2 Years

I've been a Shimp for two years now.

!!!!!

Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday that we got married, and other times it feels like it's been 80 years and we are an old married couple. But e'er day, whether it's good or hard or boring or adventurous, I'm glad I married this super-hunk.

We half-celebrated our anniversary a day early, on Saturday, August 8th. Our anniversary traditions are:

-Write love letters to each other
-Do something we love doing
-Do something we've never done

We wrote love letters on our wedding day, and I love that someday we will have a huge stack of all the letters. Your relationship changes every year and I think it will be cool to look back and see how we loved each other differently at the different phases of our marriage - from our newlywed days to our married with children days to our empty-nester days.

After getting engaged, Stephen took me to La Jolla Groves. It is a fantastic restaurant in the Riverwoods and we have gone back every year! This year and last year, that has been our something we love doing.

2013, directly post-engagement

2014, after one year of marriage. The lighting is not great in La Jolla Groves, but everything else is!

2015, after two years! There was a wedding going on this time, so they put us in a different room than we've been in the past two years. It wasn't as cool of a room, but the food, especially the salmon, was just as delicious as ever.

For our thing we've never done, we had a few ideas that all fell through. We wanted to go on a ropes course - it closed too early. We wanted to spend a night at the Anniversary Inn - it was booked. We wanted to go to a drive-in theater - and we did! But we took Sabie, and she is a tard car, and when you turn on the car just a little bit so you can listen to the sound of the movie, the lights come on too. Personally, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. They weren't on all the way and I didn't think it would bother anyone. But Stephen was extremely self-conscious about it and refused to have the car on, so we had to hang out our windows listening to the movie through other people's car speakers, and in the end it was just about the worst date we had ever had!

On Sunday, our actual anniversary, we celebrated with a heart-shaped breakfast and love letters.

Then church, and then a walk to Stewart Falls! Back to where it all started, if you want to say it started when we got engaged. Walking hand-in-hand along the beautiful trail, this time with Stephen's family, was a perfect way to celebrate our anniversary. (And it was also one of the best dates we've ever had :)

All my single lady friends.....get married! There is really nothing better. I loved being single, but I love being married more than I ever even imagined I would. There is so much satisfaction and comfort I feel from being in a relationship, one that I know is forever, with a man who is wholly and unconditionally mine.

I can't imagine life without him - I can barely remember a time when I didn't know him, and I love how effortlessly he fits into my future. He is my person, and nothing makes me happier than how securely I feel that :)

When Boys Watch the Bach

They say some funny things. Over the course of this season, the Shimp ladies (and one Lively lady) had gotten to the point where we were a leetle done with those comments, and we were thrilled to just have a girls' night with the finale. We got our root beer floats, popped our popcorn, and set up on the couch 60 minutes after the show started so we could watch with no commercials.

Then......the men trickled in. And the comments began.

When Kaitlyn and Nick were lounging on a boat, on their date: "Are those two married?"

When Shawn showed up after that: "Hold on, is that the same guy?"

When we explained that no, they're not married, and no, they're not the same person, but rather the same girl dating two different guys: "It's a dating show?.....You like, watch people date?.......Sounds pretty dumb."

When Chris Harrison met Kaitlyn at the mansion: "Is he dating her, too?"

Mama Shimp: Alright bye! We know he chooses [Winner's Name], now you can go to your friend's house.
Logan: No wait!
Mama Shimp: Huh? Honey all that's gonna happen is that he'll walk up and talk, then she'll talk, then he'll get down on one knee, and that's it.
Logan: Well I wanna see them kiss. Push play.

When Kaitlyn started crying....you know, one of the times she did. "This is the dumbest show."

When [one of the guys] said: "You took things from me."
Me: What did she take from him?
Mike: His virginity, I think. Is that it?

When the commercial for Bachelor in Paradise comes on after the finale: "Ooookay, we don't watch that. Come on guys, let's....let's take a break. Bachelor, Bachelorette, that's enough. Just those two. Let's keep it simple. Keep it clean. Just that, we don't need Bachelor in Paradise." (I think he was a little worried.)

Don't worry, we're not Bachelors in Paradise kinda people. And, as much as we love them, we wouldn't require our boys to watch it with us anyway :)

A Weekend at the Capitol

Stephen was not a happy camper this semester.

I've already explained why, so we don't need to go into that again. The point is, it's over now!! To celebrate, I planned a little weekend getaway and enlisted my BFF's, the Dating Divas, to announce it to Stephen.

It was so fun planning everything out! I got a substitute for my class on Monday and set everything up for us to leave on Saturday, after the Real Live Wives club met for breakfast. I told my kids and got their input. Some of their advice, I followed.

"You should really think about bringing a tent. My family always brings a tent when we go camping."

"Just make sure you don't drive too fast, cuz my dad got a ticket last time when we were driving to Las Vegas."

Some of their advice, I ignored.

C: How is he going to pack?
Me: I'm going to pack for him!
C: But how will you know what to bring? What if he doesn't like it?
Me: He won't care, he doesn't really care what he wears.
C: Oh! So.....you should pack a bikini for him!!!
*Laughter erupting all around the classroom*
Me: ....What? I don't want him to wear a bikini!
C: No no! Wait! I got it! You should like, give him a sleeping pill, and then when he's asleep, THEN put him IN the bikini!
*Even more laughter*
Me: But I still don't want him in a bikini, why would I do that?
C: Because he'll think it's so crazy!

Yes. Yes he would.

While Stephen hung out with his family on Friday night, I borrowed ropes and climbing equipment from our friend Brandon (who is single and I need one of my best friends and/or sisters to marry him because he is that great!), pulled the ladder out of our backyard jungle, got down all the camping equipment, marinated some chicken, put water bottles in the freezer, packed the trunk, put all our clothes in a little baby suitcase, and set up my handy little Dating Divas treasure hunt. I changed the last clue just a little - on theirs, the treasure is a movie night in the car (like at a drive-in theater or something).

When Stephen found the last clue, he also saw all the stuff I had packed in the trunk. I told him to get in because we were going somewhere. He had thought I was just planning a date, and he was so surprised! For the first two hours, he had no idea where we were going.

I chose Capitol Reef as our destination because it's only about 3 hours away, and neither of us had ever been there. They don't have climbing, but they do have rappelling! Which I thought would be fun, to try something a little different.

We had just enough time on Saturday to check out Chimney Rock and the Fruita campground, which was full, before we needed to set up our own camp.

In the end, we mostly just hiked and camped and explored the park on foot and via car. It is beautiful!! Our campsite was in the "primitive camping" section, and it was so private. There was a table, fire pit, and tons of wood from the last campers. We couldn't even see another campsite. It was just so unpopulated that it felt like we were the only ones there. Actually, the moon was there too. And it was very full. And quite intrusive.

We ate sweet potatoes and marinated chicken, and cuddled up to read Jurassic Park together. This was a good idea and a bad idea, because it is a really good book, but then I was afraid that a velociraptor was going to attack our campsite.

We also ate at the Rim Rock restaurant, which I highly recommend! The only thing about it that I didn't appreciate was when I told the waitress that I didn't want croutons on my salad, and Stephen tattled on me that we are doing Whole 30, and then she brought rolls back.

"I know this doesn't really work with your no grains thing, but we usually serve rolls with the meal," she said, waving them under my nose. "They're really good, it's our own in-house recipe. Do you want them?"

"They look so good!" I said. "But it's okay, we don't need them."

She smiled. "I'll just leave these right here in case you change your mind," she said.

#what.

So then Stephen had to take one for the team and eat them both. {And brag about it....}

I loved this weekend! We got lucky with the weather - thunderstorms were threatening, but we always missed them. We did come back to our tent on Sunday night and it had obviously been rained on, but we were in a different part of the park that had thankfully stayed dry.

One other thing I really loved about it was that the car charger wasn't working, for our phones. So I spent most of the time with my phone turned off, and only turned it on when we needed directions back home. It was so nice to not have to worry about anything except where we were and what we were doing.

I woke up like dis.

This place is stunning and you do need to go. 

Next stop: Hawaii!!

#doubledate

When you first get married, there's a period of adjustment. It's a very cozy adjustment. You live in a little cocoon of love and Netflix, and as long as you don't have to work over the weekend, you usually spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday holed up in your apartment.

At least, that's how it was for Stephen and I. I had just started a new teaching job, and he was taking all kinds of rigorous science classes, so we loved having our weekends blank. It was lovely to have a whole two days of mundaneness and only caring about one other person's happiness. 

Eventually, though, we started to get restless. Should we maybe try to be social? You will ask. Are we missing out? You will worry. 

The answer is yes. 

So we dove back into the dating world, this time operating as one unit in search of other restless couples that we could date. And that, too has been lovely. 

A whole world of dinner groups, murder mystery parties, free concerts, potluck picnics, rock-climbing trips, and game nights exists out there! And as long as you don't lock your keys in the car, you, too can be apart of it. 

Except, even when you lock your keys in the car, some good couples still let you be apart of this world. 

A few weeks ago, we went on a date with our friends Sara and Russ. We met up with them at Rita's, and as Stephen was getting out of the car and pressing the lock button on the door, he failed to notice the keys sitting on the seat behind him. 

Thus began a night of adventure involving the following cast:

the wife: who kindly doesn't get upset about the keys

the husband: who also kindly doesn't get upset about it

*It's easier to not get upset when you're meeting up with someone and how embarrassing would that be if you just sat there huffily, annoyed about some uncontrollable circumstances.

the date wife: who immediately starts calling people to help, even before they arrive at Rita's 

the date wife's grandpa: who agrees to let us borrow his break-into-cars kit that he has because of his questionable past - except not really because he's actually darling and has probably never done anything as bad as breaking into a car that's not his own 

the date wife's grandma: who is SO CUTE and who tells us her conversion story while we sit in her living room, waiting for the grandpa to real the manual and pick the right tool for Sabie's make and model

the date husband: who eventually just takes the whole kit and promises to bring it back when we're done

Back at Rita's, we met.....

the first or second date couple: who sat and watched with a mixture of pity and excitement, while they ate their Italian ice. They had had no idea their night was going to be this exciting.

the ex-cop: who left his gelato on the table and asked if he can try when he noticed us fiddling around with all the tools, and then when he didn't get it to open, called his friends and told them to come save us! He is aka the Good Prov-aritan. 

We tried everything. And when I say we, I mostly just mean Stephen. He tried everything.

Eventually, just as our new friend was telling us not to worry about it and that someone would be getting there soon to help, it happened. Stephen managed to hook one of the tools on the key ring, and lift the keys up from the seat. Slowly, we used the keys onto another hook, and slid them out of the window, and the day was saved!

This could have turned into a much longer saga. In our excitement at getting the keys out, we accidentally left one of the pryer-opener tools on the windshield, clamped down under the windshield wiper. I didn't realize it until 45 minutes into my drive to school the next morning, so thank goodness it didn't go flying off. 

The moral of the story is: always date other couples. You never know when you might accidentally lock your keys in the car. 

And the other moral is, always date Stephen and I. We know how to make a night exciting. 

Our Diet Starts Tomorrow

Two things you need to know about me:

1. I don't like the word diet.

via

2. I'm not interested in losing weight.

But for some reason, I have decided that Stephen and I need to do Whole 30 - starting tomorrow. Monday, April 20th. (Maybe it would be best for everyone to just stay away from us during the first few days so we can grump in peace.)

Here are the reasons:

1. I want a 6-pack. Not all the time, and I don't want to be a bodybuilder. Just when I flex, I want some lines.
2. I have heard really good things about it. Like that you feel more energetic, sleep better, get rid of unhealthy cravings....and yes people also lose weight and most of the time that's why they do Whole 30, but if you're just trying for a 6-pack, it will help you with that too.
3. We are going to Hawaii and need to LGmN (look good mostly naked).

4. I think I have a dependence on carbs. I could literally eat nothing but carbs for about a week and be perfectly content. I love macaroni and cheese, nothing is better than fresh bread, and when I'm feeling salty, I reach for chips and guac. I literally have rice, bread, tortillas, chips, or pasta with every single meal. And I'm curious to see how I feel without any of those things.

5. While in Hawaii, we are going to be doing lots of active things! Tons of hikes, swimming, and exploring in mountains, jungles, and the ocean. I don't want to miss out on things because I don't have the energy or the strength, or because I'm sore from the activities of the day before.

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I think those are really good goals. They're like, good things to strive for. But here's the most common reaction I've gotten: "Why? You really don't need to."

Although I guess that's nice, it isn't very supportive. It's kind of like saying, "You already look fine so the one reason a person might have for wanting to eat healthy is irrelevant to you."

But come on! Shouldn't we all be interested in living a healthy lifestyle, whether we weigh 300 lbs or 100? And shouldn't your lifestyle be driven by more than just looks? (Although, I actually think looks are a fine motivation for eating healthy and working out....but please don't misunderstand that. I'm not encouraging extreme dieting or self-torture or eating disorders.)

To be honest, we aren't going to follow the program perfectly. Whole 30 says no to beans and legumes, but beans are good for you - they've got a lot of protein and fiber - and since we're not all that concerned about losing weight, we're going to eat the beans. Also, Whole 30 says no to honey - but occasionally, I'm going to add it to my breakfast smoothies.

Mood this weekend: I had a little panic attack and ate all the things. I acted like the world was about to be over! Stephen and I went to Pizza Pie Cafe to enjoy our last few carbs.

Stephen didn't seem nervous or excited. He was being very nonchalant.

Current mood: I feel fine. I'm actually really excited! I've never done anything like this.

Stephen, on the other hand, is wandering around the kitchen moaning about how I'm trying to kill him. He just ate about 10 sausages and an apple, and tried to eat a very expired granola bar before he decided he didn't need to stoop that low. I don't know what's got him so upset. We haven't even started yet....but maybe it's the fact that he just barely looked up Whole 30 and now he knows what it is.

Wish us luck!! We've all got goals, and it's nice to know that there are people out there who are cheering for you and hoping you'll succeed at your goals. What goals do you have?

#howwebachelor

I don't know if you've ever read a single blog of mine or talked to me for like 30 seconds during Bachelor season, but if you have, then you know how I feel about this show. 

Actually, I have lots of feelings about the show. So it might take a little longer than that. 

The point is, I love the Bachelor. I know sometimes the producers manipulate me, but I don't mind. I get suckered in e'er season and I relish every minute of it. I avoid spoilers at all cost, unless they're like the official spoilers from ABC, and I actually print off a page with all the girls' pictures and a little bio of each, and I take notes on every time they cry / kiss / fight / get a date / get a rose / get sent home....so that is a little embarrassing, but clearly I'm not all that embarrassed of it since I'm posting on my blog about it. 

Anyhoo. Here are my rules for How to Bachelor:

1. No interruptions! 

2. Every time I say something mean about one of the girls I have to do a push-up. Julie made up this rule and we are going to be so strong, you guys. 

3. You have to watch it with a good balance of taking it seriously and not taking it seriously. Sometimes it is hilarious! Sometimes the girls are paid actors. I don't curr. People think that people can't be crazy and that's where they get confused about the Bachelor. Actually, people are crazy sometimes, and just because they happen to be on a reality TV show doesn't mean we need to get all indignant and say the show is fake. 

4. Seriously, no one should interrupt. 

5. Watch it with your husband whenever possible. Stephen hates this rule so I try not to be too pushy about it. But it is so fun to watch with boys, and I think there is a little part of him that enjoys it, at least a little bit. 

6. When you see a date that you want to go on, take note! For some reason it is always really hard to google the dates afterwards and find the exact name of the city / business that you are looking for. Except for Antigua, which Des couldn't stop bringing up over and over 8,000 times an episode. 

7. Have you ever read Chris's blog about it? Oh my hilarious!

8. If you want to take notes with me, here is a little printable notes-taking thing I made up with the bios on the ABC website. It has been very handy so far :)

A Heart, a Circus, and Free Food

At the risk of sounding like a spaz at the start of a blog post.....THIS WEEK has just been so great!! Here were my favorite parts:

Friday - when Alex got a new heart! I walked into school on Friday morning, and Margot walked out of her room and said "Heather? Did you hear about Alex?" I said no, and she said, "He got a heart!" My brain couldn't even figure out what she was saying at first because it was such a big deal and such a surprise! If you don't know who he is, Alex is a boy in my class who was born with half a heart. Last year, he got put on the waiting list for a heart transplant. This whole year he hasn't been able to come to school except for one hour on the first day, and another hour to do his Spotlight, and on Halloween to participate in the parade. He is just about the best little boy I've ever met, and his whole family is like angel people who barely even belong in this world because they are just way too good. They're the kind of people who are so happy and positive and humble and giving and sweet all the time, and you just know that that they are like that with everyone they meet. Anyway, it has been a long time waiting for a heart, and it was a huge celebration in the class on Friday morning!

Top: what was written on his DIBELS test that he obviously wasn't here to take on Monday.
Middle: When I visited him at the hospital.
Bottom: What we wrote in our Shimp Shoutout on Friday!

Saturday - when we went rock-climbing for like 4 hours and I climbed my first 5.11! I am so proud every time I reach a new milestone in climbing.

Monday - when I won a radio contest! Thanks 93.3! In case you were wondering, carrots are the #1 healthy snack food that is consumed more on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other Sunday of the year.

Tuesday - when Julie and Kelly and I went to Zupa's for dinner. Yum and fun!

Wednesday - when we cashed in on my radio contest winnings and went to see THE CIRCUS YOU GUYS! The Jordan World Circus came to Utah, and Stephen, Julie, Michael, Logan and I were all in attendance.

He is so happy to have a wife who wins stuff.

Side note: I feel like I should add that I do not support animal abuse! I was a little sad for these elephants. But the good news is, they mostly just had people acts. 

Also, it is surprisingly difficult to get a picture pretending like you have elephant trunks. I don't know why?? But Stephen kept putting his trunk in front of my face and blocking me!

Like so. 

And then when we finally got ourselves, our trunks blocked the elephant. And I....got pregnant? Whate'er.

Cuties :)

Thursday - when the Consule Generale came to our school! This person is a big deal. I didn't know who she was, but I have been thoroughly educated and now I understand that she is a big deal. If 20 people tell you someone is a big deal I think it's pretty safe to trust that assessment. Margot said she is kind of like the president, or kind of like a diplomat, who lives in San Francisco. There are only 2 French General Consulates living in the USA, and they help out all their French peeps who come over here.

She came to our school to see how the kids are learning French! Everyone was in a tizzy. The lunch ladies came and hugged Margot and wished her good luck, and the librarians almost fell over when I walked in the library later on. "Is she here?" they gabbled. "How did it go?" The secretaries set out water bottles with little paper jackets that said "Fox Hollow Elementary School." My principal wore a suit and probably combed his beard.

We threatened prepped all our kids and practiced our assembly for this important person like 3 times, and in the end, it turned out just fine.

She is such a big deal that I texted this picture to Margot on Wednesday night asking what I should wear.  

I would have been so remiss to not get a picture of the famous person, so here's my first attempt. {I was trying to hide my phone and be discreet.}

It did not go great.

So I gave up and just be'd obvious about it. *Side note - at this point in the program I thought the blonde lady in black was the Consule Generale. Turns out she was not. Oh and when I found out the blonde lady was not her, I next thought it was the lady with the patchwork kinda skirt. She is also not the Consule Generale. The guy with a scarf is the consulate's personal assistant, and my principal is on the far right.

All the kids sang a song for her.

And then finally, I figured out who she is, when they presented her with a gift basket. She is the brunette with the khaki jacket.

Now all the famous people want to come to our school because it went so well! So you know I am happy about that. One of these times it's bound to be a famous person I've heard of.

Friday - when we had PLC after school, per usual on a Friday, and our principal gave us Chili's chips and salsa and French cookies and chocolate.

Moral of the story: Be nice to animals and famous people. And also not-so-famous people. They are important, too.