Last Saturday, we decided to take a mini field trip to Ikea and do a session at the Draper Temple.

First off, we went to Ikea, very close to my heart because of my half-Swedish-ness. We walked around the show rooms and bought a few little things to spruce up the apartment. I bought some little boxes to organize one of our bookcases in the family room. Plus the little flowers in the vase. (Also, notice the cute pink yoga mat I've been using a lot to do pilates/yoga/stretching. It was one of my graduation presents and I love it).



We also bought a cinnamon roll (only $1 for a huge one, totally worth the splurge) and had a lingonberry soda. Those of you who haven't tried lingonberry, you must! They have soda, jam, etc of lingonberry flavor at Ikea and it is very Swedish and very yummy.

Then, we did a session at the Draper temple. I went to the open house of the temple, but hadn't been back since then. It is fun to visit new temples and feel the unique spirit that all of them have. I especially love the chandelier in the celestial room there.

Picture of the outside of the temple:


Picture of the gorgeous celestial room:




To top the night off, we went to Cafe Rio (thanks to a graduation gift card from G&G Inkley!!!) and had some delicious food. I had my traditional chicken salad and Jason had shrimp tacos. It is always such a treat to go out to eat and not be responsible to cook and clean up.

Overall, it was so great to have a fun day together and get to spend the day with Jason. I miss him a lot while he's at work all day.

Sheldon and the Fish

We got new pets!! Well, if you count a fish and tiny frog as pets, which we do. Since our old fish, Ollivander, went the way of all the earth a few months ago,(RIP Ollivander) we decided it was time to get some new fish.

The guy at petsmart advised getting just a couple fish to build up the "good bacteria" and such in the tank before investing in cute little tiny ones that are pink (can you tell who wanted one of those?). So, we got Sheldon and his friend the fish.

I am accepting name suggestions for the fish, none have really stuck yet. Please leave a comment with any suggestions about a name. I'm pretty sure he's a him, just so you know. He is a "dalmatian molly" fish who looks a little like this:


Our little frog, Sheldon (so named for a character on the show Big Bang Theory), is pretty much the most adorable thing I've ever owned. He's only about an inch long and he's also thinks he's a ninja. When he thinks you're not around or looking, he'll swim all over the tank. It's adorable. This is what he looks like, it's kind of hard to get a good shot of him in the aquarium:



I think we'll go back tomorrow and get a few more members to add to our aquatic group. So, stay tuned...

Re-committing

Hello again!

So, turns out I've had people tell me I should update my blog more than just two posts, so I am now recommitting to try to post once a week (or when something interesting happens). We'll see if I can get in the habit.

Spring/Summer update:
The plan for us this spring/summer is to stick around Provo. Jason has a great new job working for BYU doing computer/network related stuff. His old job (working tech support for the church) changed their headquarters to Salt Lake, but Jason was able to get a job that started training just as the other one ended, which was a definite blessing. He has a great boss and flexible hours, which will be great once he starts school back up summer term. Also, he'll be able to keep the job throughout the rest of his time at BYU, another blessing.

Other big news, Jason has made a decision to change his major to computer science and head that direction instead of going to medical school. We both thought and prayed about the decision and we feel great about it. Our decision has been validated with how much Jason loves his new job and the great work experience it has given him. So, now we're looking at 2-3 years at BYU plus a possible Masters degree. I'm really glad to still be in Provo for awhile, I wasn't quite ready to leave yet.

As for me, I'm on the job hunt. I've applied for some temporary summer jobs, but none have worked out just yet. I've been focusing on applying for fall teaching jobs within a reasonable commute, preferably at a middle school/junior high. Last week, I had 2nd interview/teaching "tryout" for a school located here in Provo. They asked me to come and teach a 30 minute lesson about density. I was SUPER nervous driving up to the school, but once the classroom was full of kids, it was a total blast. I'm not sure what my chances are of getting the job, but as much as I'd love it, I have faith that something else will come along if it doesn't work out.

In the meantime, I've been keeping myself busy with organizing our apartment more, trying out new recipes, exercising every day, typing up all of my mom's recipes, crocheting, etc. Now that I'm getting into a routine and accomplishing things every day, I feel better about life until I'm able to find a job. Like Jason predicted, it's been good for me to have some time to feel like I'm worth something, even if I'm not working or doing homework.

Well, that's my update for the summer. I'll post a little more this week about more specific things going on!

Valentines/Anniversary Date Night!

Tomorrow (Sunday) will mark our 6 month anniversary! That, plus Valentines on Monday, called for some celebration. So, Jason and I went on a fun date last night to Salt Lake.

First, we ate dinner at Olive Garden which was really great. Jason had shrimp fettucine and I had caprese with angel hair pasta and shrimp. The only thing that made it better was that our whole meal was covered by a Christmas giftcard from my grandparents!

Since we had a little time to kill, we stopped by the Family History Library on Temple Square in Salt Lake. (Side note: Jason and I are serving in our ward as the extraction leaders, so we're in charge of teaching people in the ward how to do indexing and family history work. We've had a lot of fun learning about it and we'll share a post soon about some things we've learned). We were definitely the youngest people in the center, but we had fun working with the volunteers to look for some of Jason's ancestors that have been hard to find. When we left, they were showing "Who do you think you are?" a new tv show about genealogy on a big screen and having treats, we thought that was cute.

Our next stop was the Vocalpoint concert at the Conference Center Little Theater. What a fantastic concert!! For those of you who don't know, vocalpoint is a BYU group of 9 guys who sing all a capella music. The concert had a fun mix of different songs, both upbeat and more mellow. (Visit byuvocalpoint.com to hear some of their music)

After the concert, we headed back to Provo for a stop at the malt shop for an oreo cookie dough milkshake. I wasn't so sure about the combination, but it turns out it was amazing and I'd definitely have it again.

Overall, it was great to celebrate being together and being happy.

A little about us....

Well, Jason and I have finally decided to get our blog up and going. We hope to use it as a way to communicate with friends/family as well as an excuse for us to record what's going on in our lives.

To start off with, here's a little bit about each of us:

Jason grew up in Goldendale, Washington
(in case you don't know where that is, see here:


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Jason is the middle child in his family, with an older brother, Sean, and a younger sister, Jayde. He was homeschooled and has always loved learning about science and how things work. Jason served a 2 year mission in the Chile, Viña del Mar mission. Currently, he's studying Biology at BYU with the goal to go to med school after graduating from BYU in about 2 years.

This semester, he's taking a pretty heavy course load of mostly science classes including: Plant Diversity Bio 220B, Microbiology 241, Human Devlopement SFL 210, Physics 106 and 108, Book of Mormon, and Intro to Medicine. Jason is also working part time at the Global Service Desk through BYU. The GSD basically provides all kinds of tech support for the LDS church. Jason likes his job a lot because he gets to work with computers and they've been great to work around his class schedule.

Ilarene is from Centerville, Utah (see below)

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Ilarene is the oldest of five kids (Delia, Alex, Nick and Sam) and is lucky to have her family so close. She and Jason have lots of chances to visit and spend time with them.

Ilarene is studying Biology Education at BYU and graduating in April (crazy!). She is currently student teaching at Lakeridge Jr. High in Orem, (which is conveniently located only about 15 minutes away from where we're living). Student teaching has been an awesome experience because of her placement with a great co-teacher and cooperating teacher. While it definitely is very demanding, it has been so fulfilling as well.(Posts will surely follow later with some funny stories...) Ilarene is hoping to get a job in the fall teaching in a Junior High somewhere near Provo while Jason finishes up school.


We met in January 2010 through two of our best friends, Jamie Williams and Trent Despain. After only a week of knowing each other, we started dating and have pretty much seen each other every day since (except for a few weeks during the spring when Jason was living in Washington). We got engaged in June under the stars at a park in Provo. We were originally planning on getting married in December of 2010, but thank heavens we decided we didn't want to wait that long! Instead, we got married in the Salt Lake temple on August 13th (friday the 13th!!). It was such an amazing day to be sealed in the temple and know that we get to be together forever. Also, we loved sharing the day with so many people that we love. We had a fantastic photographer, Julie Cannon, and we would highly recommend her!! See her blog here for more information and awesome photos: www.juliedphotography.blogspot.com.