Disney World

This past week, I was able to go to Disney World with my nieces and nephew to see "Icky, Innie, Oofy" (this is how precious Lauren, age 2, pronounces the Disney characters names). It was hard keeping track of everyone, but the little ones had a blast!

At lunch with Winnie the Pooh and friends, Lauren had eyes for Piglet. She ended up chasing after him while he went table to table to visit all the kids. She was very upset when she was returned to our table, screaming "PIIIGWWWWET!"

My Dad seemed pretty mortified when I jumped in the picture with Tigger. It was one of those "seriously?" looks. From then on, I fought the urge to get pictures with some of my favorite characters...even though the temptation was high at the Princess Luncheon we had at Cinderella's Castle.

I have a ton of pictures, so I will probably post more later. The weirdest thing I noticed at Disney World was that they actually sold alcohol there. Why in the world would you sell alcohol at a place for CHILDREN? I'm sure there are reasons but I just don't think it is appropriate.

It was a tough trip, driving from Virginia all the way to Florida with two little ones in the backseat. I'm not particularly fond of roadtrips... it was nice to spend time with family, though. Mark stayed home in Utah since he couldn't take off work, and I've been missing him like crazy! I finally get to see him tomorrow after 2 weeks of being apart. So long!

Sweet Surprises...

The other day, Mark came home with these beautiful pink Gerberas--just because! I love little surprises. He also got me a HUGE costco sized box of my favorite candy. Yum! Now I have lots of treats to sneak into movie theaters with :)

Lucky in Love...

Mark and I celebrated our first anniversary this past weekend. I can't believe it has already been a year! Mark kept on telling me all last week that he had a GREAT idea on how to celebrate, but I asked him to surprise me. However, Friday night he let it slip since he was so excited :) He booked a room at the Hotel Monaco in Salt Lake for Saturday night. It was really nice! We were bummed out though because it didn't have a pool. We wanted to go swimming! It was still nice to "get away from it all," even if it was only 45 mins away.

In our Junior Suite

Once in Salt Lake, we went to this delicious Italian restaurant in the Gateway called Biaggi's. We took the Trax to get there. I had never been on Trax before, it was a little nicer than the metro back in D.C. I was thrilled because I expected the restaurant to be really expensive, but really the menu was no more expensive than the Olive Garden and the food was 20 times better! I hope to go back there soon. Mark and I stuffed our faces and felt rather sick afterward. It didn't help that the temperature outside was at 101 degrees while we waddled around the Gateway from shop to shop trying to "walk it off."

My lasagna was to die for...

As you can see, we cleaned up our lobster and crab dip quite nicely, and Mark got the seafood pasta

On Sunday morning (our anniversary), I was reluctant to leave the hotel since I love being in Salt Lake so much. But, once we got back to Provo, it felt good to be home :) we had planned to make spaghetti for dinner, but since we had Italian food the night before, we just decided to make a salad and eat cake! We got a Coldstone cake since our wedding cake is still in VA (and I'm not so sure we would want to eat it anyways since it's a year old.)

Mark in his "MARK ALLAN 4 LIFE" shirt. There is a story behind that...

In high school, Mark was pretty much the school heart throb. Every girl either hated him or loved him, and I am convinced that those that claimed to hate him secretly loved him (since I played that card for a while myself). Anyway, I had a couple of close friends my age who were also infatuated with Mark. One of them made shirts for Christmas with the above message on front (with his name spelled incorrectly, maybe to be more covert? I don't think that worked) and on the back it said our names along with a heart and Marks initials underneath that. I am not kidding. Mark knew about these T-shirts and wanted one for himself, so he took one of them (that wasn't mine). When we started dating, he felt it more appropriate if he wore my shirt since it says "Katy loves M.A." on the back. He tends to wear it on special occasions :)

We had a wonderful anniversary together! I am very lucky to have a romantic husband. I can't wait until valentines day! I have some ideas up my sleeve...

Seersucker Sunday

When it comes to fashion, it seems that I always get shown up by my own husband. I've always admired his sense of style. Now I'm just jealous that he always looks better than me...

I love the seersucker suit. This purchase must have been inspired by the one and only Papa Greg. It seems that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

yeah, we have difficulty with the self timer...



Oh, and I just discovered picnik on the web. I know it's been around for awhile, and I did a crappy job with the above photo, but it seems fun.

Company Picnic

I had the pleasure of accompanying Mark to a picnic put on by the company he works for. Nothing beats a free meal, raffle prizes, and games. I was able to witness Mark in the heat of battle in a badminton tournament. The prize at hand was an Ipod Touch, which I knew Mark wanted very badly (probably because his brother Nathan has one). Unfortunately, Mark and his middle-aged partner were knocked out in the first round. They were up against fierce competitors from Canada who play frequently and take the game quite seriously. Ironically, all winners of the different competitions were in one of the head positions of the company, so essentially they bought Ipods for themselves. But, we still walked away with a generous gift certificate to Best Buy that was givent to all company employees. Good deal.

Creepy Crawlies

The Summer months seem to have invited every little insect and spider in the area to our apartment. I have frequent encounters with these little creatures. As mentioned in a previous post, I am terrified of spiders. However, I have faced my fears (when Mark is not available) made use of my winter boots in July. Those suckers don't stand a chance against them. Now, I just look forward to a day where I won't see a little something scurrying across the floor near my feet. I don't know how many more freak outs I can endure before inducing a heart attack. Yes, I am aware of my young age, but I am convinced that my body has aged 15 years faster than normal due to:

• my bad back
• varicose veins (gross)
  
• my desire to take frequent naps
  
• my severe inflexibility
  
• gray hairs every now and then...(maybe they are just really blonde?)
  

Looks like Mark will have to ship me off to assisted living sooner rather than later.

O.C. Obsessed

Since I opted not to take Summer term classes, I've had a LOT of free time on my hands. I searched for a job, but not aggressively due to (a) the economy (nobody is hiring) and (b) I really don't want to work in the fall considering that school kind of owns my life. I had plans to grab a good book and read for fun (something I haven't done since middle school), but I remembered a T.V. show I had started yet failed to finish my freshman year with some friends. Luckily, Best Buy had all four seasons of The O.C. for sale for pretty cheap. Apparently it was pretty popular a few years ago, and I saw why when I started watching--it's entertaining, dramatic, and contains losts of twists that you would never expect. Perfect formula to addict an audience. I'm glad I waited till now to watch it though, because I would have gone crazy with commercials and cliff hanging endings after most of the episodes.

The O.C. is basically a drama that portrays the fictional lives of a group of teenagers and their parents in Newport Beach, California. I actually found myself google-ing the name of the high school in the show to find out if it was real or not. Of course, the show is fictional, so it is not real...pathetic, I know.

I finished season four this afternoon, and sadly now I feel a void in my life. There is no more to watch! I am so sad! I know that sounds completely ridiculous, and I know it is. But, when you have a husband that works most of the day and then comes home only to leave and go play golf (did I marry my father?), it was a pretty entertaining way to fill my time. Now I guess I'll look for a book...

Date Night

Mark and I went to go see the movie "17 Again" at the dollar theater tonight. I loved it! Even Mark thought it was a good show, and that is saying something. I've come to realize that our best dates are the cheap dates! Our movie cost us $2.50 and we snuck in treats (hey, we're newlyweds and poor, so don't tell on us) and it was great! If we go to an expensive restaurant, we usually regret it since the food is often not that great (Note to Provo residents, do NOT go to Glorias Little Italy! Expensive and terrible. Marks Spaghetti beats out any item on the menu). So, our favorite date places are chic-fil-a, the dollar theater, the malt shoppe (and basically any other ice cream store), as well as in front of our own TV with a rented movie. All these things are a LOT easier on our wallets, which allows us to go out more. Thank goodness for college towns, they are a sanctuary for newlyweds (esp. Provo). Also, I'm lucky to have a husband that will tolerate a chick flick every now and then :)

Spider Update

Just to let everyone know, the runaway spider (see earlier post) was caught two nights ago. He was found in my bathtub, and was greeted by a piercing scream by me. Luckily, Mark was here to save the day this time. In this house, runaways are punishable by the death penalty. Sorry little guy, but this apartment is not big enough for the both of us.

Twinkle Toes

This weekend, my friend Catherine (probably the only person who actually reads this blog) who is in beauty school asked me to come and be her toe model. I felt bad that she would have to touch my feet (feet are gross), but I wanted to hang out with her anyways so I went. I loved the results!



(Notice how my pale feet almost completely blend in with this white blanket, hot.)

I know, this is bold of me for posting pictures of my feet. I do have the weird kind, where your second toe is longer than your big toe, but I am not ashamed.

You can't really see, but my toes have lots of sparkles and I love them! Mark says that all the 7th graders will be envious of me. He secretly wishes he had glitter toes too! Thanks Catherine!

A few weeks ago, Catherine spent hours curling my hair and it looked great! I'm glad that she loves what she does. Beauty school looks like a lot of fun. Why do I go to college again? Very boring compared to this stuff.


I don't have many pictures of us together, but here is one from our high school prom back in the day.

And here she is today! She was one of my bridesmaids in my wedding.





She is the one on the right. She's a beauty! Catherine is one of the sweetest people I've ever met and I am so lucky to be able to call her my friend. I hope I can grow to be more like her.

Happy Fathers Day

My family is probably completely unaware of this blog. However, I thought I would post a tribute to the Poppy (my fathers grandfather/dad nickname) anyway.

Reasons to love the Poppy:
-He is the best snuggler I know, and will still snuggle me even though I am 20 and married (I must be the baby)
- He keeps the economy going with his technology hobby. He always has the latest stuff as soon as it comes out.
-He is probably the scariest person I know (try listening to him on a business call...), yet the most lovable big teddy bear dad and grandpa.
-He constantly praises my mom on how beautiful and wonderful she is (it's true!)
-He is the best golfer I know
- Basically, my dad just dominates in life. He is a cool guy.

Happy Fathers Day, Poppy! We wish we were home with you!

Happy Fathers Day to Gregory T, as well!

I am certainly a lucky girl to have such wonderful in-laws, so I couldn't leave Marks Dad Greg out (also known as Papa Greg, as I like to call him).

We love it when he comes to town. Mark and Greg usually go golfing, and then I get to join them for a nice dinner out (my favorite!). We love spending time with family.

Greg has always been very supportive and loving towards us. Thanks for all your generosity, Papa Greg, and we hope you had a great Fathers Day!

Arachnophobia

As I mentioned in my previous post, Mark has been gone all weekend long. I really wish he was here when I encountered a very disconcerting 8-legged creature last night. It was about 1 am (I'm a night owl, I guess it runs in the family) and I was working on my grant proposal that I'm doing for a class at the kitchen table. In the corner of my eye, I see something scurrying across my nasty brown carpet (no offense mom--I love the apartment, just not the floors) less than a foot away from me.

Let me take this opportunity to explain how my severe arachnophobia came about. I never used to react so badly to the presence of spiders. Sometimes they would freak me out, but most of the time I would just grab some toilet paper and crush it, later sending it on a journey down the toilet. Then, I came to BYU and became a Public Health major. I've enjoyed my major up to this point. However, it does have its downfalls considering that every possible disease I learn about torments my brain and convinces me that I have the disease as well. In my Advanced First Aid class, we watched a video on black widows in Arizona. The people in the video got bitten by a black widow either by sticking their foot in a shoe that a spider had camped out in, or the black widow found it pleasing to snuggle up to a human in their BED. The people in the video said their black widow bites were the most excruitiating pain they have ever experienced and all landed in the hospital for two weeks plus. Because of this, I always check my shoes for any visitors before putting them on. Now when I see a spider, I automatically believe that it is a black widow/brown recluse out to get me. Moving on...

The spider was brown and camouflaged quite nicely in the carpet. I sat there staring at the little creeper for a good 5 minutes. Then I mustered up the courage to sprint to my bedroom to find my heaviest winter boot that would be sure to crush the sucker. I got back to find my new "friend" hiding underneath the table. This time we exchanged looks for 10 minutes. I was completely frozen. I knew I couldn't kill him at the angle he was positioned, so I waited. Then I decided to get the guy to move a little so I could get a better whack at it. However, he quickly scurried out of my view. This terrified me. I started feeling little spider legs all over me and I screamed very loud (Thank goodness my neighbors didn't call the cops...that would have been embarrassing to explain). I began to tear off my clothes and I ran to my bedroom and shut the door. I even stuffed some dirty bed sheets under the crack of the door so Mr. Spider wouldn't be able to come for a late night visit.

Knowing that the spider is loose in my house leaves me terrified. I've kept an eye out for him all day. Thank goodness my Markie-Mark will be home tonight to protect me from such foul creatures.

I was considering posting a picture of a real spider, but all the google images scared the crap out of me. This toy one should suffice.

When the cats away...the mouse is out to play!

Well, this saying may be better applied to Mark who has been enjoying a "bachelors" weekend in NYC with his brother Nathan and good friend Walter. I have been quite lonely without him. My brother Jess was in town for a wedding, so he borrowed my car for basically the whole weekend. This left me stuck in my apartment all day everyday, with nothing to do but homework. I did watch the entire first season of The Flight of the Conchords, which I LOVED. For those of you who aren't familiar with the show, it's basically about these two guys from New Zealand that are in a band. The show takes place in NYC where the band is trying to make it big. Mark usually has me laughing hysterically when he's at home, but the show kept me laughing while he has been away. He gets home tonight and I am so excited! I hate being without him.

I wanted to post a clip of one of my favorite Flight of the Conchords episodes....enjoy!

Entering the Blogosphere...

Ok, so I cracked. I thought blogging was only for people who had really cute babies (which I don't have yet). But, I noticed a lot of my married and single friends have blogs as well. I like looking at them too. Even my brother Jess has a blog. I never thought I would do this, but I think it will be fun. Lets hope I actually update this!