Spoiled (adj.): Emily

On Wednesday, the weather in Utah was...not so pleasant. Around 4:00, the drizzling rain turned into a waterfall. It was POURING. Michael and I were both on campus for classes, and I was dreading that we'd have to walk home in the deluge. I'd brought an umbrella, but...yeah, it was that kind of rain. Forest Gump rain. Sideways rain, up-and-down rain, stinging rain, etc, etc.

Well, by the time we got out of class at 6:00ish, the rain had slowed back down to sprinkling, though there were muddy little puddles everywhere. When I'd left the house in the morning, there really wasn't much of a hint of rain and it was supposed to be rather warm, so I'd worn jeans, a light sweatshirt, and flip-flops. As I walked up the stairs and across puddles on my way to meet up with Michael, I flip flopped rain right up onto...everything: my sweatshirt, my shirt, the backs of my legs, my bag...you name it.

Michael greeted a rather soggy, disheveled me in his usual sunshine-y way, and we started our walk home together. Michael was such a perfect gentleman. Without skipping a beat of the conversation, he was helping me around puddles and trying to make sure I made it across muddy patches or cracked sidewalks and trying hard to hold at least one of my hands at all times. We arrive back at our apartment to realize that the puddles all settle right in front of our back door. So after crossing one final muddy puddle, we made it home.

When we walked in the door, our apartment was warm and cozy. Michael had cleaned, and had moved the tv into our room. While I changed into my favorite snuggly pink jammies and soaked my feet in some warm water for a few minutes, he heated us up some yummy minestrone. We ate soup and warm rolls in bed as we watched a movie he knew I would like more than he would have necessarily and enjoyed the cozy protection of our apartment against the blustery, gray outside.

I can't tell you how much of a blessing it is to be married to someone who takes care of me in every way. I'd be lost without his sweetness. No matter how busy he is, no matter what's on his to-do list, he always--always--makes time for me and time to tell me he loves me. He has me completely figured out. He knows exactly what I need. I'm spoiled rotten.

springtime updates

Michael and I are still spinning from the end of finals and the beginning of Spring semester. Ah well, life's good. Here are our recent updates:

Emily:

1. School: (rather begrudgingly) taking three classes this spring and whining pretty much daily about it. Although rather miffed at having to take yet another semester of school, she is absolutely NOT miffed that this is, in fact, her LAST YEAR OF SCHOOL. Praise all that is good in this world, the end is near!


2. Classes: Healthy Mind Healthy Body, Doctrine and Covenants, Computer Applications in Health Education


3. Interesting Experience: Emily participated in the Dixon family tradition of choosing a horse for the Kentucky Derby for her first time. She chose the only girl horse entered. The horse surprised her by coming in second, then promptly breaking both front ankles and dying on the spot. She hopes this luck doesn't continue next year.


4. Church: just released from teaching Gospel Doctrine with Michael. Now in that awkward interim phase of not knowing what calling is next (please not name extraction, please not name extraction...)


5. Other: really liking experimenting with recipes, posting to her recipe blog, and going on lots of walks with Michael in the newly warmish weather.

Michael:

1. School: Very pleasantly taking two classes this spring and still teaching at the MTC (and loving it). Not complaining or whining daily about having to take classes. Being his normal, optimistic, happy self about it. Feeling better and better about applying to the business program this summer.


2. Classes: Accounting, Anthropology


3. Interesting experience: Michael's anthropology teacher is sort of a wierd fellow. He doesn't like traditional phraseology for school, and, consequently, refers to Michael's class as a "community of learners," and class periods as "gatherings." He also comments often about their "journey through the semester together," and begins each class by rearranging the chairs in a circle and ringing a hand bell three times to help everyone "clear a space" in their minds. I know. Oy.


4. Church: Michael was just called to be Elder's Quorum president of the first elder's quorum in our ward. He then had the task of reorganizing (every) things since our ward is experiencing a HUMONGOUS turnover as people move out and graduate, etc. He's chosen great counselors and is already doing a great job reaching out to other people in the ward. His first Sunday he even had to sit on the stand since, as luck would have it, both counselors of the bishopbric were gone.


5. Other: Michael sliced his finger open on the mirror this morning. Yes, that mirror. We're thinking about suing. Or at least not inviting that mirror to our birthday parties.

Us:

1. Really loving being married. We think it's kind of funny that we're going to be one of the "older" married couples in our ward and we haven't even hit out 5 month mark yet. Ha.


2. Walking. We both like to be outside in the beautiful weather and have loved going on walks with each other. Emily has some intense speed-walking skills, but is pretty sure that Michael could out-skip anyone. Emily is thinking about entering him in a contest.


3. Attending LOTS and LOTS of weddings. In the past month, we've attended my sister Elisabeth's wedding, Michael's best friend Nate's wedding, and this Thursday, I will attend my cousin Jayden's wedding. We're so excited for everyone and wish we could be everywhere at once sometimes.

YAY MICHAEL!

Michael and I checked our grades today. MICHAEL GOT A 4.0!!! He really feels great about applying to the Business School now. I'm so so so excited for him. He worked REALLY hard this semester, and I feel like it really paid off for him.

To celebrate, I made homemade pizza with our current favorite combination: pepperoni, green pepper, and pineapple (with sockarooni sauce and mozzarella). Yay for Michael's 4.0!

We are currently taking suggestions for the name of our pizza (pepperoni, pepper, and pineapple). We'd like to avoid anything with "ppp" on account of this could give the wrong idea...

So we're taking name suggestions. Go.

Happy third-of-a-year anniversary to us!

Michael and I have been trying to think all day long of what you are supposed to refer to 1/3 as. 1/2 is "half" and 1/4 is "a quarter." What in blazes do you call 1/3?

Regardless, we love being married.

How did we celebrate you ask?

With no school, sleeping in, a round of pilates (isn't Michael a saint?), a haircut for Michael, 3 hours of work for me, BYU Creamery ice cream (Raspberries and Cream and Toasted Almond Fudge), sunshine, relaxing, Spongebob, green chile burritos, some killer cookies, Family Home Evening, The Barefoot Contessa, and The Fugitive.

I love my life.

We Liiiiiiiiiiive!

Can I tell you it's a bit embarassing to look at the date of my last post and realize it's been more than two weeks? I've always made a bad journal-keeper, though (I've started and stopped roughly 4,293.7 journals in my life), so I guess that's not much different.

Anyway.

Michael and I survived finals.

All of them.

Sometimes it felt like I'd never get to say that we were finally done with finals.

Yesterday, we each had our last final. Michael spent about 7 hours on his literature class final, which was all essays. LONG essays. Full papers. Not short answer. Entire papers. BLEH.

I had a scheduled final (Health 460: Substance Abuse and Addictive Behaviors) from 5:45 to 7:45. It didn't take me the whole time, so when we met back at our apartment, Michael was ready to do something to celebrate. I, on the other hand could hardly construct an intelligible sentence in my mush-for-brains state. So Michael listened while I mumbled for a while, then we called it a night.

I don't think I've ever felt this burnt out in my whole academic career. Ew.

Michael was also weary of the long semester, but he's always so cheery and optimistic, I feel rather silly sometimes being Sally Raincloud.

Filled with dreams of all that could possibly fit into these (VERY) few days between semesters (hikes, walks, movies, adventure!), I awoke this morning to discover that it was, in fact, raincloud-y. And also that we still have to go to work till noon.

So plan B is in the works. Probably more along the lines of grocery shopping (which Michael and I both unabashedly adore), amaretto hot chocolate drinking, and pajama-clad movie watching.

Mmm... that doesn't sound so bad.

Birth Week

Michael's birthday was last Saturday (April 5th). This was also the same weekend that we had General Conference for our church, and Saturday involved three sets of 2-hour sessions, so Saturday hooplah was mostly out of the question.

Plan B was to celebrate on Friday, but Friday night, my sister Elisabeth went through the temple for the first time and I'm the only sister who could be there, so we forwent (there's that word again) Michael's mission reunion and went to Salt Lake to be there for her. So, plan B of was also out of the question.

Plan C was to celebrate Thursday night. We were invited to a mystery dinner that night, so Birth Week was invented.

We decided to celebrate a little bit every day last week to sort of make up for the fact that no one day would really work for celebrating. Here's how it went:

Sunday: I let Michael open one present (he was VERY persistent in trying to get information out of me, so I caved). It was a car air freshener. I know, lame, but do I get extra points since it was named "Vanillaroma" and was made in Michael's mission? Also, we ate funfetti cake.

Monday: We ate more funfetti cake and opened another present. Also we studied for a statistics test, but to me, that part was not so celebratory.

Tuesday: We ate birthday dinner, which was tacos. Michael sure loves tacos. Also on this day, Michael scored a 100% on his statistics test. I very much did NOT get a 100% on that test. YAY MICHAEL!

Wednesday: Since Michael was "floating" at work, he was able to come home early and he actually surprised me with a BEAUTIFUL little bouquet of spring roses. These pictures don't do them justice, but WOW they were gorgeous. Michael also opened a card from his brother Ben.

Thursday: Michael opened packages from his mom and sister Stacy. He is now the proud owner of new ties, new movies, and lots of treats and snacks. What a happy boy! We also attended the mystery dinner with our friends. Turns out, I'm a murderer. Who knew? Not me!

Friday: We drove up to the Salt Lake temple to be with Elisabeth as she went through for the first time. Afterwards, we went over to Tyler's parents' house for dinner (which was Cafe Rio--Michael's favorite!) Unfortunately, tummy aches and tired eyes forced us to return home early, which in this case means earlier than everyone else; we got home at 11:00ish.

Saturday: We attended the morning session of General Conference at the Conference Center. Michael had never been before. We were there for the Solemn Assembly and the sustaining of not only the new president of the church, but a new apostle! Turns out we were actually on the Utah broadcast of Conference. My parents saw us on TV when they were watching at home. FUN! That afternoon we watched the next session of Conference with my parents, ate pizza for dinner, and Michael opened the rest of his presents--some new shirts, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Mambo cologne, and a new memory foam pillow. After the Priesthood session, we ate ice cream and watched Michael's movie "Carbon Dating: The Formative Years of Marvin D. Farnsworth."

Sunday: We ate a big breakfast (pumpkin muffins, almond poppyseed muffins, sausage, orange juice, and hash browns) and watched conference. We also went on a short walk, played a few rounds of speed Scrabble and And it Came To Pass, then ate a delicious dinner and had strawberry-topped cake for dessert.

What a fun birthweek!

Easter Feast Adventures

Why, yes, folks, I am more than a week (okay, fine two) late in posting our Easter festivities.

Better late than never, though, eh?

Yeah, I didn't think so either.

Anyway.

I was REALLY excited to play Easter Bunny this year. It was my first time, and although we forwent (yes, I think I just made that word up) baskets, I was very excited to put out the treats the night before. When we woke up in the morning, I played the part of very excited younger sibling, hopping in to announce, "IT'S EASTER! THE EASTER BUNNY CAME!!!"

The Easter Bunny was very kind to us, bringing (for Michael) Lemon-lime gatorade and two kinds of Starburst jelly beans (he couldn't find the right flavor for a long time, but that's another story), V8 Splash and Sweetart bunnies, chicks, and ducks for me, and a variety of Hershey's chocolate and Mound's eggs for the family.

My parents and younger brother were in sunny California for Easter weekend, so Michael and I decided to host my sisters and future brother-in-law for Easter dinner at our apartment. This created a series of adventures. I love adventures.

Adventure 1: Table seating. Michael and I have exactly 4 chairs to our name and we were to have 5 people there. You do the math.

Solution 1: Move kitchen (folding) table to the living room and place it in such a way that two people can sit on the couch (loveseat). Because the table was so snug, we put the food out buffet-style on our computer desk. We even decorated with personalized Easter egg napkin rings and (although not pictured) a beautiful slice of lemon on the edge of each cup that looked amazing with the tropical-colored juice we had. I love being a newlywed.


Adventure 2: preparing a rather elaborate meal with limited counter space (as in about two feet of counter space) and no dishwasher

Solution 2: use all parts of the kitchen--stovetop, table, step stool, chairs, sink...even floor (with covered food) and washing 7 batches of dishes before guests arrived. Michael was such a trooper.
Adventure 3: Repairing a badly damaged lemon bundt cake that like a stubborn two-year old threw a fit and somehow stuck to the pan although it was VERY well greased and floured.

Solution 3: Coconut and lots of icing. This is more complicated than it sounds. The first bag of powdered sugar I used tasted like taco seasoning for some reason, so that gooey taco-vanilla mess had to be discarded and a second bag opened for a second try, which--thank my lucky Jupiter--worked.

**As a side note, Michael had to zest and juice (by hand) 7 lemons for that cake. I know...superzester.

Even through all the adventure, dinner was a FANTASTIC success!!! My sister Elisabeth (and her fiance Tyler) made a ham that was sooo good. None of us Lynn girls had ever made a ham, so we were all very impressed. We grew up in a house where we just didn't eat much meat, and ham was a "once or twice a year" food that our mom made. Michael was...well... incredulous that none of us knew how to prepare ham. (It's not our fault!)

Anyway.

The ham turned out great (and Michael and I even got to have some delicious leftovers complete with a barbeque glaze). My sister Jordan brought the world's most absoutely amazing fruit dip of all time ever, which we served with apples, pears, strawberries, bananas, and grapes. Mmmm.

For side dishes, we had twice-baked potatoes and caesar salad in parmesan cheese cups. (Although the lemon cake was supposed to be my crowning joy, I was REALLY pleased that the parmesan cheese cups turned out...especially since my uncooperative cake did not).

After dinner, we dyed Easter eggs, tried on bridesmaid's dresses (for Elisabeth's wedding next week), and called my parents to wish them a happy Easter. As usual, Michael's creative abilities TOTALLY TRUMPED mine and his eggs looked fantastic. After making sure everyone had some leftovers to take home, we all said goodbye and Michael and I put our very stuffed selves to bed.

I love Easter.