The Perfect Valentine's Day

For most, Valentine's Day or for all terms and purposes "V-Day" seems to be expensive dinners and expensive gifts. Nate and I are totally not that kind of couple, not that they're bad, but we would really just rather save our money or put it towards our house or retirement. Sometimes though we get so caught up in the "saving money factor" that we end up doing nothing for specials days and it can be kind of a let down.

So this year for Valentine's Day I decided to try to do something nice. My first thing was remembering that it was coming, which I did, yay for me. I got together with some ladies in my ward and put together what they called "The 14 Days of Love." Each lady brought something that their hubby liked and then we combined them all and each lady went home with a special daily gift to give there hubby's up to V-Day. It was a fun idea and there was tons of cool stuff like heart shaped hand cuffs, and chocolate body paint, massage rocks, candy and cookies (I wish I would have taken a pic, it was a pretty sweet idea!). In the end though, it was a lot more work then I thought it would be. When V-day finally came, the bag was still full of the inedible stuff.

One would probably think that we spent V-day vigorously working our way through all the fun "toys" but I don't want to scare anyone away from my blog by going X-rated so instead we did this...

1. Slept in until 11 which is huge for us! We never get to sleep in even on weekends. It was wonderful to stay up late and wake up late for once!

2. Caught a flight to Berlin, New York, LA...we had a couple of gigs we had to rock out on Guitar Hero World Tour. We played some serious face-melting solos!!

3. Four hours later grabbed some lunch at one of our favorite places to eat...Edo Japan. We can eat there and have left overs for 20 bucks! "Two Bento Boxes please!"

4. Off to a total chic movie, "He's Just Not That Into You" (we had free passes). I know, totally cliche V-day activity, dragging the hubby or boy friend to a torturous girlie movie. I'm my defense, it kinda looked like a couple movie, funny for the guys and romantic for the girls...no such luck. Way too much dialogue and character development to be a guys movie. Nate was a good sport though and struggled...ahem, slept...through it. I did promise him a dose of guy stuff after the movie though--and no, it's not what you're thinking.

5. NBA Skill's Competition - This is where I yawn...excuse me. Hours of testosterone charged giant men slamming balls through hoops while doing crazy tricks! Dream come true...well, not completely but I do like sports and it was nice that Nate got to do something he really liked on our special day.

Although it seems like things were all planned out, nothing was. We flew by the seat of our pants embracing adventure when it came. haha It was so nice to have one day to not do anything productive but build our relationship. It felt like we were dating again. So fun!! Best Valentine's Day ever!

25 Random Things...

I thought this was kind of a fun idea. There's a tag going around facebook called "25 Random Things about me..." I decided to do and it was fun. I learned a lot about some of my good friends and I think they learned some interesting things about me. So, for all of you that aren't on facebook (shame, shame, seriously though, you should check it out) I brought it to my blog. So, without much ado, here is 25 random things about me...

1. Growing up I always wanted to live in another country someday...never thought it would be Canada, I'm not even sure I knew it existed.
2. I was adopted three days after I was born.
3. I've been tagged multiple times in "25 random things..." for the past week but until today I couldn't figure out how to make a note.
4. I've cruised through the Caribbean three times and LOVED it!
5. I have two bad habits that I can't seem to permanently break, biting my nails and picking my lips when they're chapped (gross, I know).
6. I love animals but never want to have one.
7. If I believed in reincarnation, I would come back as a professional athlete.
8. When I read a book it plays out in my head like a movie.
9. I have a hard time distinguishing between fact and fiction mostly because I read too many fiction books and watch too many movies.
10. I want to write and publish a novel of my very own and I actually have a few I'm working on right now.
11. I didn't vote for Obama but am happy he won.
12. I hardly ever play video games despite that my brother makes them for a living.
13. The biggest regret I have in my life is not going on a mission.
14. I hate tap water, I only drink bottled water which makes for sacks and sacks of empty bottles which totally makes my hubby crazy!
15. I could sit and just watch people for hours and hours. My fav memory of this is leaning on the back of the couch with my old roomies at BYU-Idaho and watching all the people go by.
16. I am super-duper afraid of sharks. I tried to conquer my fear once by researching all the different things I needed to know about sharks and I think I actually made it worse. It hasn't made me stop going in the ocean but I'm very cautious about when I do and what the conditions are.
17. I guess that brings me to another fear, deep open water and scary weird sea creatures. People keep urging me to get my scuba certification but I'm not sure if I would have enough courage to use it.
18. I absolutely love LOVE food but I can be a little picky about it sometimes.
19. When I was kid I thought I was giving a roly poly or potato bug a home when I stuck it up my nose. I ended having to go to the emergency and get it flushed out because I'd pushed it up so far.
20. My dream car is a Volkswagen Touareg.
21. I love names, like people's names. I think it really says a lot about who that person is or will be.
22. I love going to the dentist or doctors. I just don't find it super scary like most people seem to do. I would rather just figure out what's wrong so I can fix it.
23. I love eyes. I always notice whenever I meet someone new what color their eyes are.
24. I desperately want to have a kid with red hair. I love red hair esp my husband's color. I think subconsciously I knew I was supposed to marry someone with red hair because the only serious relationships I ever had have been with guys who had red hair.
25. I'm kinda an all or nothing type of person. I jump into things with both feet and hang on for the ride. Unfortunately that means I learn most of life's lessons the hard way...

Extra after thoughts:
26. I totally stole this idea from my friend Jaime.
27. Chuck Taylor's are my ultimate favorite shoe and my goal is to one day have them in all colors!
28. I heart short hair and want to cut mine off again.
29. I forget EVERYTHING! esp if it's something important that I need to use that day. There is a direct correlation between an objects importance and the likelihood of my forgetting it i.e. the more important it is the higher the chance I have for forgetting it at home. Tested and tried!
30. I have so many thoughts running through my head all the time that I often think I've said something out loud and didn't actually.

Bonus 31. I love my husband. He puts up with all my long-winded narratives and my crazy whimsical notions I get from reading too many fiction books. He is my bestest friend! Luv you!

#6 amendment: maybe a horse, like if I ever lived on a ranch or something...
#12 amendment: ahh, okay so I love guitar hero and rock band! best games ever!!!
#22 amendment: so I sound like I have Munchausen Syndrome which I don't. I never go to the doctor and hardly ever feel sick. Just wanted to clarify that point...

Since This is The Only Thing in Our Life Right Now...

More pictures of our ever progressing basement. We offically moved in January 5th and boy that was a very long day. We spent the whole day moving stuff into the basement and cleaning the upstairs to get it ready for the new renters. Okay, so it wasn't completely finished when we moved in...we still had the baseboards, the doors and trim, and finally the countertop in the kitchen.

One week, three days in basement: All doors almost completely hung, only the closet door left. No baseboards yet or a kitchen countertop. Might I mention that without a countertop it's really really hard to cook. We've been eating frozen pizzas and scamming off the parental units (thank you so much). We have someone coming over tomorrow to measure for a top from the Home Depot and apparently it takes four weeks to order the countertop in, so if anyone has any good ideas on easy, dishless dinners let me know! Oh, btw, did I mention that Nate washed our dishes in bathtub...totally gross and seemingly unsanitary! I couldn't even go in the bathroom while he was doing it, but no countertop means no kitchen sink...ick. Well, here are some pictures of our kitchen so far. I think it looks nice and it will look even better with a top on it!!!Our niece Rylee. She is such a good little helper! She was right there with me while I put together the cabinets and once we finished a few she said, "It's fits Rylee!" She got in and then told me to get the camera! I guess she knew it would be a cute picture!

Going back to the college days. We haven't bought a couch yet so for the first week all we had to sit on was our camping chairs. Nate's dad told us we had to take a picture of it to show our kids one day otherwise they wouldn't believe it! Now we have a futon in there until we find a couch we like and want to buy.

My Word

Your Word is "Fearless"

You see life as your one chance to experience everything, and you just go for it! You believe the biggest risk is being afraid and missing out on something amazing. Sometimes your fearlessness means you're daring. You enjoy risky activities. And sometimes your fearlessness means you're courageous. You're brave enough to do the right thing, even when it's scary.

What's Your Word?

The End is Near!!

Well, the road to a finished basement has been a long one, but I'm proud to announce that the end is in sight! In fact, the finished date has to be by the end of the month because the top has been rented out for January to a seemingly nice family from the UK.

We just finished grouting the tile in the kitchen and the bathroom yesterday. The paint has gone onto the walls and carpet is being laid Monday. I can hardly believe that it's almost the end! What the heck am I gonna do with all the free time I will have next year?!?! Get ready for a lot of new book reviews and an updated recipe blog! Here are a few pics of our progress thus far...

Framing done by Nate and our good buddy Trevor! Thanks!

Drywall stage...so hard and heavy! The only part we didn't do was the mudding and taping.

To be the kitchen area...all tiled up. Time for cabinets!

The front door during the framing stage...

...the front door with drywall, paint, and a tile floor!! Yeah baby! We did that!

Bathroom before tile and drywall...

...the bathroom after tile and drywall! It's all coming together!

The coolest thing about this whole project is that Nate and I did like 95% of the work. Some of the tougher stuff we hired out but as for the rest...somehow we figured it out!! Carpet Monday!! Yipee!!

What Does It Mean?

The past two weeks, Nate has been singing the same lines of this crazy song and for the life of me, I could not figure out what it was. Finally he sat down for a few minutes at the computer and found the 30 sec snippet on itunes...it was "Human" by The Killers. I'm not quite sure what the song is about but I love the killers so automatically I loved this song. But my question is what the heck is this song about? Well, I think I could make up what I think it's about but listening to the lyrics...it's confusing. Here's the chorus:

Are we human or are we dancer
My sign is vital, my hands are cold

And I'm on my knees

Looking for the answer
Are we human or are we dancer

Hum....? Personally I think we are all "dancer."

Here's another song I love but not quite sure about the lyrics. I always picture some kind of midevil scene, although from the album cover it looks like some kind of civil war.

I used to rule the world

Seas would rise when I gave the word

Now in the morning I sleep alone

Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice

Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes

Listen as the crowd would sing

"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

One minute I held the key

Next the walls were closed on me

And I discovered that my castles stand

Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing

Roman Catholic choirs are singing

Be my mirror, my sword and shield

My missionaries in a foreign field

That would be Coldplay's "Viva la Vida," which translates into "long live life." To me the title and the lyrics of the song could mean live a good life, you don't want to look back in years to come and find you just left distruction and unhappiness. The chorus could be the person in the song waking up and hearing the blossoming of a new day...maybe. Is it wrong to inspired by a song you don't completely understand?

A Guilty Pleasure

One of my favorite fashion trends that's popped up in the past year is the dark, black/red, "goth" colored nails. It's so awesome because it adds a little bit of edge to your personality and it looks really good with any outfit. The picture is of Lauren Conrad from "The Hills" which I'm a little embarassed to admit I'm addicted to! haha But she always looks great! Plus I love all the different ways she does her hair with braids. It's a nice way to play up long hair with a little something extra.