Baby McElderry

Half of my friends are pregnant. Sometimes I get dramatic and say all of my friends are pregnant, and that's not really true. But literally, half of my friends are pregnant right now. Or just had a baby. 

Christine is one of my friends from freshman year of college. The first time I met her, she was eating Ramen out of a mug and I thought she seemed nice. The second time we met, she was running out the door with some other friends, wearing a toilet paper pageant sash and a crown, on her way to look for candy, or boys, or both, and I decided we needed to be friends. 

So when she told me she was pregnant, and then later when she asked if we could have a gender reveal party at my house, I was thrilled both times! I love hosting parties. I love thinking of a theme and looking on Pinterest and making my house cute and making treats, and the one part that kind of stresses me out about parties - inviting people and wondering how many are going to show up - was already going to be taken care of for this one. 

Besides, it gives me a real reason to clean my house. I know I live there and I should like it to be clean all the time, but I'm just gonna be honest: if no one is coming over, I have a hard time keeping it clean. And so does Stephen. We just aren't the best at it. 

But we do manage to come through every time we have a party! Just, in our own very different ways. Here's how I clean for parties vs how he cleans: 

I....put everything away. I mean, everything. Where it belongs. Socks, tissues, computer cords, everything needs to go in its place. It is time-consuming, but I hate just hiding the mess. 

He.....puts everything he doesn't want the guests to see on our bed. He closes the door and says no one is allowed in there. Efficient? Yes. Long-term effective? No. 

I....wipe off tables / counters / chairs and sweep. I do not mop before a party, unless something is totally goopy or unacceptable, because everyone's going to come in and ruin it anyway.

He.....re-wipes off everything I just wiped. Re-sweeps everything I just swept. And steam-mops every room. 

I....make cute little treats / snacks and then have to re-wipe off all the counters. When I'm done, I'm always running out of time, so I just shove all the dishes in the dishwasher without rinsing them or anything. I'll take them out after the party and actually wash them, but for now, I'm hiding them.  

He.....could care less about the treats. He gets stressed about the clean counters that I'm ruining. He opens the dishwasher at least twice and starts trying to put away the dishes that are haphazardly crammed inside before realizing they aren't clean, and I am up to my old tricks again. 

I....like to hang up cheesy decorations, usually made out of tissue paper or some cute printable I got off of Pinterest, and usually hanging too low for people that are a normal height. 

He....likes to poo-poo my decoration ideas. I guess I understand....They are cheesy, and they will stay up for at least a week following the event. I just like them and want to keep looking at them!

Christine and Joe will be having a BOY! One day he'll grow up and get married and get a house. And when that day comes, I wonder how he will clean up before his parties?

Missing Husband Alert

Stephen is taking a super-butt-hard classload this semester.

It is so hard that he had to get special permission to take all these classes together because normally that's not allowed, so some guys had to look over his grades and interview him and be like "Are you sure you hate yourself, and having fun, that much?" before they signed off on it.

Also, sometimes his classes make me cry, and I'm not even the one taking them. Except one. Kind of. 

So anyway. Sometimes, he needs to take tests that he studies for all week and all weekend and all day Monday before the test closes on Monday night. It is exhausting, and rough trying to get on a consistent sleeping schedule, and stressful....and I can only imagine how he feels.

Here's how to survive when this happens to your husband:

1. Leave a little lunch of leftovers and a nice note about how smart he is when you go to school. Congratulate yourself the entire drive on how considerate you are.

2. Then proceed to text him all day long with important questions like "Do you want to take a sailing trip in Hawaii?" and "There's a Groupon sale that's ending today, is there anything you want?" and "Do you think you'll take your test in time to go get a sandwich between 4-5 at the Corner Bakery?" Really the more texts the better. He craves those little distractions.

3. On your way home, think of a list of things you can do while he is taking his test. Get really excited about all the "me" time you're going to get!

4. Once you are home, make dinner halfway. You can go grocery shopping together for the rest of the ingredients when he finishes his test. Because, of course that's what he'll want to do!

5. Talk to your sister on the phone for an hour and 26 minutes.

6. Now it's a little later than you were expecting him to be home. Looks like you won't have time to go work out. Oh well....this has happened before. Learn how to make a YouTube playlist of all the songs that get you pumped up so you can work out at home.

7. Get caught up watching videos and let an hour and a half slip away while doing that.

8. Look up and pin all the at-home workouts that feature girls with 6-packs in the picture demonstrations. Since, that's the goal.

9. Get embarrassed that the husband is probably going to get home before you even start your workout.....and quickly start.

10. Finish one workout. The husband is still not aqui.

11. The playlist is still not over.....so do another workout.

12. Get a teeny bit annoyed that he's not going to see you working out when he gets home, so choose another one. Still no husband??

13. Google the UVU Testing Center hours. What?? They closed at 5? It is almost 9! Enter into full panic mode.

14. Call Mama Shimp and calmly ask if the husband is over there. He is not. Calmly hang up the phone saying you'll keep her posted.

15. Begin imagining all sorts of fun scenarios like your car sitting in a crumpled mess on the side of the road in just the right spot for no one to see it for hours, terrorists blowing up the testing center, you sitting in a pile of memorabilia sobbing and planning your husband's funeral, etc. It just adds some suspense.

16. Go back to texting and calling the husband incessantly.

17. Or twice, if he picks up the second time. And answers like nothing is wrong.......

18. Almost start crying because you're so glad he's not dead.

19. Discover that the testing center hours are wrong on the Google machine, but correct on the testing center website. Actually, it doesn't close until 9.

20. Swear off Google. It's stupid. I'm never relying on it again!

Moral of the story? Actually there are two. Communication is key, and don't go to college.

Be Mine, Stephentine

If there's one thing I love more than Valentine's Day, it's Valentine's Day that falls on a Saturday.

And if there's one thing I love more than that, it's when that Saturday happens to fall in the middle of a 3-day weekend. 

And as if my heart isn't already overflowing about this much wonderfulness packed into one holiday with the opportunity to spread that holiday out over 3 days, the one thing that could make all of this even better is something that happened this year. Called, all the national parks were free. 

And not to mention, Friday Feburary 13th was my last day on-track. SO, holler about that. 

Stephen and I started our Valen-weekend with our traditional big fight a few days prior. I don't know what it is, maybe the stress of how much I love Valentines Day and how much I expect for it gets to him, or maybe we just like to spice things up so we get snotty with each other. We're working on it.

Whatever the reason, Friday was Make-Up Day. Aka, the day Stephen added these to my life:

The cutest workout shoes!!

We've never really had a Make-Up Day before, to be honest.....but it worked! I almost peed my pants. I don't consider myself a material girl or even really a shoe person, but apparently I am on 

Make-Up Day. Some people might disagree with me, but I think fights are okay in a marriage. Don't go crazy or anything, and don't try to start fights, but knowing how to resolve conflict is very important. I think sometimes people freak out when they have a fight and they think they're never going to make it because they're fighting and they shouldn't be, but it's really okay. And if everyone would just calm down and hug and kiss and say they're sorry and then have a Make-Up Day to prove it, then everything could be fixed in time for Valentines Day. 

Which I barely took any pictures of, so sorry about that. 

It went like this:

Go to Bruge's for breakfast. They're in Provo now and it is delicious!

Drive drive drive. Read Cosmo. Listen to music. Play getting-to-know-you games c/o The Dating Divas.

Arrive at Snow Canyon! Not a National Park. Pay $6. 

It is worth it.

Get out. Roll in the sand. Try to learn how to do a backflip. Get scared err time so just hang out while Stephen does all the work of lifting and flipping.

Look around for a place to climb.

Try out our new camera tripod. 

It works like a charm :)

Climb and hike and play all day until the sun is setting. 

Go to the petrified sand dunes and try to climb to the highest point.

Put on music and dance.

Sit and wait for the stars to come out.

The stars are out, and they are breathtaking.

Try to find our way back to the car and get very lost.

Almost fall off a cliff.

Pull out the phone flashlights.

Become convinced that we are going to be wandering around in this desert wilderness until we give up and huddle together for warmth until the sun comes up and we are able to find our way out, if we haven't frozen to death by that point, and then when we make our way back to Cassidy Jane Carbaby, she will have been booted since she wasn't supposed to be in that parking lot past 10pm. 

Find our way out??

Pass several signs that say "Not a trail!" 

Feel bad. Ish. It wasn't on the purpose.

Drive out of the park and to Outback Steakhouse!

Change in the car. 

Lament because I didn't remember to paint my toenails and I brought wedges for date night.

Eat all the food, and even drink flavored lemonade. 

Drive to our hosts' home! 

Sit up and chat with Brenley and watch House Hunters. 

Go to sleeeeeep. 

Go to church.

Go kinda close to Snow Canyon on this beautiful hike. 

No pictures do it justice.

Go to Green Valley Loop. 

'Froading in a Honda is....still fun. *said hesitantly* Next time we'll get an ATV or side-by-side or something made for this. 

Watch in awe as some people try slack-lining across the canyon. 

Go climbing. 

This was a special day for me because there were two other couples that started climbing by us. And for the first time ever, I was the best girl there! The guys were pretty good, and it seemed like they went a lot. Like they were couple friends who took a bunch of trips together. But the girls weren't that into it and I guess that just made me super-confident or something, and I did my first 5.10 outside. It was so fun!! I've come a long way since my first time rock-climbing outside.....

Stephen also squeezed some bouldering in. Or maybe this was on the hike?

Drive to the Dixie sign. If there was a dental school here, maybe we would end up living here in Geezy. We consider this as we climb to the top of St. George's version of the Y. 

I'm glad we did, even if it is a little underwhelming. 

Drive over to the St. George temple. 

Consider taking a picture but we are wearing climbing clothes and the lighting's weird and it's kinda cold, so just get back in the car and drive on. 

The next day we take Zions! I love this place. 

We drive in fo freeeee and drive around, through tunnels, around mountains, taking the scenic route. 

We pop out for a brief hike.

Overhear this: "I think our kids are like, genetically predisposed to falling off cliffs."

Start hiking down. 

Get off the trail somehow?? What is wrong with our sense of direction?

Keep driving. 

Stop for lunch at Oscar's.
Become BFF with the owner so he gives us free carrot cake! Or maybe that was just him feeling Valentinesy. Or perhaps because he messed up our order. Hard to tell with these friendly small-tourist-town folks.

I have always loved Valentines Day, but I especially love celebrating this day when my Valentine and I first said "I love you" to each other. On fight days and makeup days, in Provo or in St. George, whether I'm in the driver's seat or he is, Stephen is my Valentine. It was a wonderful weekend that couldn't have been better with anyone else :)