I love us.

Since it had been at least 2 months since Dugan and I had gone on a real date, I decided last week that it is time. We don't have much money and I hate spending the money we do have on an expensive date eating sub-par food and watching movie neither of us really care about. Blah. Not our thing. So, instead i packed up a nice picnic basket full of yummy treats and drove out to an open field where we could enjoy each others company for free. Nothing is better than free. Unless someone was giving us money to go on a picnic. That would've been very cool.

Here's just a few snapshots of our date.

I love us.

In Case You Were Wondering

A few days ago Rachel and I were invited to a birthday party for someone over at the NAU campus. Naturally, this means that we were crammed into a small apartment with what felt like a million other college students. This is fun to most people I guess. Anyway, we were making our way through the crowds meeting lots of new people, none of whom were particularly interesting or worth talking to- but it's better to make conversation than to sit in the corner alone. So, there were lots of dudes and almost as many ladies at this birthday party. Most, if not all, of these people were seeking one another- whether it be to flirt with, to go home with, or live happily ever after with. Whatever. Dugan didn't come because he could care less about being in a room full of that many people (the same reason he doesn't go to concerts) and knows that if I go without him, I will be a respectable adult and not do anything dumb.

 At one point, someone used the word married and that brought up the fact that I am, indeed, a married lady.
"You're married?" Says someone, I forgot to care who it was.
"Yep. Is that alright with you?"

"I guess. What's his name?" As if I would be making it up.

Rachel steps in, tells everyone his name, and that he just got out of the military. Now, this was proceeded by a heap of questions from the multitude of dummies at the party like: "does your husband know you're here?" "do you guys get lots of benefits from the military for being married?" and my favorite "why did you marry him?"

One last comment made by someone at this party was by a guy who stuck around for awhile, talking to Rachel and playing games with a few of us who were stragglers. As Rachel and I were leaving the party, he turned to me and said "it was nice to meet you, you married wench." Wench, huh? After a gasp given by the people present, he followed up that comment by saying he meant it in the nicest way possible. Hayden, I know you were just kidding, but that doesn't make it any less douchey.

Let me get to my point.

I am married. I am happy. I am young, and I am perfectly okay with that.

My husband doesn't mind that I attend a stupid birthday party once and awhile without him attached to my side because he prefers it that way. I shouldn't feel shunned when the single turds at a college party discover that i'm not open for business. It's rude and It makes me feel kind of crappy that I become the "married wench". No wonder I hate coming to these things.

I don't need you asking me if I got married for the benefits the military gives me. It's an extremely big insult to me and anyone else. Don't do that to people. Don't make people give you reasons why they decided to fall in love. 

For your information and in case you were wondering:

• I married Dugan because he was the only boy who held the door for me high school. 
• I married Dugan because he was the only boy who told me smoking, drinking, and all those other things they tell you are cool actually make you look stupid.
• I married Dugan because I don't want anyone else. Ever. At all. Not even in the slightest.
• I married Dugan because he is really frickin' cute and smells really good.
• I married Dugan because he can't stand the thought of losing me.
• I married Dugan because he has never called me a bad name.
• I married Dugan because I wanted to. Not because I didn't have any other choice, felt like it was the right thing to do, or didn't know how to act out in any other way.
• I married Dugan because he hates yelling.
• I married Dugan because he asked nicely.

I get it. married people aren't cool. We don't belong at your parties. I won't come anymore, and that's certain. I'm not mad, i'm not bitter, I feel perfectly fine being married, happy, and not part of the single world. I just wanted to bring it to everyone's attention a few out of hundreds maybe even thousands of reasons why I got married. I don't like to be scrutinized, belittled, or called names because I made the best decision of my life by marrying someone who makes me feel special.Your single party life doesn't look appealing and I am happy without it.  I have someone to flirt with me, go home with me, and live happily ever after with me every day of my life. His name is Dugan & he is wonderful.

I guess i'm just not cut out for that kind of college life. That's perfectly alright with me. I like my kind of college life better, anyway.

I love you, sweetie! I am glad you're mine.

The Dawn of a New Era

This week:

1.)

 Dugan started his job and he loves it! He comes home smelling like coffee beans and sweat. It's fantastic in it's own way.

2.)

Classes started at the college. We are all loving being in school, but we are not ready for the loads of schoolwork soon to be on our plates. I foresee tons of reading happening in my psychology class this semester. Good thing I have a job where I get a couple nap-breaks to catch up on my reading.

3.)

 Rachel got offered 3 different jobs in the mall and can't decide which one she wants most. What a lucky gal. Has it really already been almost a month since she got here?

4.)

I wanted to touch on the mojitos I made for friends a few weeks ago. What's great about mojitos is that there are several different ways you can make them. I used Club soda and lime juice with crushed raspberries and fresh mint leafs from our garden. Next time I think i'll do them with sprite instead and strain the raspberry juice and mint flavoring into the mojitos so there aren't floaties in them. Regardless, they were lovely.

5.)

For our "splurge day" (the one day a week we allow ourselves to eat wherever we want and order whatever we want) we chose Oregano's Pizza. If you have yet to have an Oregano's pizza in your life, you are seriously lacking a good experience. This pizza is the best! Just what I needed for a long week at work ;)

Here's a photo of my man and I on our way to the restaurant.

6.)

It's Labor Day weekend! I don't care about traveling on busy weekends so you bet this weekend will be a relaxed one doing whatever the heck we want.

Happy 3 day weekend.

Leisure Weekend: WIN

I can't believe I have yet to brag about seeing Brandi Carlile in concert. Seth, Rachel and I decided it was definitely worth the little bit of cash to spend on a concert to see Brandi at the Orpheum Theatre in Flagstaff last Saturday. It was purely happenstance that we ran across a flyer in downtown advertising the concert and man am I glad we did! I can't even begin to explain how fantastic this woman is. She is great in her albums, on stage, everything. She is talented on the guitar, piano, in her writing and especially vocally. I love this woman almost too much.

Can't wait for your return, Brandi.

I am very happy to be in the middle of a work-less weekend. Last night we splurged on a dinner at Chilis (har har) and walked around downtown for a bit to show off our brilliant city to our New York friends. My internal clock still woke me up at 5:30 this morning but, whatever. I like waking up with the sun. We got up, sent our friends to the Grand Canyon (I was supposed to take my mom to the canyon today too but due to lack of planning that didn't happen. Some other time), went yard sale-ing where we found a couple sweet deals on a few random objects, followed by grocery shopping and then coming home. All these things happened before noon today. The weather is beautiful outside and we're making BBQ beef in our new crock pot for dinner.

In other news, Dugan is officially and employee of Late for the Train cafe. He'll be working in the roastery and as a maintenance man for the other locations. He is very excited to start work Tuesday morning, as am I.

For the road, I'll leave you all with a photo I snapped yesterday of the little guy I spend every day of the week with.  He is a ham.

You've gotta love that toothy smile.

Happy weekend-ing to all.

Slacking

Each day seems more busy than the one before and I don't have any time to tie my thoughts down, let alone document any of the recent events in our life. So, lets catch up a little.

Rachel Moved in. Awe yeah. 

old photo^ I haven't taken any new ones of us yet so deal with this one.
Rachel has been fervently looking for a job and I have been trying to keep her relaxed the whole time. We do a whole lot of 30 Rock watching, cooking, and working out. Which leads me to my next item of business.

We've been working out every day getting fit and feeling good about it. 

Last week we took a minute out of our day to try on some pants at American Eagle and I fit my butt into a size ZERO. I don't know how I did it but it felt a.m.a.z.i.n.g. I also have suspicion that the tag was lying but i'm not looking into it. We've been doing really well on eating healthy and taking at least ten minutes out of our day to do SOME form of exercise. It is possible!

I work almost every day. This week it's been Monday-Friday with a 37 hour work week. I really enjoy what I do although it has it's challenges. It takes patience to watch kids everyday, especially someone else's kids. As rough as it is sometimes, it's even more of a blessing and I am glad I didn't have to stress over a job around town with all the application nonsense. Sorry, I have no photos of me watching kids.

Lastly, I helped host Julia's baby shower last Saturday. I was stressing over it for awhile. So. Many. Details. In the end, the shower turned out beautifully and I am very happy with the outcome. I only have a couple photos of my preparations, but I'll post more when I get them.

Look^ I successfully made a diaper cake. Yay me!

So, you can see why I've been slacking on my posts- there's just a lot of stuff happening all at once and I need to find more time to organize my thoughts so I can post about them in a more organized manor. Tomorrow our friends the Damins from New York will be staying with us (they're stopping through on their super awesome cross country road trip). Monday, classes start at the college so things will be even more  busy. Sigh.

 Wish me luck?

Sunshiny Summer Days

Hello There! This last week has been busy busy! We brought Sethy back to Flag with us when we got home from Payson and spent some fun quality time together. We went over to our friends the Jordan's house and just played a few video games together with some friends. 

Saturday, we attended a family reunion where my extended family had the chance to meet Dugan for the first time. Sunday, Julia, R.D. and Koos came for a visit and after work this week we drove the 2 and a half hours to meet them up at Lake Powell. We had a blast! Julia's dad let us spend some time on his boat, we had our very first tubing experience and swam around all day. Nothing wrong with that!

Please see the incline of expression on my face as I become more and more terrified until I realize what fun i'm having. It's a hoot.

There's nothing better than spending time at a beautiful place like Lake Powell with some great friends like this.

Rachel moves in this Saturday and I couldn't be more tickled with excitement! 

I sure hope everyone's summer is going as great as ours is!

Good Habits

Been thinking about my goals lately and how directly related they are to my habits. My sleep schedule, my work out schedule, my diet. All these little things all go hand in hand with each other and I came to the conclusion this morning that if you don't WANT to work at something enough, it's not going to get done. I can have a goal of waking up early, but if I go to bed without the drive to do it, chances are I will press snooze a few times. 

So, my point is that I want this. I WANT to do the things in my life that will make me happy- just wanting to be happy isn't enough. You have to DO.

Okay, moving on. Here's my breakfast this morning- it's part of my new meal plan so I figured i'd share it with anyone out there who care's to hear about it.

Smoothies are my favorite quick and healthy meal I like to make when i'm not feeling starving but still need something nutritious in my tummy to boost my energy for the day. The hardest part about it is cleaning the blender. All it is- Frozen veggies (raspberries, Blueberries, and strawberries mostly) with Naked Juice's Green Machine for added nutrition and to squeeze in some veggies, a couple big spoon-fulls of organic vanilla yogurt, and a bit of flax seed. Blended all together with a couple mint leaves on top from our garden for a little minty taste. Easy, Delicious, Nutritious. 

Lastly, I want to mention my Mama in today's post because today is her 55th birthday! I'll be taking a short trip to Payson this evening to take her to the movies. I hope she knows that I love her with all my heart and I could never imagine anyone better to've raised me and taught me so many of the life lessons I know and live by each day. 

Happy Birthday, Mama. You deserve the World!