Oopsey daisy!

Oopsey Daisy just emailed me!!!

Click on oopsey daisy above and check out Alison's cute craft blog. I love it.
I don't usually comment on 'famous' blogger's blogs (which i should more cause everyone loves comments) but I commented, and a big surprise just popped up in my email.

From: Alison @ Oopsey Daisy
To: Me

"Okay, I am saving your comment as one of my all-time-favorite comments EVER! You completely echo everything I feel. I never thought I would be crafty either, but somehow it just happens in an effort to just want to make a beautiful life for my family. Thanks a million for your kind comments and support!! You're the best! Enjoy your week! ~ Alison"

Now you're probably all curious as to what I said that was so flattering. Well...Alison must just be super sweet cause my simple comment is as follows:

"CUTE! I love this post. I never thought I would be crafty, domestic, or so sentimental, but i dream of crafts, having a garden, and a home to make cute. School still takes over our lives, and no kiddos yet, but I can't wait. I LOVE your blog. Thanks for inspiring me. :) Happy Sabbath!"

Freak out right?! I love her blog and am flattered by such a sweet reply.

Secret word...secret word...secret word...

We are taking an online meditation and stress course.

The teacher has no organization to the course.
This class has caused us so much stress.
We are starting to get things figured out now though.
So we tried meditating tonight.
With
a burning candle
sandal wood incense cone
lights off
windows open to hear the rain
and our chosen Hebrew word
repeated
again
and again
and again


(The Hebrew word of our choice is the secret word. We each have our own. Our textbook told us we can't share it with people or say it in situations other than meditating, because it throws off the relaxation and meaning to it during meditation.)
Now you're dying to know what it is huh?
It's 'history textbook'.
Jk, that's the most stressful word ever.
Ok it's...
Jk, still not gonna tell ya!

Once we read that we should treat it like it's sacred, we were a little concerned.
The book clarifies this is in no way religious.
Phewf!

This was HEAVEN.
I feel so at peace and relaxed.
I've always thought meditating was for crazies.
We must be crazy. Because this will be part of our relationship the rest of our lives.

We highly recommend this to anyone and everyone.

cutie :)
xoxo, D&A

Hey batta batta swing!

We have been able to find some time for fun and relaxation in between studying.
We finally went to a Bee's game the other night!
We LOVED it.

We are way cheap-o and frugal, so we talked ourselves into being adventurous and buying one hot dog to share.
We had to promise ourselves that when we got down there, we would buy it, even if it was $3.
Well turns out they are $1 on Wednesdays! Partay!
So we went wild and bought 2.

It was so nice to be able to talk about anything and everything other than school and laugh and just enjoy each others company without any other disctractions. We had a whole section practically to ourselves.

FEET

My 4 youngest siblings had their first and final dance recital last night.
They were so awesome! My cheeks hurt I was smiling so big. No joke.

My sibilings and Derek's sister all had choir concerts last night.
Derek had class and I had to rush home to get a paper done by midnight.
I literally got my paper done within minutes of the deadline.
Story of my life.
We were sad we couldn't watch any of them. Breton is in chamber choir (the cool choir of the school that every choir student wants to be in...that I didn't make...long excuse that I was given and still don't get...yup, still bitter :p) and it was his last concert ever.
We both have brothers graduating high school! It's so fun. We both feel like we just graduated high school yesterday! Anyone else feel this way? I really am starting to feel old.

We were able to go to the BYU rugby national championship game. It was a blast. I loved watching rugby again. It's been too long!

Sorry about the blurry pic.


We have really enjoyed taking online classes together. It makes school a lot more manageable.

We can't wait for the long weekend.
Enjoy your memorial day weekend!

PS...my favorite thing in the entire world is when Derek laughs really hard. His eyes squint, his smile is bigger than ever, and you only hear an almost silent laugh with a gasp for air every few seconds. LOVE.

We're still alive, are you?

"There is...no possibility that it will not happen." - Harold Camping

24: Our love hate relationship

I love the number 24.

Reason: I love the show 24

I hate the number 24.
Reason: My counselor missed seeing some credits I needed, so I am now cramming 24 credits in before June 22.

This may be totally sustainable and normal for the hubsters (Derek), but for me, this is insanity.

This(he) is also a contributor to the hate portion of this relationship.


The other part of the love relationship with 24. Derek was number 24 in lacrosse. Can't find a picture to save my life, so instead
Let's reminisce!!

All pictures below are from when we were ages 13-15.

The Walkers came to watch me in my play when I was in 8th grade!
I wanted to clarify so you don't think I wore that for real!

Hiking Timp Caves

Lagoon

Mmmmm... I love thinking about those days.

xoxo,
Mands

I love baseball and my wife's cooking

Greetings friends,

For those of you who know me, the title of this post may have come across as shocking to some. By stating that this title may be shocking, I am obviously referring to the "I love baseball" part, as I am quite open about my love for my wife's cooking. While we are on the topic, Amanda made an absolutely killer gourmet dinner tonight. It was some kind of fancy chicken and potatoes and a bunch of spices and stuff that made it really really good. She is an amazing cook and rarely follows a recipe.

Now let me continue this journey by further explaining the first part of my title. I played baseball as a kid up until I was 13 years old. I never once enjoyed it. I only did it because my dad is Derek Jeter, and frankly he is a bit pressuring (jk, I am just living up to my "liar" reputation that was so generously delivered by my wife on that last blog post). All in all, it was a good growing experience. Anyways, I have never been a fan of baseball. We even had season tickets to the Arizona Diamondbacks when we lived in Mesa. The games were fun because the stadium was so cool, but I was never terribly interested in the actual games. Skip ahead a few years and I am playing lacrosse in high school. Lacrosse and baseball are always fierce rivals (our team had shirts that said "lacrosse: what men do during boys baseball season"). Long story short, I have never had a good relationship with baseball. Everything changed for me on Tuesday, May 10th, 2011.

You see, I was on a business trip with my pops in Cleveland for a couple days last week. We have a project in construction in Akron and we were looking at some buildings in downtown Cleveland. Construction in Akron was on a pretty early schedule so we got everything done that we needed by about 3:30 pm, and then we headed in to Cleveland to meet with a couple brokers. We were finished looking at property by about 5:30 and figured that we might as well go to an Indians game since the stadium was right next to our hotel. I was excited because it is always fun going to any professional sports event, but I secretly wished it would have been a more lively professional sport. Guess where our seats were? Yep, front row. Right behind the dugout.

The Cleveland Indians were taking on the Tampa Bay Rays that night. Right in the first inning, Grady Sizemore, the first batter for the Indians, nailed a home run! The stadium erupted, I was high fiving all kinds of strangers, there were fireworks... I was hooked. The home team hitting a home run gave me the same rush that a sweet alley-oop or a buzzer beater in basketball gives me. I had no idea that I could get that same rush in... Baseball??!! The most boring sport in the world!?!? Needless to say, baseball is no longer the most boring sport in the world to me, it is far from it. The rest of the game was awesome. The Indians won in the bottom of the ninth when the bases were loaded with a full count and the pitcher threw.... a ball!!

Well, that was a long way to explain how my love for baseball was recently born. I wish we had a pro team here, but for now, the Bees will have to do (we are going to a game next week). Also I have been watching the clock all day waiting for 6:30 to come around so I could watch the Indians take on the Kansas City Royals on my computer. FYI, right now it is the top of the 6th and the Indians are winning 19-1. Oh yeah!!

In conclusion, you can think whatever you want about me, but I love baseball. And my wife's cooking.

Love,
Derek

He is living a lie!

I married the funniest man alive!
Derek and I thought it would be fun to take some classes together this summer.

The courses we chose are as follows...
- Introduction to music theory online
- Meditation and Stress online

AKA...the easiest classes in the world...or so we thought.
It's our first day of school. Our music theory class doesn't even exist on our blackboard, and meditation and stress is apparently a 5000 level course and the most confusing and time consuming class ever. We started today with doing the famous introduction on the discussion board. The teacher asks questions, and we post the answers. Mine was simple and to the point. I just went in to read Derek's.

***I dare you to read this and see how many lies you can find...
(His name being Rob isn't a lie. Derek is his middle name.)


I know that may be confusing without seeing the questions.
Let's review how nonsense this intro is...

1. We don't own a dog.
2. He is the least stressed out person I know.
3. He has never worked at Taco Bell in his life!

I laughed so hard.

No one will ever know we're married. We're gonna rock this class.

Up Up and Away!

After a short productive break from school...
we finally just played and spent time together.

Last night we played catch phrase.
We laughed...
and laughed...
and laughed...

We also sat on photo booth for quite a while.

Funny story that we so wish we had recorded...
Since there was only two of us, we would just see how many we could get together in 2 minutes. And we could use actions. So Derek was describing "up up and away". He motioned his pointer finger pointing at the ceiling in a circle three times, each circle higher than the other. I immediately knew what it was! Seriously?! It was crazy. We laughed so hard.
We think so much alike. It's nuts.

To finish off the night, we fell asleep to Megamind. We love it. It's hilarious.

(I found this awesome $4 shoe rack at DI that I'll have to get a picture of and show you. It's cute, and so perfect for our humble apartment.)

I've become one of THEM

Yes, I've become one of THEM. (Those really bad bloggers)

But, I'm back. We're alive!
Life has been great. Derek is out of town on business in Ohio. Actually who knows where he's at! Last time he left I was telling everyone he was in Indiana, then he came back and was telling me all about Michigan. Yeah, what? Actually I don't remember for sure if those were the states. Ask D if you're dying to know. But you get the idea. But really he is in Ohio this time. If anything changes I'll let you know.
We are LOVING our week and a half break from classes.
During this week, THIS happened.

It felt like a dream!!
I honestly never thought that day would come.
I have always wondered if I really would graduate someday.
Well ladies and gentlemen, it's all coming true...
After 19 credits this summer that is.
I am so proud of myself. Learning to study has been so hard for me. I have never in my life had good study habits. I was living proof that ADD is real. But I'm figuring it out. I've worked my tail off to learn these habits. I'm still bad at it, but it's a world's difference. I have so much more confidence in myself after this last semester.
My best friend and cousin got married in AZ. I went. It was SO lovely. I love her like crazy.

We are still loving have this guy home.
(The necklace I'm showing is one he gave me as a wedding gift! He's SO sweet)

The video below of this little boy is DARLING.
His laugh makes me laugh harder than any other laugh.
Zach is the one that makes me want a baby...BAD.
Seriously, after leaving that boy every day, I have to talk myself out of wanting a baby.
I could eat him.

**And obviously the video didn't work. I'll try another time cause you HAVE to see his giggle.**

Have you ever loved someone so much that your heart hurts? My heart aches for this man. I can't wait to have him home. I'm dreading going to bed tonight without him.