Surprises.... GALORE!

My first B-day in Logan, I wasn't expecting a whole lot. I had a feeling Collin would make it special just because that's the type of man that he is. He has been surprising me ever since we got married. It's so nice to live here in Logan with him, rather than having the 4 hour drive round-trip while I lived in Provo.

Anyway, as I was walking home from work on Friday night, I tried calling just about everyone in the family, but to no avail. So, I continued walking to rather short, but beautiful 2.7 block walk home. All of the sudden, a car headed the same direction came to a screeching halt, with crazy people screaming obscenities at me, so I thought. As the scenario unraveled, it was Kristy Denney, Kim Denney and Carly Walton all yelling my name to surprise me in Logan. I hadn't had any visitors in the 3 months I've lived here, excluding my parents and 1 of Collin's brothers. So, it was a fabulous surprise to have them come! Turns out Kristy planned the whole thing, with Collin and even my Mom in on the whole thing. I used to truly hate surprises when I knew they were coming! Collin (and now everyone else) has gotten SO good at keeping secrets. Tricksters! All of you!!! :)

Somehow, they made the sleeping situation work out!!! Hope it wasn't TOO uncomfortable.

So, I took the girls to our place to show them around. That didn't take very long, and we were all hungry for dinner. Collin suggested we go eat at the new restaurant that opened up. The Beehive Grill. It was delicious! Since that weekend was the grand opening, and one of their trademarks is Gelato, they came around with tester samples for everyone. Magnificent. After dinner, we went back home to stay up chatting til all hours of the night. Then, in the morning, Collin left early to go Goldsmith at his store (he's been learning how to actually make the jewelry under one of the head goldsmith's at Needhams). He's getting so good. The rest of us girls went to Angies, "where the locals eat", for some breakfast. SO YUMMY!

Carly had to get back for a family reunion with Spencer, so the girls left to head back down south. What an amazing surprise to have some of my most favorite people in the world come up to Logan for my birthday. These girls are true friends and know exactly what to do to make my day! :) I love you guys!!!

Shortly after the girls left, I texted Collin (upon his request) to let him know they'd left. About 10 minutes later, he comes home and starts dragging me out the door up the stairs. Mind you, I'm on the phone with my parents. Sorry, i had to let them go. :) As my eyes glanced up the stairs from our basement, I saw it! Collin had, yet again, surprised me! That little sneakster got my a cruiser bike for my birthday! AND a new ring. It's a white gold band that is engraved on the inside: "Pretend your birthday is everyday of the year so this ring always applies !Feliz Cumpleanos Mi Amor!" What a doll! (I still need to take pics of my new bike and ring!)

Collin and I at the Summerfest!

The rest of the day was a bit stormy, but it wasn't going to rain on my parade. We still went to the Logan Summerfest and walked around. Then, we drove down to Salt Lake and went shopping for a bit and then met Skyler and Melissa Sanders as well as Jacinth Santistevan and her boyfriend Keiv for dinner at Happy Sumo. For dessert, though, we ventured over to PF Changs. Nothing beats the Great Wall of Chocolate. Oh man! The perfect ending to the evening! I love those places, and I LOVE those people!!! It was so nice of them to meet us in SLC for my birthday dinner!!!

Needless to say, I had a fantastic birthday!

A few other birthday surprises included:

*an amazing birthday get together planned by the Gnomes! These are Collin's good friends from his last singles ward! I love these girls, and they were so great to have a dessert night for my bday! :) thanks girls!

*a cute card in the mail from Emily! She had Aydan, Mya and Peyton sing their version of "Happy birthday" .... ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE! Thanks for sending a piece of home my way!!

*a package from my mom! she'd already given me a present when we were home for jen's wedding, but still wanted to send me a little something! she's the best mom ever!

*another package from the other best mom... Collin's mom, Jeri! She sent me a necklace and bracelet all the way from Uganda, where they're serving their mission! It was absolutely spectacular, and such a surprise to have her send something all the way across the world.

*I had lunch with Val and Brittany this last week too! They met me halfway for a great afternoon. Love these girls! They spoil me with their friendship and love!

All in all, this birthday was a huge success. And I wasn't even that excited to be 25. A Quarter of a Century! Thats kind of a big deal, so I am grateful to those of you who helped me have a great celebratory week! It was amazing!!!! THANK YOU ALL!!! Loves!!

What a day!!!

Last Monday, I had the day off from Hallmark (thank goodness).  It's been nice working there for really only a few reasons: I have a (VERY) little income at $7 whopping ones an hour! I have met some super duper cute girls that I really love to work with.  It gets me out of the house and meeting great strangers. Thats about it.  

Anyway, since I didn't have to work that day, I decided it was the perfect time to go down to Utah County.  First, I met up with Kim and Kristy Denney at Zupas.  They work near each other in American Fork, so we got together to have lunch on their break.  I just adore these girls.  They make life so wonderful; fabulous TRUE friends!  Gems!  I could go on all day long about these incredible girls.  They have changed my life for the better and I am grateful for them in my life.

On my way to Provo, I got a call from my brother saying that Sadie and DeDe had forgotten toothpaste for their Soccer Camp at BYU. I stopped at the grosh and then headed to the dorms.  Talk about Nostalgic.  They were staying in Helaman Halls.  CHIPMAN hall no less!  Many,  many years ago, that is where my BYU legacy began.  What a great place!  I really loved BYU, all the great people I met, and all the memories that I have there.  

After my quick stop at the dorms, I went up to Nordys, naturally.  I still love that place so much.  I have great friends that still work there and it is such a beautiful store.  Puts things into perspective, when I had such a great job there and  now I work at Hallmark!  Definitely grateful for what I had!  I ended up buying some sweet orange peep-toed sling backs for Jens wedding last weekend. And they were on sale.  :)  Can't beat that!  Anna met up with me there, too.  I feel like I hadn't seen her in ages, but really it had only been a few weeks.  I love her.  She's changed my life, too.  We have become so close, especially since we got to live together for a year and a half.  What a precious treasure she is.  I'm so excited for her to go to Italy for the summer and to have so many great experiences there.  

We left Nordys and headed to Red Mango, which is also a delight.  Frozen yogurt with toppings.  There are a ton of places like this in the Provo/Orem area, and I miss them. Healthy and Yummy.  What else can you ask for?  So, we went there for a little treat and Jacinth met up with us too.  We had a great time chatting away about odds and ends of life.  They're having a fabulous summer and fantastic things are happening for both of them.  We have a blast together.  Obviously! :)

As I started my 2 hour trek back to Logan to get back to "mi corazon," I made a quick stop at IKEA!  First of all, what a dream!  That store is a diamond in the rough in terms of shopping available in Utah.  Collin and I fell in love with a bed there a few weeks ago, but of course it was on backorder.  Lame.  So, we've (I've) been checking online every day to check the availability.  Miraculously, the day that I happen to be passing through the Draper area, it was AVAILABLE! With the green light to get it from the husband, I picked it up and hauled it into my car.  Luckily, all the boxes fit in my Subaru. Love that car.  

After everything was loaded, I finished the beautiful trip home to Logan, completely satisfied with the great day off that I had been having.  Even the scattered showers didn't get me down. The only bummer about the whole day was that a few of my friends were out of town so I couldn't see them. Next time though!!

Here is the finished product. Collin put together the bed all by himself while I read him Ensign articles and a few chapters from the Book of Mormon for FHE.  Great Night!  Great Bed!  LOVE!!

Lovin Life

My life is so wonderful!  I love it! I have the best hubby in the world.  We have the cutest place that is just perfect for us.  We have so much fun together, even when we are just sitting at home watching NBA or NHL finals (I married the perfect man for me, dont you think?)!  I guess we're still in that sick, disgusting, 'make you wanna vomit' honeymoon stage.  Eh well, hopefully it never ends.

We're starting to dig into our callings as ward missionaries. I got to teach Gospel Principles Class today, which didn't go as awful as I thought it would.  And we are starting to get to know new people all the time.  

We had dinner up in Layton tonight with a bunch of family! Luke/Nicole, Lindsey/Ozz, Casey and Jodi/Chris all came with their kids.  It was so great to hang out and see everyone.  I wish we lived closer to them, but Logan is SO beautiful this time of year.  Its  so green because of all the moisture.  I wish more people could come visit us, because it really is gorgeous around here.

I'm still in the market for the perfect job, which is obviously  not the best time to be searching for such a thing, but I did have a fantastic interview at the Migrant Headstart.  It was my 3rd interview there, so hopefully "3rd time's a charm."  It would be such a great job for us, so when I find out on Tuesday, hopefully I'll have good news to share.  If not, I still have a few other opportunities in the works. We'll see what happens.

This week, we get to go to Colorado for Jen and Dustin's wedding.  We are so excited to go for the visit, but even more excited that they are getting married.  Feels like just yesterday that we were going to Denver for our own wedding.  I guess it was less than 3 months ago, but still... I do wish we could go on that cruise again!  Maybe for our 1yr anniv next year we'll take a trip to Puerto Rico (I only say that because there was a commercial just on saying that we could do that for cheap... we'll see what life is like in a year).

No fun pics this week because we haven't had a ton to document, but I will definitely have more for next week after the wedding and all.  :)