I know, all I do is advertise Giveaways...

But this is a good one :)

Hopeful.

One of these days I will write a real blog post.  As most of you know, my life is pretty boring since I am currently unemployed (yikes).  But, I stumbled upon this very cute fashion blog and the owner is doing a pretty sweet giveaway of pureology hair products.  I want to win because 1. I love free stuff and 2. I absolutely love high end hair products (as my mother could tell you-- I frequently got in trouble as a youth for buying too much hair stuff). 

If you like to blog stalk like me, you will absolutely love pink peonies.  Happy stalking, and here's to hoping I actually win (because you all know this isn't the first time I've posted about a giveaway).

Love and Basketball.

It has been an emotional roller coaster this past month as a Jazz fan and a BYU basketball fan.  The resignation from Jerry Sloan broke my heart and made me want to break D-Will's face (and yes, I blame him for Jerry's departure).  The recent suspension of Brandon Davies has added to my despair and has led me to reflection and lots of time on my knees.

As for the situation with the Jazz, I am flabbergasted by all these sudden changes.  All and all, I think trading D-Will to the Nets was an excellent move.  To me, he will always be known as the player who ran Coach Sloan out of SLC.  He had no loyalty to the Jazz and threatened to leave if Jerry was still around.  I've been questioning my status as a fan for a while now-- my initial reaction to all this was that I live and die with Jerry (because I really thought he would coach until he died).  However, now that they've made Hornasec an assistant coach, I think I'm on board.  I'm sure Favors and Harris will do great things for the Jazz and I look forward to next season when all this team rebuilding is over. 

Brandon Davies' suspension has hit me hard.  Initially I mourned the fact that we have lost our #3 spot and most likely won't do as well during March Madness as everyone had predicted.  Then, after seeing Davies' personal business being broadcasted all over the news, I mourned for him.  Everyone makes mistakes.  When most 'normal' people transgress, they have the opportunity to confess and forsake their sins in a private manner to the proper authority.  The process of repentance even in secrecy is excruciating enough--add the fact that everyone in the entire world knows what you did.  I don't even know if I could survive that.

I do stand by BYU's decision for suspension.  Ever since I got word about the suspension, I've been scouring the internet and reading most articles and video clips.  the Salt Lake Tribune accused BYU of being "the LDS Church standards on Steroids" and claimed that BYU shouldn't even have an honor code office and all misdeeds should be handled by a bishop.  I see where they are coming from, but at the same time I believe BYU's honor code system is fair.  It works the same way repentance does--for instance, if you mess up badly, you lose your temple recommend.  In Davies' case, he lost the privalege of playing on the team.  But, through the repentance process, you have that opportunity to become clean and once again be worthy of a temple recommend.  I believe the same thing will happen in this situation-- Davies will be given the opportunity to come back next season. 

When Harvey Unga withdrew from the football team last season (because of a similar situation), BYU offered to bring him back next season.  He decided to head to the NFL to take care of his family instead.  I hope Brandon will accept the invitation to come back to the team when that time comes.  All of his teammates stand behind him and call him brother.  From what I've gathered from the articles, no team member harbors resentment towards Davies and all acknowledge that no one is perfect.  The BYU basketball team is a great example of the unconditional love and forgiveness provided by our Savior.  I personally am very grateful for the Atonement and the power it has to heal.  I would be lost without it.  For now, my prayers are with Davies and I look forward to seeing him get back to a good place in life, on and off the court. 

An Abundance of Blessings

After many hours of filling out job applications, rejections, and literally only one interview, I have reached the goal of every college graduate in this terrible economy-- I'm employed! It took many prayers and constant worrying since November 2010, but the Lord has once again blessed my life by opening doors that were once brick walls in my mind.

First, I got a part time job at 24 Hour Fitness as a Member Service Representative. Yes, I am the front desk girl. I realize this is not every college graduates dream--making close to minimum wage at an hourly rate. But, in all honesty, I love the job. I spend my days going to group exercise classes in the morning, relaxing at home during the day, and going to my relatively stress free job at night. This is a job that I've wanted all through college, and admittedly this job would have suited me better during my years as a student, but I am grateful that I was picked among the many eligible candidates who applied for this position. Believe it or not, getting a job at a gym in a college town is pretty difficult!

Although my job at 24 is great, I was very worried that I was not going to find another part time job with decent compensation. Mark is on track to graduate in April 2012, and in order for him to stay on track, I need to work full time so he can drop down on work hours at his job to focus more on school. I had gotten several rejection e-mails from different companies claiming they needed someone with "more experience." How am I ever going to get "more experience" if no one will even give me a chance to prove myself as a competent and hard working employee? Thankfully I got a call from the Utah County Health Department Health Promotion Office offering me a part time position with the Tobacco Prevention and Control Program. I did my internship there last semester, and apparently they liked me enough to ask me to join their team. They are now processing my paperwork and I will start with them in a few weeks. Now I have the best of both worlds-- a great relaxed job at 24 that will help me reach my fitness goals, and a job that relates to my degree and will be a great resume builder for all that "more experience" companies are looking for.

I'm so grateful that my Heavenly Father knows me and hears my prayers. Those who know me describe me as a sensitive person, and I'm pretty sure the Lord spoils me just because of that. I am very happy to be a employed full time to be able to help my little family of two grow (in the spiritual and financial sense of course-- this is not a birth announcement) ;)

DONE.

Done with school, and now on the job hunt. I never thought I would say this, but school sounds a lot better to me these days.

I love jewelery--especially when there is a jewelery GIVEAWAY

My old friend Nikki makes these really cute button earrings. You can buy them here at her etsy shop. I've already bought a few and she just came out with new designs that are so adorable.

Check out her blog! She is giving a pair away for free. Comment on her post by Friday, December 10th for a chance to win!


Another friend of mine in my ward makes some really cute earrings as well! You can find them at her etsy shop.

All these girls are inspiring me to be crafty. We'll see how long that lasts =p Who knows, maybe I will open up my own etsy shop one day...

In 30 Days...

I will officially be a college graduate :)





Maybe I'll actually blog then.

Pointe Digital Giveaway!

I want to win soooooooo bad :)

http://pointedigital.blogspot.com/

For Mom...

I'm taking a cooking class this spring term at BYU. So far, it has been fun/annoying (have you ever tried cooking with three people in a little kitchen?!) AND there is a lot of work involved. They have to make it a legit college class by making the workload heavy and somewhat difficult. Mom wanted me to send her some recipes that I've learned so far, so I thought I would just spread the goodness to everybody. I'm sure my mom is one of the very few readers of this blog anyways, so this is mainly for her (in the last few minutes of mothers day). Happy Mothers day, and happy cooking!

SHELLS AND VEGGIES SOUP

1/2 tsp. vegetable oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 clove garlic, chopped
1 can (14 oz.) chicken broth (1 ¾ cups water, 1 ¾ tsp. bouillon)
1 can (14 oz.) crushed or diced tomatoes
1/4 cup small shell pasta
2 Tbsp. dried parsley

1/4 cup chopped frozen spinach

1/4 cup cubed zucchini

1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

3 Tbsp. fresh grated Parmesan cheese - This will be put on the serving table, by the teaching assistant, for all to use when the soup is served.

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until the onion is soft, about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Add chicken broth, tomatoes, parsley, basil and oregano to saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat , and simmer covered for 10 minutes.

3. Add spinach, carrots, celery and pasta. Cook 10 minutes covered at a low boil. Add zucchini and cook 7 more minutes.

4. Test for doneness by forking vegetables and pasta to see if tender.

5. Spoon into bowl; add salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese to taste. ENJOY!

Mom-- your chicken soup is better, but this is good too. More recipes to come..

Back in Action...

I apologize for my prolonged absence from the blogosphere. I quit blogging originally because I was so swamped with school. Then, I lost my camera chord thingy, and honestly, I think blogs are quite boring without pictures. Now that I've replaced it, I feel quite comfortable in "getting back in the swing of things" in terms of blogging. Be sure to scroll down to see new posts...

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

The Savior Taught--"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 5:14-16). This girl in the video below reminds me of this scripture. I'm sure many of you have already seen this, but I just wanted to repost it. What a great example of missionary work. I want to be more like her.

Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose - 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo.

Jessica's Wedding

Mark and I went to Vegas this past February for my cousin's wedding. It was so beautiful! Congrats Jessica!

Ashash and me

The next few pictures are of the awesome suite at the Palazzo. No we are not rich, we just got a REALLY generous deal on Hotwire.com. It was so big that I had to take 4 pictures to get it all. Lucky us :)

I love this cute little vanity. I've always wanted one of these!

yeah...Mark was pretty tired from driving all the way from Provo. he's a trooper

ShE's CrAfTy!

In Fall semester of 2009, I was able to take floral design at BYU. The tests and quizzes were surprisingly difficult (I had to memorize all the botanical and common names for flowers among other things), but I absolutely LOVED the labs. I got to make my own floral arrangements. It was so nice to have fresh flowers in my home every week. I miss it!


umm... obviously i didn't make the pie in floral design. BUT...I did make this pie (and I cried a lot during the process). Making homemade pie crust and pie topping is hard work! It was really good..so good that I made Mark take it to work with him so I wouldn't get fat =p I admire all you homemakers who actually enjoy baking...its tough stuff!

I made a bunch of boutonnieres and I made Mark pose with one before we went to BYU Homecoming :)

My favorite arrangement

The bouquet I made. The quality of flowers I used weren't the best, but I loved the handle!

The "everlasting design" (fake flowers)--I LOVE Hydrangea

The gift basket I made for my uncle

Me with my very first flower arrangement

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.