November 29, 2009

Sunday

It has been a great week. Last Monday was Dan and my 6^th month anniversary, and, since Dan lost a bet, he had to plan the entire evening (with the exception of the Family Home Evening lesson, which I was assigned). After a busy day at school, Dan and I went to Guru’s for dinner, because Daniel knows that I love it. It was delicious. I had a pasta dish with pesto sauce that was AMAZING! Then, afterwards, Daniel dropped me off at the WILK and told me to check my emails:

Leslie,

Getting to know you, dating you and, being married to you has been such a fun adventure.  So I thought, to celebrate 6 months, I would send you on a fun adventure with prizes along the way.  To start your adventure, you’ll need to find  . . . PR 4656.A1

love your husband!

Good luck!!!!!

And so, he sent me on a scavenger hunt adventure in the library, where he had slipped notes into various books that represented me, or us, or our future. The first book (the call number that was in the email) was Adam Bede, the book that I’m reading now. The next book was a commentary on Gone with the Wind, the movie. Then he sent me to a book about love, marriage and intimacy. Then to a book about Italy; then a book about the Book of Mormon (written by Susan Easton Black); then to a giant children’s book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, which I proceeded to read before going on to the next book. Next he took me to a book about Biochemistry, then a book about families, then a book about Spain/Spanish. Lastly, I ended up on a book about Anatomy. And inside each of the books there was a note about why he chose that book, about something he loves about me or about our relationship. It was really fun. There were a few glitches that I ran into on the way; either I couldn’t find the book, or Daniel put the wrong call number. But it was still fun. We texted like the whole time that I was going. It was way fun. I ended up in a study room in the library, where Daniel was there waiting for me, and I gave my family home evening lesson on learning there in the study room. And afterwards, we walked around the library and looked at all of the different books they had. The BYU library is so big and extensive! It has SO many books in it, a lot of books that I have no desire to read, whatsoever. But we had a good time. It was a really fun anniversary date that Daniel came up with.

Tuesday I actually had classes, because the university appointed that Tuesday for Friday classes. It was fine, although, I did feel a little gypped of my free Tuesdays. Daniel and I went to the gym after school after studying a while, and then we came home, made some delicious salsa and watched a dumb movie on Hallmark channel. We stayed up until 2 in the morning! But, we could, because we were on thanksgiving break. It was actually really fun to stay up late, because we rarely do these days.

On Wednesday, we slept in and studied for most of the day. Then in the afternoon, we got ready to go to Daniel’s parent’s house. We made a few stops on the way, to run a few errands. I had some boots to return, we had a wedding gift to return, and Daniel needed some new pants. Also, we got my mom a fun Christmas present, a flirty apron, like one that I got as a bridal shower gift. We actually had a lot of fun shopping together. On our way to the Holbrook’s, we made another stop at Ikea, to do a little shopping for nightstands. And I wanted to see it. I had heard people praising it as the best place to shop for furniture, and Dan said it was pretty cool. Plus, we had told Dan’s parents that we wanted nightstands for Christmas, and they wanted us to pick some out. Ikea is a really fun place, it made us really want a house of our own so that we could decorate and furnish it. And we saw a lot of things we really liked there, both of us, which is unusual because we have very different tastes in décor.

That night, we just hung out with Dan’s family and helped clean up the house. It was fun to be in a home with lots of people.

Thanksgiving day was great! Dan and I actually spent lots of time that day reading Harry Potter 6. We would go down to our bedroom and read, fall asleep reading, wake up and read some more. It was great. We also helped a little with the preparations, and got ready. I helped Jenny with her hair, she wanted me to do it for her, and we had a little bit of girl bonding time, which was nice. Everyone came for Thanksgiving dinner: Grandma Mitchell, Aleah and Bart, Chris and Rebecca, Aunt Kayleen and her kids, Angie and Kiana. It was DELICIOUS! I love thanksgiving food! After Thanksgiving, we finished watching Free Willy (which we started the night before) and also watched UP. It was a fun and relaxing day.

I slept in pretty late the next day. And then I helped Daniel pack up his things and put them in the car, and Summer get out and put up Christmas decorations. I also helped Dan and his dad put up Christmas lights on the house. That evening, we ate leftovers, and I went with Mom Holbrook, Emily, Jenny, Summer, Kiana, and Jenny Hill when they went ice skating. It was kind of an adventure, because after picking up the little cousins, we went to an ice skating rink, and it was completely closed. Mom Holbrook had to call around at other places to make sure they were open. It took us about 2 hours to complete all of that, and by that time, we were a bit hungry…so we went home to eat leftovers, and then about an hour and a half later (because it didn’t open until later in the evening), we went to the Olympic Oval to go ice skating. We had a really good time. I skated mostly with Summer. She wanted the reassurance that comes from holding someone’s hand, and it was me most of the time…which was fine. It was fun! We left really late that night to come home to Provo, so we got to bed way late.

November 22, 2009

Sunday

This has been a great week for me! Wednesday, like most Wednesday’s, I just studied, basically, and went to school. Dan and I went to guitar and learned some more cool stuff. Every time I go to that class, I always tell myself that I need to work harder at learning how to play guitar, but I never have the time to actually sit down and practice during the rest of the week. It’s still a way awesome class!

On Thursday, I had class, a seminar lecture, to go to. I slept in that day, and didn’t have enough time to do a full workout, so I did a short one at home. Then I studied, and didn’t go shadowing, like I had planned. I figured that I had far too much homework to do (which is true, I was starting to catch up and study for my upcoming tests), and I’m probably not going to do dental hygiene anymore, so really…what’s the point? After my class, I think I just studied all day until Daniel came home. That evening, we had a function to go to. The National Advisory Council event was going on last week, and Daniel had signed the two of us up to go to that. As I understand it, the National Advisory Council (NAC) is a group of highly successful business men that graduated from BYU (at least most of them) and has made millions of dollars since then. They counsel the Marriot School of Business and donate so much money to the school. The addition to the Tanner building that was finished fall of last year was completely built from the money donated by these men; none of it came from the church or the school itself. Pretty impressive! Anyway, this function was just a chance for the business students to meet with these highly successful men and get to know them…kind of a social networking night. There was a light dinner and mingling time first; the food was very interesting. There were displays of it, and each table featured a different regions typical food: Mexican, American, Mediterranean, etc. And they were all displayed very trendy and artsy. It was the same with desserts, later on in the night. There was a little try with three different small desserts on them, and they were different than I had ever had. After dinner and networking, we split off into different panels with a few of the NAC members. Our panel (or the one that Daniel and I went to) was about courageous leadership in business, and it was really interesting what each of them said about leadership. They are all good members of the church, and so a lot of their comments had to do with integrity, seeking counsel from our Heavenly Father, following the Spirit and that sort of thing. It was really great and very motivating…especially, I believe, for Daniel. After the Panel, there was desert, and then Daniel and I left. We went home to study and then just went to bed.

Friday, Daniel and I went to the temple to do a session (for the first time in a while). It was really good. We had to get up early to do it, because both of us had to be on campus at around 10 o’clock that morning. But we just took all of our stuff and went straight to school after the temple. All that morning, I was a wondering and a tiny bit stressed about my plans for graduation. Dan asked me what I wanted to do about that in the temple, and I really just didn’t know. I hadn’t had any impressions in the temple.

Once I got to school, I started to work on different things. I went to see my Spanish professor about some assignments and about my project topic. We had a nice talk and I got some things straightened out. So it was really good. Then I went to biochemistry.

After biochemistry, I went to a Spouse’s Luncheon, another NAC function. Daniel had signed me up for it, but I hadn’t really wanted to go, because I have a lot of study to do. But I wanted to be a supportive wife, so I told him I could at least go for an hour. I am SO glad I did. It was wonderful! I sat randomly at a table with a couple of spouse’s of NAC members and some spouse’s of students. We just chatted before they officially began the lunch, and then while we ate, we asked the NAC spouses about their lives and for any advice they might have. It was nice to get to know them and hear what they had to say. I was going to leave shortly after that because I had class. But then, one of the girls at the table said that she had graduated with a degree in exercise science and had worked as a personal trainer after graduation for a while. This definitely caught my attention, especially as I have been seriously thinking about doing that after I graduate. So I peppered her with some questions, and then she gave me her email address so that I could ask her more questions and get help if I needed to. I thought that was so nice of her, especially as I’m a complete stranger to her. Well, since I stayed to ask her questions, I was detained, and when they carried on with their program, I was basically stuck there and couldn’t leave (or at least, I felt like I couldn’t leave, it would have been weird to just get up and walk out in the middle of someone’s address). They had a keynote speaker there, to talk about the theme “Joy in the Journey”. She was AMAZING! She was a really upbeat, positive person, and she really captured our attention. She told some really good stories, used some great scriptures and quotes, and conveyed a wonderful and extremely moving message. I really appreciated her thoughts and I even emailed the Spouse’s Association (of the NAC) and asked if anyone had recorded her message. She spoke about finding the miracles in our everyday lives and for recognizing Heavenly Father’s hand in all these things and being grateful for them. She encouraged us to step it up in our living of the gospel and in being positive. She reminded us of our great potential as sisters, mothers, wives, members of the church, etc. and that if we work hard and work together, we would have such great power and do marvelous things. I was very emotional all during and after her talk, it was so good, and it really spoke to me. I really hope someone has that one on file and that I can get it someday. It would be my life’s theme.

After school (I missed my Spanish class and just went to Sociology after the luncheon), I went to get my hair cut. I have been planning to cut my hair for a while, but haven’t quite conjured up the courage to do it. I wanted to have enough to give it away. Well, I went to David Douglass, and the girl showed me how much I would be cutting off…and then my hair ended up WAY shorter than that. It is so short. Shorter than it’s ever been (well, since that one time mom cut it short). I’m not used to it, and I think it’ll take a while for me to get used to it. But I think I can have some fun with it!

 Me with my little 12 inch ponytail. My hair now BARELY fits into a ponytail…it’s pretty short for me. I still don’t know how I feel about it.

After I got my hair cut, I came home and vegged for a little while, and then went to get Daniel from school.

Diane came in to Provo that night. It was basically just a pit stop on the way home for Thanksgiving. We didn’t do anything exciting with her. In and Out Burger had opened that day, and so we went there for dinner, waited in the longest line of cars I’ve ever been in for food. It went pretty fast, though. And it was good. We came home to eat, and we watched a little TV. We had a lot of fun messing around with each other and playing. Before going to bed, we played a little game of Skip-Bo…I won.

Yesterday, we made omelets for breakfast, because Diane had never had one. They were really good. Then, later that morning, we took Diane to the airport and dropped her off. I’m a little jealous that she gets to spend Thanksgiving with all of our Fernandez relatives and the little boys! But we’ll have fun here. After dropping her off, we went to Daniel’s parents house, and got NO homework done at all, like we’d planned. We watched Star Trek with David and Dad, talked to the girls (they all were really excited about my hair), and then we had our birthday dinner with Dan’s parents that night. We asked if we could go miniature golfing with them first, which was really fun. It was FREEZING outside, though. But we still had a good time. And that was the first time Daniel and I had ever done that together. Then we went to dinner at Kneaders, and had some really good food, and some delicious desserts (which we all shared with each other).

We headed home after that. We did a little homework. We played for a little bit. And then we went to bed.

This morning, church was really good. It was the primary program today, and since all of the kids in our ward are, like, 2 years old or younger, it was really funny. Only a few kids actually sang, and most of the adults had to fill in. It was good times. After church, we cleaned up our apartment, I got visit taught (which was fun; I like the girls that are teaching me. They are really nice!), Dan left for meetings and home teaching while I put more pictures in our scrapbook and made some food, and then tonight, we had dinner group. We went to the house of one of the families that Daniel home teaches. They are a really fun couple, and we really had a good time with them. We left a little earlier than we normally would because they had to get their little girl down to sleep. It’s been a fun Sunday overall. I’m getting tired though. Ready for another week (or rather, 2 days) of school! The semester’s almost over, and I’m almost done with school! That’s crazy to think about.

November 17, 2009

Tuesday

I am so tired right now…I really just need to go to bed.

I had kind of an interesting day today. I didn’t really get any homework done. I got up and did a short work out at home. Then, after taking Daniel to school, I cleaned up the house a bit, did the dishes, and got ready for the day. I left after that and didn’t come home for a while.

First, I went to the mall on a quest to find boots for the winter. It was kind of fun to wander around the mall and try on clothes and shoes. I got shanghaied at one point by some guy at a booth trying to sell me something, some nail kit. It was pretty impressive, but I wasn’t interested at all. He kept me there FOREVER trying to sell this thing to me, trying to convince me to buy it for presents for Christmas, lowering the price a few times, etc. It was pretty intense but I finally convinced him to let me go. I did eventually complete my quest, after I escaped. I got a couple of pairs of boots at Payless. They were having a sail, and one pair is more functional (and not super-cute), while the other is more fun. Anyway, the important thing is that I won’t freeze this winter!

After my mall experience, I went to my appointment at Utah Career College, to talk to an admissions advisor about their exercise and fitness program. It was actually pretty fun to go talk to him. He was really nice and personable; he showed me the school and explained the school’s program. I was there for a little over an hour. I am really interested in their bachelor’s program, but we’ll have to see about it. It’s actually really expensive!

I went grocery shopping after my appointment. It was about time. We have been out of fresh fruit and veggies for about 2 weeks now. I ran into Kathryn at the grocery store, which was funny. I parked right next to her car and left her a note before going into the grocery store. But I never saw her in the store. Then when I had finished filling the car and was about to leave, she knocked on my window. We talked for a long time, and she really seemed like she wanted to hang out and needed something to do. So, I picked up Daniel, we unloaded and put away groceries, and started making food. We had invited Cody for dinner before, and so we just invited Kat over for dinner (Mike couldn’t make it) as well. We had some really good marinated chicken, BLT potatoes, and some squash soup that Kat brought over. We had a lot of fun with them.

After they left, we did dishes and started studying; but I had a really hard time focusing, so mostly I started a few reading assignments, but didn’t get very far. I’ll have to do better the rest of this week. But for now, I’m really exhausted, and I need to sleep.

November 16, 2009

Monday

This morning I woke up to go to the gym. I biked and worked my arms today, and I got some reading done. Daniel left early to go to school this morning; he had to meet with his group to work on a project (he does that sometimes). So when I got home, he wasn’t there and it was kind of sad. I just made myself a really good breakfast, got ready, and walked to school. It was a beautiful day today. It was very wintery over the weekend; it all of a sudden turned into winter. But today it wasn’t too cold, and the leaves are still falling.

I only went to two classes today: Biochemistry and Spanish. My Sociology class was cancelled, and then I just decided to go home and skip my Pathophysiology class because I wasn’t feeling really well today. So, after Spanish, I came home, took some drugs, made some food and relaxed a little, and I felt so much better after that. I got some extra studying done too. I finished another Spanish Independent study lesson, that I’ll send off tomorrow. I’m almost done with that class! That’s very exciting. By the end of this semester, I will have finally finished my Spanish minor.

Dan made me dinner tonight, some delicious spaghetti. And we had family home evening. We always sing our hymn in Spanish, which is fun. Then he gave the lesson, based on one of the chapters in The Miracle of Forgiveness, which he is reading right now. It was mainly about not letting Satan even “get his foot in the door” and how we can prevent him getting into our lives. Then we just watched a variety of different shows on TV, and played a little bit of guitar. It’s been a good day.

Dan and I are finding it hard to stay motivated these days. We are so tired of school, especially me. I’ve pretty much gone to some school nonstop for, like, three years. And I am in serious need of a serious break. Which, naturally, will come in April.