fall winter now.

It has been a lonnnnnnng time since I last posted.

Let's see if I can hit some highlights (based almost exclusively off of the photos found on my phone):

October 2015:
-Went back to Utah for Levi's friend's wedding and were able to stay for the weekend which included General Conference!
-my sweet grandpa passed away, but we were lucky enough to be able to go California for the weekend where I gave the eulogy which was a really difficult, but rewarding task. It was awesome to spend the weekend with so much family celebrating a man we love and admire so much.
-we watched a lottttt of the rugby world cup and the All Blacks won the whole thing! I made banana cake for Levi multiple times during the tournament because it's his favorite and now I would really love a piece of it.
-dressed up as Oreos for Halloween!

November 2015:
-It was still obnoxiously warm for November so when we hosted soccer games at work, we could actually go outside and watch them!
-Again, it was warm, so we went on a number of walks in the neighborhoods near our apartment. If any animals were sighted during said walks, Levi was sure to chase them.
-My mom sent me an awesome birthday care package filled with delicious cookies and little chocolates and I'm pretty sure we ate all the cookies in like 2 days and I'm not even a little bit upset about that.
-Went back to Provo for Thanksgiving and my birthday! We had such a fun Thanksgiving with family and we celebrated my birthday by purchasing 16 donuts and I ate four of them...for breakfast alone.

December 2015:
-My little brother came home from his mission! He had been in the Orlando, Florida area for two years and it was so awesome to have him home. He came home on the 16th and it was killing me to have to wait like 4 days before seeing him!
-Levi finished his first semester of grad school (while also working full-time, which never ceases to amaze me).
-Star Wars came out so obvi we saw it opening night because Levi is #obsessed.
-spent the Christmas break in California with my entire family! It was for sure the best Christmas break everrrrrr. I've never been more sad to leave. :( but I survived.
-made a pretty awesome music video with my family like we do every year.

January 2016:
-my candy drawer at work was repeatedly attacked by mice and I hated it.
-Levi started his second semester of grad school and decided to take 12 credits (9 credits is full-time!) while continuing to work full time and serve as Young Men's president--I swear he can do it all.
-Levi decided it was time we learn to golf, so we found 3 cheap, used clubs for me (because I'm left-handed and can't share with him) and we've been having fun at the driving range right next to our apartment complex!

February 2016:
-gas prices reached an all-time low at $1.08 here in Oklahoma and I was starting to feel as if I was stealing gas when I filled my tank for $15...
-celebrated Valentine's Day the only way we know how...donuts! And more delicious food. :) And most importantly, remember why we love each other!
-cashed in on one of theeee coolest Christmas presents from my older brother and we went to the Thunder game! It was a once in a lifetime opportunity as we had theeee best seats ever (we could hear Kevin Durant yelling at the ref) and we even splurged and got food there (yum, nachos!) We had SUCH a fun time!

March 2016:
-after much begging and pleading from Levi, I finally made cinnamon rolls for the first time on my own! I still have a lot of work to do before they are as amazing as my mom's or my sister's, but it's a start! (though I have finally mastered making rolls, so I know there is hope for me...)
-Rachel came to town!!!!!! Levi always makes fun of me for how giggly and goofy I get when I'm around Rach or any of my other college friends, but it's just that everything is soooooo funny when they're around! We had THEE best time and now I am convinced that I need all of my closest friends to figure out a way to live on the same street as me for the rest of our lives.
-Levi and I started a round of whole30 which essentially means we're not eating grains, legumes, sugar, or dairy for thirty days. We're currently on day 20 and I cannot wait to be done, but I'm at the point where I have to go all the way and there's no way I'm stopping now.

April 2016:
-paid our taxes and that was kind of the worst.
-getting close to the end of the school semester for Levi and we are SO excited! He'll take one class in the spring and then he'll have the rest of the summer off before he starts his last semester!
-life is wonderful!

That's pretty much it! Except also you should know I really want cookies and pizza right now.

#BYU50 Box

So, as you may know, Levi and I both graduated from BYU. We love BYU. Sooooo, when I found out that BYU was doing this BYU50 box, it piqued my interested because I love free stuff and BYU, so duh.

So the BYU50 box. What is it, you ask? Well, BYU is really unique in that they have a good sized fan base in every state in the country. You will always see a fan section for BYU at away games because there are fans everywhere. It's definitely one of my favorite things. Anyway, because they have such a fan base they decided to do this thing where in the 50 days leading up to the first football game they drop a box full of BYU gear and prizes at a random location in each state (1 state per day). They then post a picture of the box on twitter and instagram and using the clues in the picture, you can guess where the box is and then race to find it. The thing is people know the box is going to be dropped in their state so they start guessing likely locations where the box will be dropped and started lurking in those areas. Sometimes BYU will give a clue like "It's going to be in the San Francisco area!" so you're not totally and completely winging it.

Anyway, I wanted the box. Not so much for the stuff inside the box, but just for the fun of it. I mean, seriously, BYU fans racing for a box at a random spot? I'm totes in. I was ready to battle it out with other fans (because you would be surprised at how fast the box gets picked up--most of the time, it's within 15-20 minutes and sometimes less than 5! the fans are everywhere!). Anyway, the Oklahoma day was on a Saturday. It was super awesome that it was a Saturday because then we knew we would be free to do a bit of lurking ourselves.

We woke up Saturday morning and I basically checked twitter every 2 minutes (and I don't even use twitter, so that was fun, i.e. embarrassing). We went and played soccer in the morning and then came home and saw a tweet that the box was going to be dropped in the early afternoon. This was nice because it meant we could shower and eat breakfast without being stressed that the box might drop at any minute because we all know I am not above racing for the box with soaking wet and soapy hair haha.

I seriously don't know why I was so excited about it, but we decided we would hang out around the downtown area because we guessed it would be somewhere around there. At first we thought we might hang out at these gardens they have downtown, but then we decided to just drive around town. I mean, they did say they would be dropping in the early afternoon so we wanted to be on the prowl...or something like that. Anyway, as we were driving around we saw a BYU fan lurking around the gardens and by the arena so then we were supes paranoid that maybe there were more!

Anyway, we're driving around when suddenly Levi yells "It dropped! It's at the ballpark!!" So obvi I started j freeeeaking out because I was so excited haha. We were one block north of the park and two blocks west. Soooo close!! I turned to go south (I was the driver and Levi was the "runner") and ended up right behind a bus!! Haha, I wish you could have been there. I was yelling and screaming and bouncing up and down willllling that bus to move faster!! I turned east toward the park and tried to zoom over but we hit a red light!! I was losing it, it was so hilarious. I just wanted to winnnn!! Finally we get close the corner where the box was placed only to see that someone had already claimed it!! Wah wah. Haha, but we still jumped out of the car to see if we could get a consolation prize or something which we totally did. We got 3rd place, but we still got an XL t-shirt that you can see me sporting in the photo above.

All in all, it was so super fun. Levi can attest that I weirdly loved it because I literally talked about how fun it was all day. And I just kept going on and on about how much I love BYU. It was just so much fun to be racing against a bunch of other BYU fans! And I think at the heart of it, I just love celebrating how awesome BYU is. Going to BYU was my dream all growing up and then I finally got to go there and I had theeee best time of my life. There are honestly very few things I love more than BYU and that is zero percent a joke. I received the best education, had the best memories, made some of the greatest friends, and of course, met my husband there. :)

Anyway, this is me sending all the heart-eyed emojis to BYU from all the way out in Oklahoma.

P.S. TWO DAYS until game day!!!
P.P.S. Here's a video that BYU recently posted and I love it. Also I miss BYU, so just a couple teary-eyed emoji's are appropriate here as well.

The BYU Student Experience - with Stacey Harkey
An education "to become different, better people." This brand new video gives a comprehensive look at what it means to be a student at BYU.
Posted by BYU (Brigham Young University) on Saturday, August 29, 2015

no but really. what is even happening right now?

Soooo...I wrote this post two months ago but then never posted it. Why? I have no idea. But I went to blog today and I found this in my drafts. My apologies. So basically this only catches you up to about the middle of May. Also, for once in my life there might be more pictures that words. So basically you won't drown in the paragraphs on nonsense as you look for the next picture. Celebrate the little things, I guess. Pffffft.

Things that have happened during my long absence:

 

+ went home to CA for the long weekend to celebrate my sister's bridal shower and so everyone could meet her fiance and to celebrate Valentine's day and mostly to eat chocolate covered strawberries.

+ chaperoned a youth dance. Levi said if one of the kids thought I was a teenager and asked me to dance, he would take me out to ice cream. Turns out Levi is the youngster because some girl asked him to dance! What the heck? Also, we didn't get any ice cream.

+ spent fifty billion years trying to find a dress for my sister's wedding. Finally found one! 

+ went to the medieval fair here in town. Medieval-ness is wild, for sure. But I did get to eat a turkey leg and part of levi's navajo taco and we also go to launch marshmallows off of mini catapults and saw a lot of interesting outfits and also I got a sunburn.

+ had our huge work event and didn't die from it.

+ made banana bread, but I think I want to try a different recipe for it now...one that is a little more moist.

+ had Levi's little brother in town! went to some of our favorite places: KD's restaurant, a Thunder game, guitar store, raising cane's, dick's sporting goods, etc. It was super fun!

+ levi got a new guitar! many thanks to his mom and grandma for it. he seriously loves it and plays it evvvvvery day (and sometimes tries to get out of doing the dishes by sneaking off to play...)

+ storm season started and we had a couple small tornadoes and a lot of thunderstorms. we've even had to get in the storm shelter once (and we took a #shelterselfie!). also, I really hate flash flooding. maybe you've been reading about the flooding in houston right now? (...oops. like I said, I wrote this two months ago haha) stuff like that is the worst to me. levi's car got flooded one night and it was the worst. and it's really scary. turn around, don't drown!

+ went out to provo for BYU graduation! we're so proud of lauren for graduating and we're excited to see where life takes her next! also, it's always good to go to our favorite food places in provo!

+ we went straight from provo to california for my sister's wedding! It was super fun and I just love love love being with my family. It always goes by too quickly, but I'll admit: I'm glad to be done with weddings for a while haha.

+ came back to oklahoma and we've had even more storms. it's been a really wet may! I don't mind the storms just as long as I'm in the safety of my own home. but you guys, driving in it is the pits, yo. also, the sky gets such weird color during the tornado-y storms. the pic above was taken at like 10 pm and it was way more yellow-y and weird than you can see here...

+ celebrated our anniversary!! I can't believe how quickly a year has flown by! the day started with me having to go clean the church (ha!) but then I came home to find flowers and donuts and my favorite juice waiting for me in bed with my favorite guy in the world! please note levi hiding under the covers (for modesty!).  it was such a fun day of hanging out together, reminiscing on all the incredible (and some less incredible) events that have transpired over the last year. we ended the evening with dinner on the 49th floor of the tallest building in town. It was amazing! It was almost cancelled due to--surprise!--a thunderstorm, but fortunately it wasn't. In fact, we ended up having an awesome "light show" (i.e. tons of lighting) while we ate our dinner. It was awesome. (Suuuuper crappy anniversary pic...really not sure what the guy was doing but it was so blurry and dark that I had to like edit it all weird (and I have no idea how to edit btdubs) but it's the best we have haha)

+ and then just this last weekend (lies. two months ago) was really fun. We had the long weekend and on Saturday we went up to Penn Square mall to redeem my reward for winning my family's March Madness bracket (1 pound of See's Candy!). Of course, as we were ready to leave, the flash floods were starting. Because of where we were parked, the water was deeper (probs 4 or 5 inches) so we wanted to get out of there before the water got to the engine! It continued to pour rain, but we made it home safely and spent the evening in our sweats and eating the chocolate!

+ and there you have it. The last three months in a nutshell. Out.

let's! go! fly a kite!

up! to! the hiiiiiighest height!

So, be honest with me. Have you ever been able to successfully fly a kite for more than 30 seconds at a time? I mean, where in the world is it windy enough for long enough so you can fly a kite? I mean, serious questions people.

Well, I have the answer for you. Oklahoma! You know, like in the song? "Oooooklahoma where the winds come sweepin' down the plains!" Duhhhhhh, right? And that lyric is truer than true around here. It is windy all day, every day. You get used to it though. I mean, it's not always going 50 mph, but probably at least half of the time it actually is going that fast. It'll freeze your little face off if you're not careful.

*side note: a couple lines later in that Oklahoma song, it says "ev'ry night my honey lamb and I, every night, we sit alone and talk and watch a lazy hawk makin lazy circles in the sky." What the? For those of you that were curious, Levi and I have not yet had the chance to watch lazy hawks make circles in the sky. But also for those of you who were curious, I definitely refer to Levi as my honey lamb.

Okay, so anyway. Since it's always windy and this last weekend was supposed to be upwards of 70 degrees around these parts (yes, winter is hard...jokes), I thought hey! Why not go fly a kite?! Levi had to work at some graduate student orientation yada yada on Saturday, so I was put in charge of grocery shopping and other errands (let's not talk about how I had to go to Office Depot three times. I'm so tired of that store). Whilst shopping for the groceries, I was like, hey! Since I'm at Walmart I will buy some kites! (and I'm at Walmart because there are like zero regular grocery store within a 20-stoplight radius of our apartment--seriously, I already have to go through like 5 to get to Walmart and it's literally like a 1/4 mile away).

I went back to the toy section and the kind employee directed me to the only kites in the store (not many options, because it's still winter...sort of). Anyway, they had Cinderella and Barbie. Obvi I took one of each (at $1.37, the price couldn't be beat!). One for Levi, one for me. When Levi came home from work I told him I had a surprise and I showed him the kites. Originally he picked the Cinderella one but then he decided that Barbie had better hair, so he made a trade. As my friend Danielle pointed out, this probably means I should stop doing my Cinderella hairdo's and starting perfecting the Barbie wave if I want to impress this guy.

So we went to the local high school and flew our kites. I have this terrible memory of flying my older brother's homemade kite when he was in cub scouts or something and I accidentally let go of it and it got stuck in some trees and I ruined the day. I also remembering being significantly more upset about it than anyone else was (including my brother), but still. Traumatizing.

But out on the open field where the wind was a-blowin' and Cinderella's face was a-smilin', we had a grand old time. Seriously, it was so fun! There was plenty of wind to keep the kites afloat and the activity easily entertained us for an hour. Levi found some giant tower to climb on (he said it was where they film sports from?) and we also figured that we could put the handles in our pockets or attached to our shoes and they would still continue to float while we sat down and just stared at our kites haha. It was really such a great afternoon. So for all you fools that want to fly a kite, come visit us! You can choose Cinderella or Barbie.

Now pictures!

new apartment, we're coming for you.

First of all, this picture is from the 4th of July. It was so nice for Levi to be FREE of classes for the day and we got to have a long weekend! Also, look how festive we are with our red, white, and blue, while watching the fireworks from our car!

The 4th of July was actually a really awesome day because it was the first time that Levi got to see our apartment. I had seen it a few days before when they gave us our keys, but this was Levi's first time! We wanted to go down there and clean it super well so that it would be ready for us when we fiiiiiiiiiinally get to move down there this Friday! Finally! So we cleaned and cleaned and moved in some of the things we had bought out here. It was so awesome to be in our own apartment.

I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but I just cannot wait! until we have all of our belongings and I can make a real dinner for the first time in over two months! I can make something for both of us because Levi will no longer be in training and I will finally have all my dishes and it will seriously be so so magical. Because I just want you to know that things are starting to get a little desperate around here. In the time we've been here, I have officially eaten 6 pounds of spaghetti, four boxes of cheerios, four bags of granola, and an absurd amount of blueberries. Also, I reached an all-time low as I purchased corn dogs today. I didn't even know I really liked corn dogs. But there they were and I was desperate. So desperate that I was willing to buy corn dogs and now I'm cooking them in the oven without a baking sheet. They're just laying straight on the rack. I've got to get out of here.

Anyway, back to the apartment.

I feel so grown up now that I wish for things like my own apartment and my own dishes and a washer and dryer instead of wishing for a new doll and an easy bake oven (although I would not be upset if someone did decide to give me and easy bake oven...).

Anyway, I just wanted to show some pictures of our apartment before we bring all the stuff in. We are so in love with our apartment and feel so blessed to have it (and Levi especially loves that it's so close to the basketball court). So far we have acquired a table, but other than that, we don't have much as far as furniture goes. We've made a list of all the big purchases we'll need to make (dressers, couches, etc.) and we'll probably be adding them one at a time over the next year so as not to spend a million dollars all at once. So, these may be the before pictures, but legit after pictures not be that cool for like another year. Anyway, please enjoy these mostly boring pictures of an empty apartment and the occasional glimpse of me in a mirror.

Oh, but first, please find much enjoyment from this first picture of the key they handed me. As much as I wanted Levi to carry it around with him as his most prized possession, I figured I should probably go to Walmlart and pay the two dollars for a copy. But know this: if you ever come to stay at our place, you're totes getting that key because it is now the official spare key. You are welcome.

 This is the first of two bedrooms. The other one is a little smaller and only has one closet, but it has a bathroom! We're so lucky, I can't get over it!

And that's a terrible quality photo of the bathroom, but look--it's me! And I look like I'm sporting a librarian bun! But anyway, the electricity hadn't been turned on in the apartment yet, so this was the best I could do. Also, it was 90 degrees in the apartment, because no air conditioning. It was the best.

one of us can pick out their hair (levi, obvi) and the other is the real MVP (me, obvi)

oklahoma city, you haven't killed me yet.

We've been here for over a month now and I don't hate the place. In fact, I'm a huge fan. Both Levi and I feel really good about where we are right now and are really happy about our surroundings. Oklahoma is such a great place. The people here are so friendly and happy and it's great. As you might know, we're in Oklahoma City right now, but as soon as summer institute training is over for Levi, we're moving down to Moore and I CANNOT WAIT. As much as I love this studio apartment that has none of my stuff, I can't wait to move into our beautiful, gorgeous amazing apartment down in Moore. We've really been counting our blessings lately because we really shouldn't have gotten the apartment that we did. We were on a waiting list and didn't make it to the top for available july apartments so we thought all was lost but then there was a surprise availability and we got the apartment! We are incredibly grateful for it and we will be the entire time we live there!  Anyway, we technically already have the keys to our apartment and have even taken a few things down there but we're still living up here since I mean, Levi has to be at the bus at 6:30 am and also free food for him here and also free air conditioning and plus it would be a 20 minute drive, so I mean. But next FRIDAY! 11 days! I cannot wait!!!! And the Monday after that my parents will be arriving with all our beautiful and amazing wedding gifts and also the remainder of our belongings and I swear my mind will explode of happiness. We've been living in limbo for about two months and I just cannot wait to finally be settled into our own place that we won't have to move out of for a long time and I'll be able to make dinner and it's just going to be the best.

ANYWAY.

Other things have been happening in our lives and I now wish to share those things with you.

First of all, Levi is teaching. Here he is after his first day of successfully teaching little first graders. Fast forward to today and he only has three days left of summer school! Yeah!

A few weeks ago we went to the Oklahoma City temple which is actually in Yukon. Also, turns out we literally drove RIGHT past it when we were driving into Oklahoma City for the first time. As in it was on the right side of the road and we just drove on past. But in our defense (well, mostly my defense because I had somehow rerouted us and so I thought we definitely weren't going to be driving past it), it was night time so we maybe wouldn't have seen it anyway? Anyway, it was great. It's just right there in the middle of a nice little neighborhood and it's so small and we love it.

So, it turns out that contrary to my previous claims, you can't actually eat spaghetti 62 days in a row as I had been planning to do. Something weird happened with my digestive system or something and I was feeling very strange for a few days so I'm choosing to blame it on the mass amounts of spaghetti that were consumed. Anyway, I bought a chicken and I was hoping it would help. It was a really good chicken.

For months I've been begging Levi to show me what it looks like when he picks out his hair. One day he surprised me when he came out of the bathroom and it was such a great moment. I mean, look at it. Don't you just feel like you should say it's groovy or something? I also really wish for you to see pictures of Levi's hair in high school when it was way longer and so picking it out was significantly more hilarious. I love this guy. And that hair.

Dillon and Danielle are such great friends. I mean, look! They mailed us pesto bread and a gigantic cinnamon roll bread thing. It's just like the good old days when we would go over to their apartment and they would make us lots of delicious food and we would eat it all and then leave. Such a good friendship.

Have you ever watched Gilmore Girls? There is one thing you need to know about Gilmore Girls. They are always, I repeat, ALWAYS eating food. Every time we watch an episode we get hungry even though we really have no need to be hungry because we just ate a few hours ago but then they're eating burgers and fries and fancy meals and pizza and chinese (always chinese!) and it can make even the fullest stomach grumble for want of food. So one day, Levi and I decided to beat the system. We wanted to show those Gilmore Girls who was boss! And boss them we did! It was a weekend night and we decided to get Chinese (okay, Panda Express but it still counts) and eat it on our bed while we watched an episode of Gilmore Girls. It was seriously so fun and it made me really happy. Also, maybe Levi isn't going to like that I always talk about how we watch Gilmore Girls because maybe "all the boys" will think he's turned girly which he totally hasn't. I guess you just get a little desperate when you spend 14 hours a day with Teach for America and it's a nice little something to look forward to at the end of the day. So sue him.

It is important for you to understand something about Levi. He likes to play this special game. Say for example that we need to leave to go somewhere. So I'll say, "Hey, are you going to be ready in ten minutes?" I'm not saying it in a "there's no way you'll be ready in ten minutes so I just want you to know you're running behind" because that's mean and that's not what I'm trying to do. I'm saying it in a "would ten minutes be a good estimate for when we're going to be ready to leave?" Anyway, I'll say that and he'll say yes and then in ten minutes as I'm putting on lotion or my earrings or some other final touch he will have speedily dressed and stuff and he'll be ready just seconds (literally, seconds) before I'm ready and then he'll pace the apartment saying, "Just waitin' on you. Yep, I'm just here all ready to go and I'm just waitin' on you." It's pretty funny because he likes to pretend that he's been ready forever and that I thought he would never be ready in ten minutes and now would you look at that! he was ready first. 

Anyway, this picture is from one time when I was totes ready first and he was still in the bathroom or the shower or something so I texted him this from the kitchen along with a note that said "just waitin' on you." It was good stuff. In other news, that's our mini baby garbage can they gave us. In other other news, I broke those flips flops the other day when I was trying to get ketchup and mayo (to make fry sauce, of course) at the cafeteria and apparently people had been spilling ketchup everywhere (come on! are we all five years old?!) and so the ground was sticky and my flip flop got stuck as I tried to step away and the strap finally broke. It had been just clinging to life for the past two years, so it was time for them to go, but it was really sad and they were almost six years old so I was proud of them for the life they lived.

And finally, these pictures are from when we went to the patiently awaited for trip to Kevin Durant's restaurant in the beloved OKC. Levi was soooooooooo (times a billion) excited to go and I'll be honest, it was pretty awesome and really fun and also the food was delicious. Also Kevin Durant. I mean, come on. He's basically an idol in this Heperi home. And rightfully so. Also, I have a secret wish that one day we'll go to KD's restaurant and KD himself will be there and he'll walk up to me and say, "You the real MVP." I mean, a girl can dream, right? (But to be totally serious, I loved KD's MVP speech and thought that line was actually the best thing ever, so I'm kidding around with my dream, but I really do think he's amazing and if I did see him at that restaurant I would probably cry of happiness or something else equally embarrassing.)

Okay, the end.