goodbye 2009! i love you.

this year was very good to me and my honey. a few reasons that come to mind:

• i got a husband. &dan got a wife :]. we had the most incredible wedding ever.
  • and we will be together for eternity!
• i became a REGISTERED NURSE! after years of hard work &agony...
  • my dream finally came true!
• we up &moved to ALABAMA. somewhere we both have never been. and we love it!
• i lost 25 pounds.

i love new years. this year we are with dan's family [minus carly &aaron] and grandma &grandpa hickman. we are going to "first night..." the sickest most sweetest celebration in st. george! there will be ice skating, art vendors, live bands, games, food, fireworks, dancing... YEAH. i'm pretty amp'd. and did i mention i love having little sisters? i've had some much fun giving them fashion advice and dressing them up and going shopping together! they are so beautiful.

overall: this year was unnnbelievable!! ["be mine in 2009"]

we are very blessed. <3

allergies stink.

i am far too familiar with the two A's... allergies &asthma. stinky! i've had them for as long as i can remember. i keep my inhaler with me at aLL times, or i panic. especially if i am in a new environment where it might be triggered, i literally hold it in my hands when i sleep. because i know how horrible it is when i need it and can't find it/don't have it with me. i love puppies so much & it hurts me when i can't hug and kiss and play with them! they must think i hate them.

exhibit a:

our little princess tubby is a lhapsa-poo [1/2 lahpsa apsa, 1/2 poodle] and i love her so much but she makes me sniffle, sneeze, &wheeze. so i can't give her loves and it's so sad. because i do love her!

exhibit b:

every time before i come to vegas to visit home my mom gets the carpets cleaned, and has tubby shaved so she has hardly any hair at all... i still take an antihistamine every morning, sleep with a HEPA fan, &keep my inhaler in my pocket! but it definitely helps.

exhibit c:

i am at dan's grandparent's house visiting for a week &dan's parents brought their little dog chloe, who i am allergic to as well! so they have to keep the poor little dog secluded in the bedroom or in the backyard. and she probably can't figure out why. i can't even sit by aunt barb because she has a cat &the cat fur is on her!

i am currently being treated by a chiropractor here in st. george with NAET [Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques] for my allergies to cats, dogs, and animal dander in general. they basically do some tests by testing my muscle strength in my arm while holding vials with the genetic coding of cats and dogs in my other hand... then they tape the vial to my skin right underneath my collarbone for 24 hours &supposedly i am healed. i might be a little skeptical but figured i'd give it a try.

so that's that! we'll see how it goes. wish me luck :].

lindsey duhon.

i used to make lindsey play a song for me every time before i went to the testing center to take a test. &she always helped &made me have the animo i needed. we, her friends, also like to pressure her every time we are together or in front of a group of people &make her plays songs in front of all of us. and because she is so beautiful and in love and TALENTED [!!!!]. i need to get her out on the wowowo so everyone can learn of her beautiful skills. [she wrote the songs too].

click & listen!

MERRYandBRIGHT.

we've had a wonderful christmas! lots of games [ticket to ride, cranium], movies [star wars, star trek, while you were sleeping], delicious food [sushi, mimi's cafe, caramel &chocolate covered pretzels, white chocolate popcorn, toffee, ham, cheesy potatoes, mom's homemade rolls], frisbee, bonky ball, basketball, shopping [trying on clothes :], even a fun girls day out shopping and lunch with my mom!

dan and i are sooo blessed! we have the most loving and wonderful families on both sides... who love us &we love them! it has been quite a trip coming out here and being able to relax, go shopping, wrap presents, etc. christmas day started out with me running into the family room [with dan &jared walking behind] and yelling "SANTA DID COME!," opening our stockings [dan and i graduated to our "married stocking" which was probably 4 feet tall. pretty fancy! dan got his fun &played call of duty for a few hours. we watched the blindside, ate some DELicious food, and went bowling with the mayorgas [jared took the cake].

we were partying &dancing at the bowling alley:].

i love my daddy! after he removed dan's mole.

she's our baby.

there is some serious CRANIUMing goin on right here.

rekindled friendship with clark! i missed him.

me &my favorite brother bowling!

why i love home.

1. my dad makes hot n naughties for us every night. unbeatable. &he is so proud of them :]. &should be.

2. having TV with all sorts of fancy cable &starz and movies and rewinding &pausing!! it's so much fun.

3. wearing shorts &a t-shirt on december 15th.

4. trying on quite the funnest& fanciest outfits at urban outfitters with my husband/prancing around mandalay bay/luxor.

5. the winter wonderland my house is! it's so decked out. in a classy &beautiful way. we never want to leave the living room.

6. a fridge full of FRUIT! i'm so content. not to mention the box of chocolates under the fridge.

7. having the funnest/cutest guy to hang out with me all the time. we played bocce ball &frisbee at the park today.

8. having the FUNNIEST/best/most hilarious/cutest parents this world has ever seen.

9. the "i'm on holiday" shirt my mom bought me! i'm sooo on holiday. :]

10. love. there is lots of it here. :] &jared gets here on THURSDAY!! we can't wait!

"because everything should taste like BACON."

before i get too ahead of myself with christmas... i just have to write a little bit about our fun roadtrip out! andrew batteen came out with us. that was great. we stayed at his sister's house in dallas the first night. woke up &had a great breakfast &stayed with dan's cousins jason &kristal in joseph city, arizona on night 2. it was soo nice having nice beds to sleep in both nights!

just a few points worth sharing:

• we passed at least ten cracker barrels. &dan would comment on them EVERY single time. we even stopped on our long day. we played that funny game the entire time &i was an EG-NO-RA-MOOZ every time. so sad. & andrew beat it!
• andrew's iTouch basically saved us. we loved the football game, paper toss, &my favorite: the waterslide game [i was giggling &screaming out in glEE... "it's so realistic!"
• driving through flagstaff &climbing so high in elevation. we drove through snow &i MADE us all sing "white christmas" together. it was hilarious.
• my indian friends at hoover dam. i took their pictures for them and thought they were arabic & was speaking to them in arabic. OOPS.
• TEXAS. longest, emptiest state. we LITERALLY had to play frogger with tumbleweeds. in real life. they had SPITS of all kinds there. we had BBQ wings, ranch, dill, classic davids, and BACON. we filled our cups up over &over again! not to mention the store we passed entitled "Cute Texas Crafts"
• joseph city, arizona. SMALLEST town i have ever been in [besides passing though]. right off route 66. so cute &mostly just how life should be. we had so much fun playing with the kids &holding the BABY!! [kristal: "are you pregnant yet?"]

yes. chunky, mississippi.

let the TRIP BEGIN!

were we REALLY that happy??! YES.

my first encounter with cracker barrel rocking chairs.

he wants to be a daddy.

dan & his cousin jason mulder... BOTH: 163 pounds, 5'11, 10.5-11 size shoe... 32-34 pants... NO BIG DEAL.

he got into the fruit smoothie :]

our best soldier friends! we were speeding up &slowing own for 10 minutes so we could talk to each other &relay messages. then stopped at the same rest stop so we could chat.

the peg game. we were so into it.

look at that cute family.

the joys of being a child.

never too old for a bottle.

flagstaff.

hoover dam!

so cute!

sorry husband.

two nights ago i accidently almost killed dan in his sleep. :[ i'll start from the beginning.

our kitchen is extremely space-efficient. just because it hardly uses any. so whenever i cook i have to use the stove-tops as counter space. so the other night on my way out of the kitchen i moved the rice cooker [full of rice that we were going to have later] just to tidy up a little bit. i moved onto the back burner so it would be a little more out of the way. so i ran over to be with dan for a few minutes waiting for the missionaries to come. ten minutes later we hear a knock at the door &run out to get it when we notice our entire front room &kitchen are filled with gross SMOKE!! [our smoke detector must be a little faulty.] dan went in the kitchen &found that the rice cooker was getting cooked. he turned the dial off [that i had accidently turned when i moved it] and we started to air it out. the smoke was making our eyes and throats burn. not pleasant. so dan went out teaching with the missionaries and i made dinner. all is well while airing out the apartment. they came back. had shrimp fettucine, & dan cleaned the kitchen.

4:00 am rolls around &i am awoken in my sleep to my husband calling my name. he was having horrible stomach pains & couldn't breathe. so i brought him my inhaler and slowly nursed him back to health. we closed our bedroom door, opened the window, and set the HEPA fan right next to his face so he could clear out his lungs. he was getting symptoms from smoke inhalation, which can quickly kill you might i add. UGHH!!!! what can i even say. good thing he's better.

moral of the story: be careful with plastic & stove tops. check those dials twice, maybe even three times. :]

vision of the south.

one of the best parts about living in the south is that missionary work is much more available here! :] since we have been job/school-less for a while, we have had the privilege of spending a lot of time with the missionaries and having discussions and lessons at our house, helping the missionaries, and getting to know the investigators really well.

we have been able to watch meme and her son michael throughout the whole process of their conversion. it has been so amazing, especially for me to watch, since i didn't get to have all those experiences on a mission. they are amazing people who have so much faith through so many trials. they got baptized last weekend and i got to speak at the baptism! this picture was taken after the baptism.

she looks so beautiful! &look at those handsome boys. :]]

east of eden.

Fully satisfied. I finished East of Eden by John Steinbeck a couple weeks ago and was... fully satisfied! What a beautiful book, that i would highly recommend to anyone out there with any hankering to pick up a good book.

This is the dashing picture of Mr. Steinbeck that was on the back cover of my book so it holds a special place in my heart. I think he's fabulous. How he can write a book so complete and connected and maybe... heart wrenching is beyond my realm of understanding. I think I can say that only because my own heart was wrenched a few times. There were times I would have to stop &just think about what he had written because it was so thought-provoking. And times when I would read 4x as much as I had planned. Good thing it's long. :]]

d & r thanksgiving #1.

first THANKSGIVING together!!

we are BLESSED. it was wonderful. i had the new experience of being in charge of vital parts of the feast.. including punkin pie, banana cream pie, &a whole lot of homemade rolls. first time cooking any of these things by myself &i just really did not want to ruin it for everyone. i cooked/baked WITH ABANDON you may say... a few too many screams/groans, at least 14 calls to my mother, at least 2 emails to her with pictures of the dough ["does this look okay?"] maybe a tear or two, a couple pep-talks from dan, a last minute trip to the piggly wiggly, thinking all is lost, falling onto my knees on my flour-covered kitchen floor in hopelessness, some help from my perfect man... &all was well. we all ate &were happy.

we feasted with three other couples from the ward [batteens, koerners, richards] &elder durocher &shaffer. after dinner we went &saw THE BLINDSIDE which i highly recommend (don't watch the whole trailer, it gives away too much). we even payed for the expensive movie theatre tickets! prettty fancy! the rest of the night consisted of football [of course!], lots of pie, &even hot-tubbing in the crisp fall air. for being hundreds of miles away from our families, it was a pretty good thanksgiving!;]

pre-thanksgiving pump up.

we've been real busy having lots of fun:].

alabama has done great things to my wardrobe!

we went fishin &i caught my first bass! dan caught a bass &a big [yucky] catfish! look at those WHISKERS.

we had a pre-thanksgiving feast with kelly &andrew. we played an INTENSE game of jenga, &had the most DELICIOUS salmon grilled to perfection on cedar planks. not to mention the shrimp &pineapple cabobs, baked potatoes, &glazed carrots:].

thanksgiving morning = turkey bowl. perfect beginning to a perfect day. check that boy out!

he hurt his hand &now it's huge &swollen.

sugar.

i adore my husband. i just feel this need to post it for the entire WWW to have the opportunity to browse if they so desire. we just love to play together like we are seven. laughing and teasing all the day long [when we're not fighting, of course ;)]. but really. there's so much love in our little upstairs apartment. lately i decided to change my view &try a lot harder to not be so sensitive, let things go, & "just simply be happy." it has been working marvelously. i am amazed at how easy it is when i let it. why do i make things more complicated than they are sometimes?

we haven't gone to the store in a while, since we are mr. & mrs. skkrimp... so tonight we made sort of biscuit/scone contraption out of butter, flour, sugar, milk, etc. it was funny. we ate them &even liked them!

he dances with me in the kitchen.

he does crafts with me.

he won't fall asleep without me.

he plays me songs on his guitar when i ask him to.

he does the dishes after dinner.

he always thanks me for dinner.

&i know how much he loves me by the way he hugs me when he gets back from work.

just love him a lot is all. simple as that.

how poor are we?!

i had a job interview today &if all goes well i will be starting work at the big hospital here [DCH] on january 4 [happy birthday ashley]! nothing is sure quite yet... we've only had the preliminary interview. the reason we are waiting for almost 2 months for me to start is so we can go home for CHRISTMAS &stay for 2-3 WEEKS! i am so ecstatic about this new development. what could be more wonderful? dan's family is coming down to st. george after christmas so we get to see both our families!

dan is extremely stressed about money &yesterday i had to convince him to let us have $20 to spend on each other for christmas presents... it was very disturbing to me that we were even having this conversation. so in order to contribute i signed up to be a babysitter at care.com. i hope someone will call me so i can buy a christmas present for my HUSBAND!! my goodness. anyone have any other ideas for a little housewife like me?

we saw joshua james (click &listen!) in concert last weekend & they were AMAZING! they were encored. everyone loved HIM. no surprise:). but we love him the most. he just came out with a new CD, build me this. "in the middle" is my current favorite. &of course "coal war" is our first love.

he had been awake for approximately 30 seconds. we love him a lot.
shout out to mommy for the bessemer thrift store SHOPPING SPREE!! sweater, compliments of.
look at the big california smile:].

november. goals.

i am sorting my goals by month now. thanks to my most creative &cute friend mikaela.

make pumpkin cheesecake.

make pumpkin choco-chip muffins/cookies.

make mom's homemade rolls for thanksgiving dinner.

get a job.

make serious leeway on christmas gifts. [!!!!!!!!]

go hot tubbing.

don't gain that holiday pie/fudge pudge.

finish east of eden.

decorate second bedroom.

picture project for kitchen. [!!!!!]

paper lanterns project.

do lots of service.

dan is officially WORKING! tutoring the sweetest little kindergartens &1st &2nd graders that i love hearing stories about. he's worked the past 3 days. i am adjusting. we've never had to be apart since matrimony hardly besides an occasional fishing trip and i'm just not quite used to it. i need at least five new hobbies for my days at home. ones that cost no money since we are sKRIMPING these days. anyone have any ideas?

s'more please!

halloween &the week prior was utterly wonderful. it involved trunk or treat [&since i'm the YW leader i felt it was my duty to go trunk-or-treating with them &fulfill my calling]. the missionaries came over &enjoyed some hot 'n' naughties [daddy james' specialty]. we watched V for vendetta. always listening to led zeppelin in the car lately. they are our favorites. we went to hurricane creek with the batteens &the driggers &went fishin' & had a fire. we had tin foil dinners, which were scrumptious! &to my joy &glee... S'MORES!! dan & i probably had 13 between us. still jobless. it's okay. i think we're getting a little too used to it.


this is a sacred circle. no one is allowed is step on it, only the football players after they beat auburn. it was special.


this is the gang. we love each other a little. don't even bother that none of us are prepared for the picture.


should he be a POLITICIAN?? i think i'm a little intrigued by those shining white teeth. we had a press conference. it's no big deal or anything.




so all the members of the UNDEFEATED alabama football team put their hands up &touch the win. it seems to be working.


i think my eyes might be closed. andrew batteen is our friend with the hook-ups &he took us on an awesome campus tour! it was SWEET. we saw everything.


i presumptuously put my forehead right in front of his lips. i love the little kisses:].


we were SO winded by the time we got up here. too BAD we took the elevator &only had to go up one floor. that's the day i got sore for two days from two flights of stairs &realized i should probably start working out.


this is our best friend NASH. we love him so much. he is the most amazing, wonderful 17-year old person.


samson! no big deal how huge this dog is! property of jessica &chris koerner our cutest new friends:].


look at those faces! soo cute. that's elder durocher by the way.


these are our halloween costumes. we are so scary. freedom fighters i think.


halloween night! there was a full moon. and 6 full happy hearts with fishin, tin foil dinners, s'mores, &the most beautiful fall trees in our sweet secret spot.


the tackle box gang. we started a clubbb.