The Marriage Series

I have been reading "The Marriage Series" from a couple of my friends blogs & it is getting addicting. I love reading about their stories. When I read their stories I think of mine & Dalan's story and I just love it. So, I think I am going to jump aboard & as you read our story you can have fun remembering the details of your own. These are the things it will include . . .

1. The Big Picture (When did you meet? Start dating? Get engaged? etc...)
2. The Boy (Who is he? Where did he grow up? What does he like to do?)
3. The Girl (Tell us a little about yourself.)
4. The Love Story (How it all began: how you met, first date, first kiss, how long did you date? etc..)
5. The Moment You Knew He Was the One (How and when did you know?)
6. The Proposal (How did it happen? Was it a surprise? Do you have any pictures?)
7.The Announcements/Invitations (What did they look like? What pictures did you include?)
8. The Rings (Tell us about it! did you pick it out? did he? pictures! tell us about his ring too.)
9. The engagement/bridal pictures (Let's see em! Which are your favorites?)
10. The colors (What color scheme did you use? Why did you choose those colors?)
11. The dress (Was it what you always imagined? What was your favorite part? White or ivory?)
12. The tux (What did he wear?)
13. The bridesmaids (What did your bridesmaids wear? Did they choose or you choose?)
14. The ceremony (Where did you get married? What was your favorite part?
15. The reception (Where was it located? Show us some pictures! )
16. The cake/food (What did your cake look like? What food did you serve? Did you get to eat it?)
17. The best and worst (What was your favorite and least favorite part of the day: can be anything.)
18. The honeymoon (Where did you go? )
19. The marriage (The wedding was great, but it doesn't end there. What are your thoughts on marriage? Include the most recent picture of you and your significant other and any other thoughts)

Start looking for these posts! I'm excited to have a new prompt, and I hope you will have fun reading our love story.

Dalan's Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Dalan!! Yesterday was Dalan's 26th birthday! I let him open his first present that morning, Ice Road Truckers Most Dangerous Episodes. Yeah, we are cool like that. And he was able to watch it at lunch, since school has stolen our lunch times together.

When I got home I started baking his awesome birthday cake, and making my mom's famous meatballs and rice. Dalan opened his presents, the handsome shirt and vest, a list of 101 things that I love about Dalan & an ipod adapter for the tractors sealed with a Taylor Swift card (I want to be her when I grow up)! We grabbed Unstoppable at Redbox and watched it as we waited to change water and I did homework. It was a lot of fun to spend the day spoiling Dalan. He is definitely deserving of it. Dalan is the best husband ever. He does so much for me and is so sweet and selfless. He can always make me laugh and feel better about my day. I love you Dalan!

Best. Trick. Ever.

Source: craftylittlegnome.blogspot.com via Timari on Pinterest

The microwave has always been one of my least favorite chores, until I learned this trick from Pinterest. I seriously had so much fun cleaning my microwave today. So here is what you do. And P.S. maybe everyone else in the world knows this, you can just skip all this and laugh at my ignorance. But also, if you did know this, shame on you for not sharing this with me! Ok. What you do is get a bowl. Put water and vinegar in & heat in the microwave for 5 minutes. Then wipe everything off. Easiest thing ever. Try it.

*update. my mom totally knew this.

Wow!

First off I am so surprised at how many people voted! Thanks so much for the help! Today I printed off all three of the pictures in 8x10 form and I love seeing my photos in print! It is something that I should do more often. So the polls say that I should use the Dragonfly & the Turtle Taxi but I printed the Baby Swallows anyway . . . this is bad. I know that I should just trust everyone, right. but I just love love the Swallows. Something about the composition and the shadow above and that little fuzzy head have me trapped. ha ha I think I'll try to convince them to let me do three instead of two . . . or maybe I'll have Dalan enter one, is that lying? Ok. Just kidding. I know I'll have to leave one behind. I feel guilty though. Kinda like when you watch Toy Story & suddenly you want to go and find your old toys or things and make sure you give them more attention. It's like that.

Second. Our Vacation was perfect. It was so nice to be with Dalan & to get away for a while. Wednesday we walked around the little expensive shops and laughed at the variety of tourists. I wish I had taken pictures. Some of my favorites that we saw were the "Jackson Hole Snooki" & a big bad biker man carrying his lap dog in his fanny pack.

Thursday morning we explored further and went to the Teton Village & then to through the national park where we saw the Tetons.

That night we saw the Bar J Wranglers. It may have been the most fun thing that we did. They fed us a great dinner and they are hilarious as well as very talented musicians! I would recommend them to anyone!

Friday we were able to Raft the Snake River being guided by Dalan's old roommate, Marc. It was a ton of fun! Scary & Cold. But so so much fun!

After the rafting trip we were headed home back to nice beds and our own pillows & a warm shower. It's good to be back but it was great to leave.

Time for you to Vote!

I need to choose the best two photos out of these three. I just can't do it, I love them all. So, I need your help! I created a little poll over to the right. Pick your top 2 favorite & it will help me a bunch :)

I used to always enter my favorite pictures from the year into our county fair in Idaho & this year I am moving that tradition to Box Elder County!

I love walking through & looking at the pictures, it always made it so much fun to see a few of mine in the mix.

I can't wait to make prints & see these live! Wish me luck!

Vacation Eve

Today our vacation eve & the butterflies are here. I cannot wait to get on the road. Before that can happen though I have made today all about checking things off my list. I am refusing to come home to anything but a sparkley clean house. I think a clean house to come home to makes it not so scary or as disappointing to come back from a fun, relaxing vaca. That's the goal anyways, I already know I won't want to come back, but I guess I'll deal with that as it comes.

So here is what I have accomplished so far . . .

• cleaned out Dalan's truck
• dishes
• laundry & laundry & more laundry
  
• some packing
• ran a mile
  
• got my new phone in the mail :)
  

What I have left . . . .

• finish packing
• shower
• go to Dalan's championship softball game!
  
• vacuum
  
• mow the lawn
• find something for lunch
• buy snacks for the road
• buy a disposable water proof camera :)
  
• activate my new phone

Busy Bees

Well, I have finished my Anatomy & English class, bunko at my house went successfully (& I plan on posting about that eventually . . . but no time now). We are pretty busy here lately. Yesterday I helped Dalan move straw bales. Today he finished it up while I was at work (also another post to be made) and burned the field and I couldn't drag him in the house to eat if I wanted to.

So we are going to have a picnic in the tractor & I'm getting excited. I am going to pre-apologize though. I have been waiting for Dalan to be ready for lunch and have been running around helping him on and off since noon & I am so excited for lunch.

Which is my excuse for having a mini photo shoot of our food. Our simple and easy lunch. Really there is no reason to take pictures of sandwiches and chips & snacks. It's embarrassing really.

But when you are this hungry it's just how it goes. It's the only thing I can do to keep from snacking on chips, and eating all of the grapes I bought today.

yummy. I can't wait to eat this. Happy August everyone!

Bunko!

Bunko is being hosted by yours truly this month. I am totally psyched. I love having people over & I love parties. Plus, only a hand full of lovelies have seen our cute little house.

The plans are starting to come together. The prizes are completely ready, the desserts are simple & delicious.

The house will be cleaned & hopefully our little friend the mouse will be captured by then.

I will definitely have an after-party blog post to ensure you know exactly how it goes.

I shouldn't post this yet, because I may or may not have given a sneak peak to some prizes. but I think I will anyways.

This bowl is filled with a piece of a prize. Can you tell what it is? At first glance Dalan thought they were cigarettes. I assure you, although this week has been rather stressful, the only bad habit I have indulged in is eating too many cookies :)

* I will show you the other 8 prizes later :) *

A Stressful Story

As we turned off the lights to go to bed a rather large spider raced across the floor. Dalan tried to get it, but it was dark and the little, but scary guy was fast. I knew that I would find that spider again in the morning when Dalan was in Idaho & too far away to come home & smoosh it. I took a deep breath & tried to forget about it as I drifted off into my dreams. The next morning I had basically forgot about the spider. Little did I know I had much bigger problems up ahead. As I worked on some more craft projects (more about those later!) I came face to face . . . ok fine. I came toes to nose with a mouse! Ah! it was everything a mouse is supposed to be, creepy & small & with beady little eyes except for instead of scampering in the fields it was in my house! I tried to make it escape out the back door, but it was all in vain as it ran behind the washer & dryer. Now there are traps galore & I wear my snow boots to do laundry. Does anyone have any tricks up their sleeves that you could share? I am going crazy. I am very hopeful that the little rodent came through the door & not through a wall . . . .