is a new Ellie Goulding song impossible to listen to only once?? I told G that if I used his beats he wouldn’t hear any sound, and that the light on my phone would be very brief. He told me I wasn’t allowed to use his beats for this purpose, but I decided to go find them anyway. After searching noisily (not on purpose) around in the pitch black bedroom for the headphones, I finally found them and I got back in bed. I could feel Giuseppe’s (loving) annoyance in the air.

I then proceed to choose my song and make sure it was set to repeat. As the song began, it was really loud so I turned down the volume.

Giuseppe complained, “I can hear it!! It is SO LOUD.” So I turned it down some more.

“It is still SO LOUD.” I turned it down even more, but at that point I couldn’t even hear it.

“Honey, TURN IT OFF. IT'S WAAAAAY TOO LOUD!”

“Are you kidding? I can’t even hear it!!”

“It’s the loudest thing I have ever heard!”

“Oh my gosh it’s like not even on!! I need to turn it on.”

“No!! How am I supposed to sleep?”

And that’s when I realized I hadn’t plugged the headphones into my phone and the music was playing out of the iPhone speaker. :/

That outside noise-reducing feature on the beats headphones really works!

Anyway, I will bring this long and pointless story to a close and inform you that Giuseppe wasn’t able to hear my music once I had the headphones plugged in, and I was able to fall asleep after a few rounds of Ellie.

And that was that.

***

An Afternoon Surprise

Yesterday afternoon, as Giuseppe and I were folding laundry, he told me he had planned a surprise activity for us. I love surprises, and I immediately started guessing. Everything I thought of was apparently way off.

When we were done folding, he told me to grab a photo ID and come with him.

I was surprised when he said we wouldn't be getting in the car, but that we would be walking there. So we walked, hand in hand, out of our apartment complex and into the lovely (sarcasm there) city of South Salt Lake.

I was sooooo confused, but as soon as I saw a building across the street with huge red lettering, I knew where we were going. The building read:

CSL Plasma

"What a horrible, horrible surprise!" I wailed and wailed, yet I didn't stop walking. As we walked closer to the building and I couldn't stop talking about how scared I was. I HATE going to the doctor's or giving blood or anything of the sort.

"I know things are tight, but pay day is in two days. We can still scrape by. It doesn't have to be like this!" I told him.

But Giuseppe went on to explain all the additional expenses that would be coming up and he finally convinced me that there really was no other way. With fear in my heart, I kept walking forward. There was no other way.

I should have been mad about being dragged into this, but I was actually kind of grateful I didn't really have a say in the matter and that it was so sudden. Less time to think about it and freak out, you know?

We talked about what it was going to be like and he kept assuring me it would be all right when I started to back out.

About halfway there, Giuseppe turned the opposite direction of the plasma donation center, and into a car dealership.

"What are you doing? This isn't the turn!" I told him, trying to yank him away.

"Yes it is," he said gently. "You're going to test-drive a Subaru Crosstrek," he said.

"What? I am? Did you arrange this?" I asked.

"Yeah, I called in earlier. They have one here you can drive!" he said.

"But what about the Plasma center? Didn't you say it was going to close soon?"

"Baby, we're not going to donate plasma!"

"WHAT?!"

"Of course not. That would be a horrible surprise! No, you get to test drive your favorite car!"

"Yay!!! This is SO MUCH BETTER! Thank you thank you thank you!!"

"So you were planning on tricking me about donating plasma?" I continued.

"Nope, you just assumed that's what we were doing so I went along with it."

What a relief! Unfortunately, during all the trickery, we actually both convinced ourselves that we need to start donating plasma.

So, after test driving my favorite car (which ROCKED), we headed over to the plasma place to get some more information.

We'll see how our appointment tomorrow morning goes. I'm really hoping I get denied.

Simpsonville 2nd Ward

One of the highlights of our summer in Greenville was the WARD. I wanted to share a few experiences I had being in this ward.

First of all, being nursery leaders was the greatest thing ever. The babies were really well-behaved, and during the third hour (after the sad ones had been weeded out and diapers had been changed) the atmosphere was quite pleasant. The best part was at the end when we'd blow bubbles. The babies LOVED it. I will always remember the face one girl made every time the bubbles were brought out. Her eyes would twitch with glee, and her tongue would hang out as she practically drooled with excitement. Haha greatest reaction ever.

Lessons were always difficult, but one Sunday we got them sitting still (AT THE SAME TIME!) and we shared a very brief story about the Holy Ghost. For once it seemed like they were actually listening! One girl was quite frightened by the ghost-talk. We tried to explain that the Holy Ghost is a "nice feeling" but she wasn't convinced. Later, she summoned all of the babies to the window, pointed out a "ghost", and got them all scared. Some babies, whom I had never heard speak before, walked around saying, "ghost! ghost!" Haha so there's that.

Bishop Jone's wife was pregnant with her NINTH child and was put on bedrest, so I offered to help with the kids and the house. What started out to be a simple service turned out to be the biggest blessing of the summer! The Jones are my favorite family. :) Cute kids, sassy kids, hormonal kids, the works. Their house is always loud and chaotic but in a good way. The kids are all best friends, even the teenagers. Sister Jones is super chill and fun and super great to hang out with! I spent most of my last three weeks in South Carolina over at their house or out shopping with Sister Jones (after she was off bedrest of course!). Their lively house and fun personalities were such a BLESSING after my lonely summer of staring at a computer screen or a book. They have served me more than I served them, and we will be life-long friends for sure.

It was actually a pretty neat experience during the week she was on bed rest. Practically the entire ward came to the rescue, bringing in meals and visiting and randomly showing up to help with the kids or the house. Her bedroom became a ward social place for a bit as people popped in and stayed for a few minutes or hours. It was so cool how the ward came together to help their family. The greatest part was that it was so comfortable!

One afternoon I was at the park with the three youngest girls (ages 1, 3, and 8). It was cloudy, and as it began to drizzle, I herded the girls under a pavilion. Minutes after we reached the pavilion, a raging hail/wind/thunder storm started! It was the most intense storm I have witnessed in my entire life. There were several other people under the pavilion, and we each had a corner to ourselves. As the storm grew worse and worse, we all inched more inward until eventually we were all smashed together on top of a table in the middle. Although the storm was insane, it was kind of a fun experience. I mean who doesn't love a good thunderstorm? I was enjoying the situation for a while, but it definitely wasn't ideal to be in charge of three babies. I had the two youngest in my arms and they were being pelted with rain. The water level underneath the table was getting higher and higher, and it was rushing fast. The thunder was getting pretty intense too- it sounded more like bombs than actual thunder. A mom was there with two little kids, and they were screaming their heads off in fear. But Everly, the cute little 1 year old I was holding, was laughing crazily while violently shaking each time the thunder hit. It was pretty much the cutest and strangest thing I have ever witnessed! Eventually, the hail stopped, the rain calmed down, the flooding finished. Sister Jones picked us up and that was that!

I looked forward to the ward temple trip for weeks. I have never lived outside of Utah before, and the reality of what other people go through not having a temple nearby hit me hard. The nearest temple, the Colombia temple, was too far away for Giuseppe to be able to go with me in the morning and make it back in time for work, so this was really my only shot. The morning of the trip, I was SO excited. Like bouncing-out-of-bed and singing-while-brushing-my-teeth excited. Giuseppe took me to the church that the morning, and waited with me for people to show up. We waited for quite a while before I started making phone calls. Apparently the trip had been cancelled!!! But because I wasn't on the email list yet, I hadn't been informed. I was seriously craving the temple, and when I realized I wasn't going to be able to go I just sobbed. It was the worst news everrrr. But Sister Taylor, the greatest relief society president ever, got wind of this and offered to take me to the temple that weekend! YES.

The long drive was so fun, she is absolutely hilarious and has some great stories. And of course the temple was amazing. It was super small. Like smaller than a church building. But so beautiful of course! A temple worker asked if we could do some baptisms for family names before the session started, and we gladly accepted. I really needed that temple trip and I am so grateful for Sister Taylor's willingness to take me. She has such a fun personality! And she is the most service-oriented person I have ever met. It's so inspiring.

The rest of the ward was also super kind to reach out to us so often. Several families invited us over for dinner and offered so much desperately needed help.

I love the examples of these members. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints should be a place of service and acceptance and this is exactly what this ward was!

And although I am sad to leave behind this place, our ward in South Salt Lake is equally as inviting and welcoming. And of course I could never forget our Provo YSA 136th Ward, where Giuseppe and I meant. Some of the most incredible, sincere young adults I have ever met have lived in this ward. I love the gospel, but I also love the church!

I don't really want to end this post on a "Yeah, my church is so cool" note though, because I should also mention that most of the people I met in South Carolina weren't members (obviously) and they were some of the most friendly, hospitable, and accepting people I have ever met. Seriously, Southern Hospitality is a real thing and the people over there are full of so much love. :)

I will miss you, South Carolina!

20.

I have been ANXIOUSLY anticipating my birthday as the long summer weeks have gone by with little Giuseppe time and few and far between outings from this darn apartment complex. Our car is broken, so we couldn't drive out to the coast like I wanted. :( BUT I got a day with my husband and a trip out of the apartment, so I was definitely pleased.

We Ubered (via Jason from North Dakota) over to a shopping cluster a few miles away and bought movie tickets. We had some time to kill before our movie, so we walked over to Cabela's to look at the fish. After spending a lot of time giving each fish a personality and back story based on their facial expressions, we bought some candy and headed over to the movie theater for "Lights Out". I specifically wanted to watch a horror movie in a movie theater, so this was perfect. I used to be super chill during scary movies, but I'm actually kind of a baby now and I was pretty scared by the time the trailers ended. The movie itself was pretty good. Giuseppe didn't really like it, but I screamed and curled into a ball and squeezed the life out of my husband. So fun!

Next on the agenda was Tucano's, but we hadn't reached starvation yet, so we killed time in Bed Bath & Beyond on a camping couch while G told me mission stories. Random, right?

Then at Tucano's we of course gorged on everything in sight until we were about to puke. Our meat servers were funny, one in particular came over at the end of the meal and told us that he'd gotten seven compliments in the past week and that people loved him. That was kind of strange. We ended the meal splitting the mango cake which is HEAVENLY. We ordered it last year when we went to Tucano's around my birthday and I haven't gotten it out of my mind. It was even better than I remembered.

After the meal, I was too full to want to do anything but lay on the cement ramp behind the theater and watch the clouds. Giuseppe wasn't really into this until he spotted the large swan I pointed out. We mourned loudly as it was decapitated.

When I gathered enough stamina to stand up, we were picked up by an Uber (via Jason from Mississippi) and taken back to our apartment complex where we went swimming! I used to not like swimming, but lately the heat (and lack of much else to do) has made it one of my favorite pass-times.

Luckily we had the pool to ourselves, so we had the freedom to be as rambunctious as we wanted. (Although there were some ladies lounging outside who probably though we were freaks). Giuseppe taught me how to do flips under the water, and then he would recreate my lame worm-like attempts for me. The funniest part (in my opinion) was when we were playing Marco Polo and I decided to get out of the water while Giuseppe searched for me and see how long it would take for him to realize I wasn't actually in there. Unfortunately Giuseppe heard me before I even got out of the pool and was able to witness what he later called "a pathetic looking topple" back into the pool as I slipped and fell into the ONE FOOT DEEP kiddie area. Ouch!

It seems that every time we swim together, we end up making up some dramatic story line and acting it out. This time it was a horror rendition of various movies we've seen. Haha so fun!

We finished the day with a phone call with our moms and then crashed, still in a food coma.

It was a fantastic birthday and I'm so grateful for my sweet husband who makes life fun and exciting. I wouldn't want to spend the day with anyone else!

Also, I must say that my birthday was waaaaay better than his lame 24th birthday in April. It landed on the last day of school and he spent the day (and all the days leading up to it) drowning in final projects. We had about two hours left at the end of the day to eat cake and open presents and then I watched him pass out from exhaustion. :(

Updates: summer lovin'

We are spending our summer in Greenville, South Carolina while Giuseppe works as a sales representative for Vivint. I did it too, for about a month, and… quit. I could go on and on about WHY I quit, but for heaven's sake, Giuseppe might read this and we need to keep his spirits up!

Things are pretty chill for me now. I work as the office assistant but I also spend my days studying French! Besides just reading from my textbooks (which gets OLD after a while), I am reading general conference addresses in French while learning vocabulary and trying to follow grammar patterns. It’s been a thrilling summer. ;)

Haha no but really, I love being here in this beautiful city. And the best part is, I get to spend lots of time (well, sort of) with my babe! I am so proud of his hard work and motivation. He’s the greatest.

The apartment we are in is fantastic! There’s a cute little “cupboard under the stairs” that we say Harry lives in. Whenever we hear fishy noises, or if the milk was left out, or whenever we are out of food, we always blame it on Harry. He’s always under his invisibility cloak, duh. That’s why we can’t see him. But we know he’s there. Doing tomfoolery. That ungrateful prat!

There are a billion and ten bugs here, something that we are not necessarily a fan of. BUT we do like the gutsy little frogs that sit outside our apartment door trying to get inside.

Also, everyone and their mom has a dog. Our apartment complex is dotted with dog parks, and there are ALWAYS people outside walking their dogs. The weird thing is, they are actually very classy dogs. They rarely bark, and I don’t think I’ve seen a single dog dropping here. They’re not defensive either. If I get too close to the apartment door, they don’t even care. I swear sometimes they even smile at me. Much unlike the mangy mutts who tried to kill me in the neighborhoods I used to knock. Yes, I definitely belong here instead of there.

Sundays are DEFINITELY the best day of the week. We have the greatest little ward. The people are awesome. Whenever our car won’t start after church (which is often), a small crowd is there to help us out. And we’ve been invited over for dinner several times too! We also have a new calling! Nursery leaders. I will definitely do a post on our experiences.

So that's us!

New Orleans

Here are some shots of our most recent preseason sales trip to New Orleans!

From the pictures it may just look like this trip was fun and games but it was actually 75% knocking doors, 10% spending time in a 2 bathroom house with 30 people, 5% choking down fast food, and 5% in rental cars with ridiculously speedy drivers blasting rap music. The other 5% is documented below:

Driving to Las Vegas:

A random business outside of my neighborhood. A hair salon, snow cone shack, and car wash all in one. Odd, right? :

G and I on a morning stroll in the Bayou:

Eating oysters from the shell:

At the restaurant: (we ordered the most DIVINE crème brûlée)

Sales is hard work, but we are getting better and better every day! It really is a fun job.

One of my sales was to an older couple. The husband did not want the system at all, but unfortunately he didn't wear the pants in the relationship. He sat on the porch angrily in the rain while the system was being installed as the wife and I chatted. Haha.

Another of my sales was to the funniest sassy black lady I've ever met. She told me all the neighborhood gossip and talked lovingly about her baby (her maniac pitbull).

Last trip we were separated into different hotel rooms, G with the guys and me with the girls. This trip we did get a bed to ourselves, and we got to share the room with Braun, one of the coolest guys you'll ever meet.

A Day In The Life: Random Shenanigans

This post will consist of me going through photos on my phone and telling about random moments in our life.

1. Laundry Shenanigans

Giuseppe thought he could save some quarters by putting ALL of our laundry in one lil' dryer. He became very distraught when all of our things came out very damp. It was rough.


2. French Quarter Shenanigans

On a biz trip to Nola. I thought these guys were pretty good.


3. Vegas Shenanigans

Blurry pic in this horrid city before our flight.


4. Jefferson Parish Shenanigans

A morning of background checks, fingerprints, paperwork, and waiting around. Giuseppe just wanted to hit the doors!


5. Ray Ban Roadtrip Shenanigans

He looked a lot cooler before I told him to look cool for the camera.


6. Valentine Shenanigans

Classic adult-head-sized sugar cookies from mom.


7. Vietnamese Shenanigans

After touring the beautiful Provo City Center Temple, we dined at a Pho restaurant downtown. This is the only picture we got of the evening, sadly.


8. Ava & Grayson Shenanigans

They stole G's phone.



9. Opera Shenanigans

Before we got married, we discussed our sleeping habits so we knew what to expect. G claimed he was a totally quiet sleeper, but I told him that I imagined him sleep-singing, particularly to this opera-ish song that we like. In this video, he is pretending to sleep-sing. The fangs have nothing to do with it, he just happened to be wearing the. (We were at our cute nephew's birthday party).


10. Singles Ward Shenanigans

Yeah, this was taken a few months ago but whatevs! G was leading the hymn in Sunday School VERY enthusiastically.

Well that about sums us up.

Ciao!

How Rare A Possession

The other night Giuseppe forced me to stay awake even though I was exhausted. 

He needed to watch a video for his religion class, and he wanted me to watch it with him. He told me he had seen it on his mission and loved it so so much. 

This little movie is only an hour, and although the quality is absolutely dreadful, you MUST watch it! 

It is an incredible story about FAITH and HOPE and PATIENCE and TRUE DOCTRINE! If you don't come away from this movie with an undying love for the Book of Mormon, then I can only think of one other thing that will:

Go read it!! It is the book of happiness! 

I love the part at the very, very end where Vincenzo is welcomed into the Switzerland temple. What a happy sight, to see such a faithful man about to receive the knowledge and peace of the temple.

Culturing My Husband

I have this random fetish for dance recitals, so when I heard about a ballet performance going on at the U, I insisted to Giuseppe that we go.

We went to a ballet (Aladdin) together back in May, but it was cut short due to a fire drill. He's been to a couple of his niece's dance recitals, but he's never really experienced REAL ballet.

The show had lots of diversity- there was classical ballet, Eastern European ballet (Bulgaria was represented!!), and MODERN ballet, which is always the most fun to watch.

The modern ballet section was quite long and very silent and very dark and very dramatic. It was fascinating. Giuseppe kept clearing his nose, but it sounded like he was stifling laughter, so that was kind of embarrassing. 

Here are the only pictures I got that night, us sharing a delicious rainbow lollipop. 

Go art!

Happy birthday to somebody out there

G texted me during my shift on Saturday night asking what I wanted for dinner when I came home. I told him, "Birthday cake!", but then half an hour later I wrote back, "jk we can just have leftover tacos." 

Anyway, G being the total babe that he is actually MADE ME A CAKE!

We made the frosting together when I got home out of makeshift ingredients we had lying around.

Because we don't have a beater or a kitchen aid (so sad), the process involved us taking turns whipping the liquid in the bowl as fast as we could for as long as we could before screaming in pain and dropping to the floor and letting the other person take the next shift. 

Eventually, we had mediocre frosting to put on his homemade cake!

I love this cutie.

Throwback: Life in the 307

Last night I spent time with some of my FAVORITE people...

My old roommates!

In celebration a our eighteen month anniversary (ish) of us being friends, let's take a look back on some of our memories:

This is the note we left on the door for the pizza guy just a couple days after we all moved in.

Bridal Veil Falls adventure!

Driving to the ward campout!

Madi turns 19

A trip to our favorite Gelato place, Amelia's

Dinner at my parent's:

Photoshoot with Kylie:

Kylie studying with Shane

Kylie's yoga mat made her look like Katniss, we so had a little photoshoot before school:

I'm including this picture because a. I am wearing Kylie's clothes (I miss her closet!!!) and b. This was taken MOMENTS before G came to pick me up for our first date! I don't know who I sent this to and what I was talking about but whoooo cares.

Megabed! This lasted for a week

Ally sent me this creeper pic of AL, the interesting man I tutored.

Stephanie and Daniel studying!

Kylie's late night photography project

Featuring these babes:

Shopping & Dinner

Kylie found a container of what USED TO BE plain cream cheese in our fridge

Cleaning the church!

Sacrament meeting!

Right before move out :(

I was so blessed to have been put randomly with these ladies! We will be friends forever.