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.

food and friends and more food.

This last week has been pretty swell.  It was full of old roommates and friends and food and it was fantastic.

Last Friday Rachel and Kenneth came into town for the weekend to be here for Kenneth's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary.  They were only here for the weekend, but we still got to hang out twice.  On Friday, we went with them to Sonic for shakes and also, here's the thing: Sonic has a fantastic Reese's shakes like woah.  Anyway, it was fun to catch up with them and to hear about the hilarious things that happen in South Carolina, which is where they live.  Also, while we were there, these high school-aged kids came up to us and they were apparently on a scavenger hunt.  One of the things they needed to do was have a stranger kiss one of the guys on the cheek.  Rachel got out with the excuse that she was married, but I couldn't do that. They guy kept begging and begging and I tried to have him get Levi or Kenneth to do it, since apparently he would get more points if he did that.  It was very strange and confusing, but we eventually convinced them that we were not going to kiss him.  From the sound of things, he eventually got someone else to kiss him.  Good for him.

On Saturday, Levi and I went and tried out this place called Slab Pizza.  Um, it's so super great.  I got chicken cordon bleu and chicken bacon ranch and they were both quite marvelous except they were huge so I could only eat half of it and Levi had to help me out.  It's nice to have him around sometimes.  Actually, it's nice all the time.

Then on Sunday was Katie's homecoming talk up in Centerville. This meant that I got to see Kelsey, and Kennedy, and Rachel (and Kenneth), and even Danielle (and Dillon). But most importantly, baby Kenny! Oh, and I guess also Katie.  It was so fun to hang out with them and to see Katie again because let's be honest, I love that girl and I am so super one million excited that she's back!

Then on Monday, I got to hang out with roommates again!!  Rachel wasn't there, but instead we had other Rachael as well as Keisha! This time we went to dinner at this place called Paradise Bakery.  It was good except that if you go there, don't get that one sandwich that I got that had this weird horseradish spread stuff on it.  It was weird.  Man, it's good to be with those girls.  We just sat there and talk and laughed very loudly for a good two hours.  Also there was this one part where I was surprised by something funny and then I laughed so hard that I may or may not have sprayed some of my food on Rachael. Oops.  Actually, that's embarrassing.  But like I said, the sandwich tasted a little weird anyway, so it was like nbd.  We tried to have someone take a picture of us, but that didn't work out so well so I ended up taking a picture of us as we exited the building.  This resulted in my head being very close to the camera and that's unfortunate, but at least everyone else looked cute.

On Tuesday, I made Chicken Crescents for dinner which is something my mom would make.  I really like them, but every time I make them I am always reminded of how many steps it takes to make them.  Okay, it's not actually that many, but still. I'm more of a mix it all in a bowl, throw it in the oven and BAM! dinner is served kind of girl.  Still, it was quite delicious.

On Wednesday, it was weddingapalooza, as Levi called it.  We went to two wedding receptions.  The first one was for my friend Kelsey who I worked with in sociology.  She's so super great and I am so mega happy for her.  Levi loved the location because it was indoors and also air-conditioned. What more could you want?

The second wedding reception was for Reegan Lake, sister of the one and only Keisha (Lake) Hendricks. And let me tell you something--those Lake ladies know how to put together a good reception, I'll tell you what.  Well done, Keech.  Also, I just like hanging out with the Lakes.  They're neat.  Also, right now I'm thinking about the mini pies that they served at the reception and I want one, dang it.  I would have posted the picture of me and Keech, but somehow I managed to have a super creepy claw hand on Keisha's shoulder and it is a little too frightening for public view, so sorry.

Then on Thursday, I made sesame chicken!  Remember my need for fried chicken all the time always?  Yeah, well that's still happening, but I'm trying to tone it down.  So I made this; it was delicious chicken, but not so fried and crispy.  It did the trick.  Except for the part where the chicken coating burned to the bottom of the pan, essentially blocking the heat and making it take 12 years for the chicken to cook.  So we (and by we, I mostly mean Levi) had to spend 7 of those years scraping the bottom of the pan so the dang chicken would cook. So that was fun.

And then to end this saga, I will tell you that yesterday, we went camping with Dillon and Danielle.  And by camping, I mean we just went to a nearby park up the canyon and had foil dinners and then came home and watched a movie. But the guys did a great job being manly by chopping wood and building a fire (using the teepee method--not the log cabin method--as they made sure to point out).  Danielle and I did a really great job of watching and providing moral support.  And moral support from me mostly includes me getting stressed about the possibility of Levi chopping his fingers instead of the wood and the possibility of him falling in the fire as he and Dillon ran around passing the rugby ball back and forth.  All in all, it was a fabulous evening; the food was totes delish, no one chopped their fingers off, and the rugby ball was the only thing to fall into the fire pit. I'd say it was a success.

The Random Tandem Experience.

One time back when me and Rach were baby sophomores  in college (over three years ago!) we found a tandem bike. And by found I mean that one of our neighbors found it and so it was just sitting out on the balcony for months.  One day in the spring it was finally warm enough to be outside for more than two minutes without your eyebrows freezing and having to wear six parkas.  So logically, we took that opportunity to ride the tandem bike because I mean, nbd, it would be easy, right?

Wrong.

Well, I take that back.  Maybe more coordinated individuals would not have such a difficult time with the tandem bike, but apparently we stuh-ruggled.  To the MAX.  It was just ridiculous how incapable we were of getting that thing to go.

Tandem bikes seem so magical, don't they?  I daresay they might even seem quite whimsical.  You can just imagine a lovely spring day, with the smell of fresh flowers in the air and birds singing and two lovely friends riding their tandem bike through the park.  Such a precious image, am I right?

Please erase that image from your mind because that it not how the random tandem experience went.  The random tandem experience went more like this: imagine high-pitched screaming and occassional grunt-yells (that's a thing), stressed breathing, forced deep breaths, crashing into walls, riding off the sidewalk, and never going more than five feet at a time.

That image is pretty much exactly how the first 20 minutes of the random tandem experience went.  It was ridiculous.  We could not get a hang of it to save our lives. We tried to have Rach in the front, but we then had to have me be in the front because homegirl Rach was about to have a panic attack from the stress that came with having to get the tandem bike going.

Finally after much screaming, multiple crashes, and--more than anything--laughing from our roommates Katie and Kelsey, we finally got it.

In fact, we were quite delighted!  So very pleased with ourselves!  We had conquered the tandem bike!  And just to show that tandem bike who was boss, we proceeded to ride the tandem bike around the block over and over.  It was great.  I think we might have been able to smell the flowers and maybe we heard a bird or two singing.

We loved riding that tandem bike; we probably rode it around the block like 50 times.  But then again, that was probably because we couldn't figure out how to stop it.

Neat.

P.S. Sometimes when I look at the picture above, I think that my right leg is my left leg and I'm like, woah. I am quite flexible!  But really I'm not.
P.P.S. Here is a video of clips from the Random Tandem Experience.  As crazy as it was, it's still one of my favorite memories with Rach.  Man, we were the weirdest.  But we had so much fun, and it was the best.



Also, when I was uploading this vid onto youtube, I think I did something so it's not quite as wide screen as it probs should be, so maybe we look a little stretched out?  ID even K how to fix it, so my bad. Sorry.