Thursday, December 30, 2010

The New Year Approaches.

Hard to believe that 2011 is here already. So much has happened this year, and they’ve all been great! Here’s a quick recap of the year:

January:
I flew back to Idaho to continue dating Erin… ahem, I mean to work while off-track.
I asked Erin’s father if we could get married. (They actually never gave me a straight “yes.”)
The next day they left to Cambodia on their mission.
We were officially engaged on Saturday, ‎January ‎30, ‎2010, ‏‎10:40:46 AM

February:
A wedding date was selected and we began planning.
Erin agreed to be my Valentine every year for forever.

March:
Erin turned 21.
Erin’s Parents flew back from Cambodia.
My Parents flew from Florida.
Erin went through the Temple.

April:
We were married for Time and Eternity on April 1st.
Went on a short Honey Moon to Idaho Falls.
Everyone flew home.
School started up again.

May:
I turned 22.

June:
Our block classes finished.
We drove 40 hours to Florida for our real Honeymoon.
We sold Fireworks to pay for our Honeymoon.
Erin almost died.
Erin almost died.
Erin almost died.
…. It happened a lot in Florida….

July:
We finally were able to enjoy our Honeymoon.
Went to the beach and a lot theme parks.

August:
We drove another 40 hours home to Idaho.

September:
School started again.

October:
Hmmm… Halloween? And school…
Oh, I white washed Erin after a snowball fight.

November:
A wonderful Thanksgiving at the Judkins

December:
School ended.
Our first Christmas together.
Went snowmobiling in our back field.

There’s a lot more than just that that happened to us. Pretty much every day we have some sort of adventure. But all in all, it’s been a really great year.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

We are still here!

I know it’s been forever since I blogged last. Life kinda took off, I thought it’d slow down sooner rather than later but I guess I was wrong. Anyways, I’m back to blogging so life is good again! I tried to blog a bit after Thanksgiving but I never finished so here are a few stories from then: I hate scary movies. Why? Well because they scare me. Andrew, on the other hand, seems to love them. I won’t watch any with him or if I do I’m hiding under a blanket with my ears plugged. Now you see I’m not a wimp; I just have a very over-active imagination. When the show ends for everyone else it keeps going for me in my mind. Soon I freak myself out to the point of me not being able to handle Andrew popping around the corner and saying “boo”. Just this last week I was at home folding towels, I had my music on loud and was just trying to get through all the laundry that had piled up. I didn’t hear the garage door open or Andrew unlock the door. He though it would be funny to spook me so he tip toed around the house so that he could creep up from behind me. I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see Andrew. Although it didn’t look like the Andrew that I had gotten used to over the past month, he was no longer blonde! I didn’t immediately recognize him. My breath caught in my throat and my heart skipped a beat. Who was this man in my house!? In a second after that thought I recognized him as being my brunette husband. My body relaxed and I realized that I had begun to cry. He started laughing (I’m sure to ease the tension) and I completely broke down into tears of shock, fright, and relief. He felt really bad for giving me such a scare. All he had done was walk up behind me, but it really freaked me out. I think the tears were triggered as a defense mechanism… an emotional woman should be able frighten off any potential attacker right? [The best part is, she hasn’t seen a scary movie in years. –Andrew]
The snow has finally come. Though it hasn’t snowed enough in the valley to do much with it; that notwithstanding, the roads out in the country have managed to have formed random patches of black ice under the snow fall. I was driving Andrew into school the other day and we came to the first stop sign of the commute into town. I put on my brakes like normal but the car didn’t slow at all. It took me a second to figure out that my car was sliding on what my dad would call “a road that was slicker than greased gofer guts”. I hadn’t taken my foot off the brake yet but I heard an odd mumbling coming from Andrew as we started to slid sideways, about to hit the stop sign and the fenced off ditch right behind it. I finally translated his chanting mumbles into “let off the brake, let off the brake, let off the brake...” I took my foot off the brake and flipped the wheel into the slide and onto the shoulder of the road. The tires grabbed at the dirt and repelled us away from the certain disaster of totaling of our car in the ditch with a stop sign wrapped around us and a broken fence, and maybe a smashed cow or two. I felt like a race car driver! It was super cool! We were literally inches away from hitting something but my fancy driving rocked! Yeah… I’m really not kidding anyone am I? We were very blessed that day to be safe. But I still felt cool.
Over Thanksgiving brake I took Andrew sledding for the first time. What an adventure! My goodness… The days leading up to Thanksgiving the weather turned flat out mean. The Rexburg wind took out it’s vengeance on the valley; bringing a white out blizzard making the visibility only as far as to the end of our driveway. It was on a day such as this that I thought I should take Andrew sledding for his first time ever. (He’s from Florida and had almost no idea of what to do with frozen white stuff that was suddenly avalanching from the sky.) We bundled up in some borrowed snow gear and headed for the hills up by the college. We almost got stuck on the road in the snow behind van that was stuck in a drift at a stop sign. We finally parked and marched up the hill. The sleds acted as kites, that plus the wind blowing on us and we barely made it to the top of the hill. We ended up laying on top of our sleds to spread out our weight and using our feet to propel us over the monster drifts that had formed in the path. We couldn’t see anything but white and our eye lashes were frozen together so the first run Andrew made was the first one he could get to. I went first thinking it would just be a straight drop to the bottom of the hill but the people who had formed this run had added massive jumps that I couldn’t see due to the white out. Before I knew it I was flying four feet off the ground. I landed with a bone rattling crunch, I just managed to keep a hold of my sled as my momentum hurtled me down the rest of the hill and over a few smaller jumps that had also been invisible to me. Once I regained my senses I turned around to warn Andrew. It was too late, as I turned I saw him about midway down the hill just about to take fight off the first jump. I yelled to tell him to turn aside or bail but the wind blew my shouts back into my face. The he was off, up into the air very unexpectedly. I couldn’t see anything of his face but his uncovered nose and eye, which were wide with surprise. He made the landing and I could see his whole body absorbed the shock of the impact. He was coming down the hill at top speeds now and I realized with a jolt that in a matter of seconds that he would be crashing right into me. I had to dive out of the way getting snow all down my coat and in my face. We only made two more runs down the hill that day because it was so hard to get to the top. We came back a few days later and stayed for hours. Andrew really enjoyed it! Maybe next year, once we have our own snow gear, I’ll try him out on snowboarding or skiing.
Speaking of the crazy blizzard, I think that was the end of our cats. I thought they were old enough to handle themselves better in the cold but I guess not. Once the storm cleared we went out looking for them and there were no tracks to be seen. I don’t think the coyotes got them because there was no blood or remains. I think they were walking under the drip line of the house and a sheet of snow slid off and crushed them. I’ll find them in the spring if this is what happened, if not, I guess I’ll never know. Maybe Andrew will get me a cat for my birthday or something. By then the snow should be thinking about melting…. Maybe…
Christmas was amazing this year! Without a doubt it was my favorite Christmas ever. The night before we each chose a gift to give each other to open. Andrew gave me a yogurt maker! I love yogurt and once I figure out how to make Greek yogurt I’ll be set forever! I gave him an extra long double layered fleece blanket that I made myself. Now when we cuddle he will have a blanket that can actually cover his feet. That night we watched The Ultimate Gift. It’s one of my favorite movies. We went to bed and at six in the morning Andrew woke me up to go unwrap presents. I told him no and rolled over falling back to sleep in his arms. A few hours later we actually woke up and went up to enjoy our first Christmas together. It was so fun to be just us! I got him a nice PJ set, slippers, a bath robe, a beanie, a Leatherman, a blender, jeans, a hoodie, an I-pod arm band, a food scale, and a gift certificate to a local laser tag place. He got me some yoga pants, slippers, a teapot, a certificate for an hour massage, a really awesome chesses planer, some high quality knives and a knife block that has a bunch of rods instead of slots so I can put any knife in that I want and it will fit. He is so thoughtful! After presents he made me biscuits and gravy for breakfast. We both crashed in the fat boy chair and watched the extended addition of The Fellowship of the Ring. I slept through almost all of it and I’m not sure how much Andrew was awake for. But it took three hours to get through. By then we had to get to Christmas lunch that our amazing neighbors had invited us to. We ate till we almost died and came home and laid around for the rest of the day just enjoying each other’s company. It was wonderful.