measure in love...

so, we've both been pretty spoiled around here. after our two week vaca to california, dan had two more weeks off school, and i only had to work four nights, and then had another week and a half off... so we've had lots of time together to play games, go on dates, eat fun dinners, have friends over, watch 'deep impact' and 'dear john', do projects, go hunting at least five times [that's all dan]... basically every fun and wonderful thing that we never have time to do every day. so i think it's safe to say it's been a pretty fabulous year so far... mmm!

new years eve was celebrated at home in pajamas with a fondue meat&veggie dinner topped off with some martinelli's {4 pack from sam's club, of course}, a new years toast, some treat-making and munching, lots of games [dominos/skip-bo, the usual], a hyped up dance party in the living room complete with his&hers blinking LED flashlights, a slow dance to aud lang syne, a fake count down, a kiss, a firework extravaganza in the parking lot while dan... walked me out to WORK!! yes, i worked while clocked strike twelve. it was a little devastating being away from my main squeeze, but we managed to sneak a quick call in so we could at least talk and reallly countdown together... we had a delicious buffet at work and most certainly did share some sparkling cider as well! i LOVE listening to bowel sounds on new years eve, it's just the best thing ever.

i had new years day off of work, it was just plush. that was the goodbye to our hoarding days day [see "organization is BLISS" post below]...

highlights thereafter:

...mcdonalds&best buy date...

he got a hot fudge sundae, she got a m&m mcflurry; we then mozied on over to best buy and played some schveet video games [that's as close as we get to those...]. the funniest. we had to fight over them with the 12 year old boys.

...$1 sushi @ surin date...

surin of thailand is a restaurant on the strip... delicious, delicious! on certain days they have midnight sushi for a buck!... we felt soo fun&funny getting carded and wearing our phone restore wristbands showing that we were of age, sipping on our water, being so hip with all the college kids, and just chit-chatting our glistening hearts out. we will most definitely be going back, and if you come visit us we will take you there (!!)

...gymnastics meet date...

alabama vs. penn state. our gymnastics team is a pretty big deal. they were giving away ipads&55'' tv's, so dan and i were just so excited for when we won [not if, when... we were so sure]. we got all dressed up in our bright and fun outfits so the camera would be drawn to us (all very calculated), got there and spent at least 20 minutes filling out raffle tickets for the ipad, found our seats next to dan's geography teacher (she MIGHT have a little crush on him, not totally sure... but she gave him 100% on everything he did and they might have had a moment while she was passing him in the aisle as she complimented his converses). anywho, definitely didn't win the raffle. so we were set on winning the DANCE competition! (YES!!!) dan wouldn't stand up, so i was just hyphying my HEART out & puttin my grove on with the highest hopes, the camera didn't even COME my way... that's just not fair. we're over it. the gymnastics meet was the best, they fly around like no big deal. we just love the taylor swift songs to the bar dance and the sweet home alabama pride on the floor. we totally, totally, and TOTALLY won [whooped their tushes] in that meet.

watched twin towers. i cried five times at least. it was a little cheesy but only in the best way. you should probably watch it {netflix} if you want to love your husband and family more, love your country, remember the past, etc. and we most definitely enjoyed enjoy popcorn, cookie dough, and candy enough for a family of six.

...stake conference&tcby...

adult session stake conference in bessemer, just wonderful&we loved it. we came back to tuscaloosa and went to tcby with our cute friends, had the most fun and funny conversations, and then made a LATE NIGHT TRIP TO WALMART!!! {duh duh duhhh....} which is usually the kiss of death, but we actually enjoyed it! we bought everything from summer sausage to lemons, you really just can't go wrong there. we even had a surprisingly sweet run in with our friend kelly. :] the next morning was our stake conference and guess who spoke? just guess... PRESIDENT MONSON, elder perry, sister dalton, and brother mcmullin. it was FAR too blissful. [yes, it was broadcast from salt lake to the gulf states if you MUST ask]... we heard such lovely stories from our dear prophet and the most entertaining talk on not "STUFFOCATING" ourselves.

...dinners...

we have been cooking and baking maniacs. chocolate chips cookies, m&m chocolate popcorn, funfetti cake, meatball and vegetable stew, corn chowder, corn bread, fajitas, chicken caesar salad, chicken alfredo, chicken fried rice, funeral potatoes, cheesy scrambled eggs, and YES... thanks to megan whitlock i made homemade biscuits and gravy (if you know my cooking then you know it was the biggest ordeal of my life). all homemade and enjoyed fully! we had my cute friend jada over one night and some other friends another, we love it!

...snow ridiculous...

i wish i convey to you the sheer panic and loss of all sense that comes over people when there is even the slightest flurry in this town. it is hilarious and ridiculous all at the same time. it snowed probably 1/2 inch last week, barelystuck to the ground, really not a big deal right? wrong... the university of alabama shut down. walmart & target shut down. banks shut down. the nurses at the hospital STAYED THE NIGHT and slept in patient rooms because they were too utterly frightened to drive in this life-threatening and dangerous "inclement weather" and they were afraid none of the other nurses would show up the next day. we went to walmart the day before... NOT ONE LOAF OF BREAD left in the whole store. people think they are going to get snowed in and so they hurry to the store and buy break and milk. i mean... there is NO TELLING how long you could be STUCK in your car or house with a HALF OF AN INCH OF SNOW ON THE GROUND!!! the university of alabama sent out multiple emails telling the students that they do not need to worry about coming to school for the first day because of the weather. dan's organic chemistry class tomorrow has been mysteriously cancelled. here is the forecast for tomorrow according to weather.com...

38 DEGREES

SUNNY

0% CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION

it's alabama.

overall, we love each other and we love this new math game on dominos (mathinos or dominath, i'm still deciding). oh yeah, dan made a styrofoam plane from scratch that was just so impressive and flew so perfectly! (backwards).

and... real life starts today!

the end!