The night the shower curtain fell down.

I love my husband.

But sometimes he gets on my nerves.

The feeling is mutual.

The other night, as I was removing a used towel from the shower rod, the rod fell down.

I made a distressed call and sweet G came to my aid.

He struggled for a long time with that shower rod.

I watched him. He scrunched up his face. He grunted. He clenched his jaw.

I thought of the scene in the movie adaptation of Les Misérables when Jean Valjean lifts the MASSIVE flag pole off the ground and carries it.

Valjean made the same facial expressions and noises that G was making with the 2 pound SHOWER ROD.

I wondered what it would be like to be married to Jean Valjean.

Probably way different.

I snapped out of my little daydream and I began helping Giuseppe. We quickly became frustrated with each other.

Then we both stopped, simultaneously.

I said, "this can be a team building exercise!"

He agreed enthusiastically, and in no time we successfully attached the rod securely to the wall.

"We make a good team," he said.

I wrapped my arms around his body and kissed him for a looooong time.

I like my team.

Bachelorette

This morning I watched the episode of The Office where Jim shares an apartment with Daryl in Philadelphia while they work part-time at a new start up.

Jim, not used to the bachelor life, trashes up the apartment in the name of freedom.

As I watched this episode in my uncleaned, still-not-fully-unpacked apartment, I realized I was Jim.

Last night I hit rock bottom.

I went grocery shopping. I bought several microwaveable dinners, a carrot cake slice, and 2 bananas.

I just ate my $2 Great Value mac & cheese for lunch and it was disappointing.

WHEN did I allow myself to get to the point of having hopes in a Great Value frozen meal?

THIS IS NOT ME.

I have been living the "bachelorette" life for about 2 months now.

Giuseppe has been hard at work in Louisiana, and although he did visit me in early February to "help me move"*, I have been living alone.

The word "bachelorette" has the connotation of sexy. You know, bachelorette parties and that ridiculous reality TV show.

I am not sexy. I am 2-day hair and makeup. Dish washing procrastinator. Netflix binger. Frozen meal eater.

BUT I am pleased to announce that this Thursday I'm flying to New Orleans to vacation with my husband for a week, hopefully remember who I am, and return home ready to start living again.

(It will definitely help that G is going to drive back to Salt Lake a few days after I home. YAY.)

Thank you to all of my friends who have kept me sane. Thank you to my hard working husband who has made this separation totally worth it. He is on FIRE!

Here's to the future, and to a new me.


*G's contribution to the move: buying a mini roll of packing tape and 3 boxes. Yes, THREE boxes.

Our Story: Part One

Our Story: Part One

(How we met and came to be)

February 2015

It all starts with a mysterious Mexican man on the shady Provo River trail.
My roommate at the time Kylie came into the apartment one cold February night with grocery bags on her arms. She told of us of an encounter she'd had:
As she was struggling with her grocery cart on the rocky river trail path (yes- we were car-less and often had to push our groceries home in a shopping cart) she was stopped by a young man who asked if she needed help. They introduced themselves, he helped her with the grocery cart, they exchanged numbers and then they parted. Kylie told us, “I forgot his name. It started with a G... It was some Mexican name that I couldn’t pronounce.”

What was really going on: Giuseppe, being the cute, adorable social person that he is, was on the hunt for some friends. He had just moved from Orange County to Provo. He was about to start his new job in the state licensing department for Vivint, hadn't yet attended the singles ward, and was ready to make some friends.

On Saturday, February 28th, Kylie invited/asked him to give us a ride to the stake 50’s dance. He of course said yes.

My roommates and I spent an hour blasting music, perfecting our makeup, borrowing clothes, ratting our hair, and talking about our love interests at the time. (Unfortunately for Giuseppe, Kylie was only fixated on her now-husband Corey haha).

Then Giuseppe came up to the apartment. Somebody let him inside, and they all started chatting with him. I finished up my hair, walked into the living room and saw a tall, thin guy with perfect hair and adorable eyes. We introduced ourselves, figured out pretty quickly that he was just about as Mexican as I am (literally. We are both ¼ Mexican), and headed out to the dance. My amazing friend Emily Cortopassi was having a sleepover with me that night, but she was exhausted from work that day and decided to stay in.

Later that evening at the dance, Megan and I went into the bathroom to fix our lipstick. Kylie came in and told us that everyone was partnered up to learn a dance from the instructors, and Giuseppe didn’t have a partner!

I don’t know why I was so adamant that he dance with me and not Megan, but I ran into the gym and approached him. He asked me to dance, and I nonchalantly agreed.

We had fun dancing together. I remember thinking, “what if I married this guy?” and I spent some time wondering what it would be like. (I pretty much did that with everyone though, is that weird??)

We were having a really good time and then the dumb dance instructor told us we needed to switch partners. Before I could even do anything, a new guy asked me to dance and we learned the rest of the steps together. This guy was the worst, he was like a professional ballroom dancer and he had no patience with me. He took it waaaaaaay too seriously. Luckily, I didn’t have to be with him for too long before it was time for freestyle dancing. I broke away from him as fast as I could and met up with the roomies and Giuseppe. We danced wildly for about an hour, then Kylie wanted to leave to meet up with her sister for a bonfire.

Giuseppe drove us back, and came up to our apartment with us. While my roommates were changing into bonfire clothes, I turned on my favorite song- Style- and blasted it. Giuseppe and I danced around the kitchen crazily while singing along. It was the best. In that moment I knew that we had some kind of a connection.

Emily and I joined everyone for the bonfire for just a little bit. I talked to Giuseppe about his new life in Utah, as well as his mission in Italy. He told me he was going to start at LDS Business College in the fall, which of course grabbed my attention. In high school I wanted to go there so badly, but it just wasn’t right for me.

Emily and I left early, and we pulled my mattress into the living room. We were acting kinda psycho, making weird videos of each other and laughing about everything and reminiscing on the old days, and you know, all around college girl shenanigans.

Everyone (including Giuseppe) came back into the apartment and hung out in the kitchen. Emily and I ignored them, we had a grand old time with each other.

When Giuseppe left, I asked him to tell us goodnight in Italian. He did, and then he left.

The next day (Sunday) I started talking to him at ward prayer (haha oh the singles ward…). As we were chatting, another guy I was friends with came up to talk to me. Giuseppe started inching away. I don’t remember doing this, but apparently I leaned over and stepped on his foot, asking him to stay. He was thrilled by this.

We sat together on the bean bag, and he told me animatedly about his experience skydiving. Then he mentioned there were some people from his work going swing dancing in Salt Lake, and he invited me. Of course I said yes, and then we exchanged numbers. Just then, Bishop Redd came up and crouched down next to us to chat. He said, “well look at you two…” all matchmaker-like. Haha.

The next day at FHE, Bishop Redd and I were talking as I was on the sidelines during the dodgeball game. (Of course). We had this conversation:

“So Katrina, are you still going to go on a mission?”

“What?! Of course! Why would you ask that?”

“I saw you with Giuseppe last night! I think you might be planning a wedding soon…”

“What?! No way! We just met, and I am for sure going on a mission.”

“Okay….."

March 2015

Our first date was SO GOOD! I had been on quite a few first dates during my six months in Provo, and the majority of them were blaaaaaaah. NOT this one. During the car ride he showed me some of his favorite songs, then I showed him some of mine. I asked personal questions about his life, made him uncomfortable, lightened things up and then we were there! (Okay, so far this sounds kind of blah but it wasn't. It was wonderful.)

We had so much fun at the dance. We went absolutely crazy- he was lifting me up and swinging me around and throwing me in the air and it was just insane. We have never been able to replicate what we did that night!

After dancing for an amazing hour, we were exhausted and he mentioned something about IHOP having free pancakes that day.

Yum… ;)

We drove to the nearest IHOP only to discover that the promotion had ended an hour ago. So he just drove away.

I remember thinking that was so weird, no food on a date?! He must be really cheap.

Nevertheless, he still left a really good impression on me.

We went on another date the next week. His State Farm agent had given him tickets to a jazz game. I don’t like basketball at all but I was excited to spend the evening with him. At the game I discovered he didn’t really care for basketball either!

I asked him about other sports and discovered he didn’t care much about ANY sports.

I loved him.

Haha just kidding, but it was a verrrry appealing quality. --He has since changed, watching late night football games with my dad and brothers whenever we are at my parent’s house and constantly checking his fantasy football app. Thanks, dad :(

Anyway, we had a really fun time at the game talking and laughing, and he even took me out for dinner afterwards!

We went to his evening institute class together for our third date. He made lots of comments and sat really close to me and he smelled divine. That’s all I remember. I took him to my favorite sushi restaurant afterwards!

We hung out a lot between these dates, movie nights with people from the ward, me bringing treats over to his apartment, him giving me rides places, hanging out at church activities, etc. We were constantly texting and trying to spend time with each other. It was pretty apparent something was going on between the two of us.

One Saturday at the end of March, I was in Heber, having just had another sleepover with Emily Cortopassi. Emily had gone to work, and I sat at my parent’s house wondering what I was going to do for the next five hours before they would take me to Provo. I decided to text Giuseppe, asking him to come hang out with me.

45 minutes later, he showed up at the house. I introduced him to my mom, felt horribly awkward, grabbed Giuseppe’s arm and yanked him out of the house. We decided to go on a drive through the mountains.

We ended up at a gorgeous, scenic cliff above the whole valley, and he put his arm around me.

Suddenly he said, “Katrina, I really like you.”

The first thing that popped out of my mouth was, “oh.”

Awkward silence.

His arm felt so heavy around my body.

“...I like you too.” But it was too late. The moment was gone.

We got back into the car, Giuseppe looking defeated. I felt awful.

We drove to Salt Lake to pick up my cousins and bring them to my apartment for a sleepover that evening. I lightened up the mood in the car, and then I reached over and held his hand. I had a lot to make up for haha.

We picked up Romney, Reagan, and Sophie and the five of us talked and laughed until we reached my apartment.

I felt soooo stupid for what I had said earlier, so I kissed him on the cheek before he drove away that night, hoping he would interpret it as an I’m-an-idiot-please-don’t-give-up-on-me kind of kiss.

ANYWAY long story short, he kissed me the next day. And then the day after that we had our infamous conversation…

K: About that kiss last night… You were going way too fast.

G: Oh. I’m sorry, maybe we are moving too fast. I’m really sorry, I-

K: No, no, no we’re not moving too fast, your mouth was moving way too fast! I didn’t like it.

G: Oh. Haha. Well, we can try it again? I’ll go slower.

K: Please.

And then all was well.

We spent the next week together, and I couldn’t make up my mind if I wanted to be his girlfriend or not. On March 30th, we finally had the discussion.

He sat on my couch and put his hands on my shoulders. Looking me right in the eye he asked if I could be his girlfriend. And I just decided to go for it!

April 2015

That first month was SO GREAT. We spent every second together, and it was a blast.

Obviously, it was a good call.

Soon, another call came: my mission call. I was SO excited. You don't even know. People were always questioning me like, "don't you have a real serious boyfriend? are you really excited for this??" Um, yes. I was.

I opened my call at the end of April. Giuseppe couldn't be there because he had a paint ball tournament in Vegas that weekend. I was secretly glad, I didn't want to mix the two at all.

I was called to the BULGARIA, SOFIA mission.

I was stoked. I wanted to learn a language SO BAD. And such an obscure one?! Yes please!

Even better, I wouldn't be leaving until August 26th! The second I read "Bulgaria" on my call, I jumped a few lines down to see when I'd be leaving. I wanted to have a lot of time you see...

Anyway, I told Giuseppe that late that night when he came home. His reaction wasn't as screamy-excited as all of my friends and family, but he was happy for me and excited that I would be going to Europe.

May 2015

The next few weeks of our relationship were amazing- we of course spent every second together and became more and more obsessed with each other.

Then I started worrying that he was going to tell me he loved me.

Oh gosh. That would mean things would really be serious!

I remember the first time he called me ‘babe’. I ran to my roommates as soon as I got home and told them of the weird thing that had just happened. I didn’t like it at all. It sounded so cheesy. I mean I wasn’t a babe. Ew.

Little did I know that I would soon become overly obsessed with terms of endearment.

Pretty soon we were babe-ing each other like it was the most casual thing in the world- and it was.

(I was such a jerk to my sweet baby! The worst.)

Anyway, back to the first “I love you.”

We had just gotten out of his evening institute class together. We were sitting in the parking lot of the Branbury. It was raining really hard, so of course I blasted Taylor’s “Sad Beautiful Tragic” in his car. I didn’t let him speak during the song.

(The following is an excerpt from an email I sent to Liz right after):

Then later on my porch we were just sort of staring at each other and these are the exact words he said, "So... I need to tell you something. I've been wanting to tell you for a couple weeks now and I'm not really good with words, but... I love you. Like, a lot a lot."

AH, right?!

I giggled or something dumb and told him I loved him too. He told me how to say it in Italian, I told him how to say it in French.

I really started to love him after that point. Not only was I having a blast with him but our lives were meshing into each others and it felt so perfect.

The only problem? My mission….

Christmas Break: What We Did

Hey blog readers,

Sorry for the long absence. My excuse isn't lack of time or anything, more like a lack of content! My life has been feeling extra boring lately (you'll find out why at the end of the post), but I've compiled a little summary of what we did during our Christmas break.. Enjoy:

Here are the highlights of our 3 weeks without school:

The Saturday after finals week we headed to ELKO for Romney's homecoming! It was a blast. We hung out with family, stayed in a hotel suite with my fam, G went swimming with his clothes on, we hung out with Romney + fam for hours on end, and ate delicious Russian borscht. It rocked.

Sophie got a RIDICULOUS amount of Jimmy Johns loaves after her Saturday night shift for the luncheon. Sadie begged us to take some. I really hate Jimmy Johns, but G took a couple loaves. He snacked on one that night.

That next Monday I had a little Christmas party with my old roomies. We exchanged gifts, ate Costa Vida, talked about everything under the sun, and it was amazing. Ugh but why do we never take pictures?!

That night was THE BEST. We had a family Christmas party in Lehi and it was sooooo fun to have Romney back. We just had to make up a dance, for old times sake. Romney, Mallerie, Ava, Alivia, Landrie, Kate, Violet, and I even convinced Giuseppe to participate and it was hilarious. He looked so cute doing those ballet moves ;) It was amazing.

The next day G and I went to the Provo City Center temple with Romney and Sadie.

Afterwards G and I showed them the most delicious (and ghetto) Mexican restaurant in Provo. Sadie treated us to delicious burritos and we chatted for a long time. It was so much fun!

That evening we went to help out with Vivint's Sub For Santa. I LOVE Sub For Santa. It's like, my thing. We wrapped presents for like 3 hours, and then we got to actually deliver them! It was such a cool experience to surprise these families with things they desperately needed as well as some gifts for the kids. Wonderful.

One of the highlights of my Christmas Break was nannying for the Gordon's again! The drive to Heber wasn't too bad. I had so much fun going to the rec center, library, Walmart (their favorite), making movies, breaking up fights, witnessing meltdowns, and catching up with Heather :)

We had dinner with Luke and Hazel later that week. They have a cute little apartment in Salt Lake, near us! They told us about their adventures in France. I can't wait to go and get a move on with my French!

G and I babysat the bishop's adorable kids one night. Their two little girls reminded me of Mallerie and I when we were little. Showing off to the babysitter, making excuses to not go to bed haha. They are hilarious. The baby boy is the cutest thing in the world too!

On the 24th, we drove up to Brigham City to visit Mama Hess. Rob and Angela came as well! We ordered pizza, exchanged gifts, and played with the kids. It was so much fun! I love my in-laws.

That night we headed to Orem for our annual Christmas Eve bethlehem dinner with the Bocanegra's. 'Twas beautiful.

We went back to my parents house that night and opened pajamas and sibling gifts. Awkward that we forgot Callie's at our apartment... Luckily my mom has a stash of toys hidden away for her. Spoiled little girl... ;) just kidding Callie, you're the sweetest little girl in the entire world.

Christmas morning ROCKED. My parents surprised us with so many great things including a SWEET Fuji (Polaroid) camera!! I love it.

G and I also took Callie sledding during the afternoon. G is the cutest.

^those things are so fun, am I right?

The next day, my dad treated the fam to Rodizio Grill to celebrate them finishing the BOM. The food was so good, I want to cry just thinking about it.

The next day we headed back to SLC.

I drove down to Provo and hung out with Liz that Wednesday! She shopped, I browsed, we tried delicious French pastries, and I tried to leave an awful review for the Sephora we went to. The music was SO loud and so obnoxious. It was the absolute worst music I have ever heard. Well maybe second from the time that G and I took a road trip to yellowstone with some friends when we were dating and Dominic blasted heavy metal the entire drive....

Haha but anyway Liz and I had a rockin' time :)

On December 30th I babysat the Gordon's. G was a doll and deep cleaned the entire apartment while I gone. He even organized the horrendous storage closet in our apartment! Oh how I love that boy.

As I was leaving the Gordon's, Brigham asked me if he could have a sleepover at our apartment. I thought, "why not?" and drove him to Salt Lake. He and Giuseppe had nerf gun wars for hours while blasting Brigg's favorite song, "Space Unicorn". It is just as hideous as it sounds haha.

We took Brigg's to our family's day-early New Year's Eve party and the three of us had a blast. Especially Brigham, he wowed us with his nunchucks and participated animatedly in all of the games! What a cutie, we loved having him with us.

My dad's side of the family sure can throw a party! We ate delicious tamales (my latest obsession), played games, and counted down to the last day of 2016.

Our actual New Years Eve was quite different. We said goodbye to Brigham in the morning, and decided to spend our evening being chaperones at the stake dance.

I didn't like stake dances when I was a youth, but I guess it was a little better having a cute husband by my side the whole time.

The kids' BO though... Oh man. That was hard to put up with. The cutest local band came and played 50's music the whole time (yes, the whole time), and G and I danced and danced. And I tried to teach him how to hula hoop!

After the dance we helped clean up and then gave some rides home.

Go service!

January 2nd was our anniversary!

FIRST ANNIVERSARY. 366 days of marriage. We're like.... old now.

How we celebrated: sharing a delicious sandwich at Aubergine, browsing Barnes & Noble travel section (instead of actually traveling. #collegestudentprobs), thinking about getting a dog and attempting to bond with some in the shelter (#nokidsprobs), driving in a snowstorm to see a movie in Lehi (Collateral Beauty. It was too sad for me), and having a late dinner at Cheesecake Factory.

Go marriage!

People kept asking me, "can you BELIEVE it has been a year already?"

Um, yes, very much.

It was the longest year of my entire life! It was a great year, don't get me wrong but oh my gosh summer 2016 went on for eternities. I am still scarred from it! Things are going to be much, much different this summer.

I will write more details about our summer plans later, but I will tell you that Vivint is taking us to Bentonville, Arkansas! I'm so excited to move to another city and do things differently. #saleswifeperks

Anyway, a couple days after our anniversary G and I decided he should snag an opportunity to work in Louisiana for the next few months. So we spent every second together and every last gift card and then... poof. he was gone.

I have since started school and I thought this dramatic selfie I sent to G last week pretty much sums up my life since January 8th:

Thank you to my wonderful friends who have kept me somewhat sane thus far!

G is coming to visit me next week, so all will be well soon enough! He's going to help me move too! I'm so excited for a change of scenery!

xoxo to you all

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. :(