Dessert on a Dime

Because of our somewhat out of control draining of our finances this summer, Bryan and I went on a fast from spending money this week. It went pretty well until last night. I was craving ice cream big time and there wasn't any in the house. So Bryan came up with an excellent solution- we could go if I could find enough change to pay for it. I took on the challenge and with remarkable speed found $3.20 worth of dimes. We made our way over to paradise aka Dairy Queen to spend our dimes. Bryan gets the old school vanilla dipped in chocolate, but he is absolutely wasting his $1.59. I have found complete and pure joy this summer in chocolate ice cream cones dipped in chocolate. If you haven't had one lately, please search your house for 16 dimes (32 if you're taking a lucky person with you) and do yourself a favor!

America the Beautiful

Bryan had Thursday off for Pioneer Day, so he took Friday off as well and we got to go on another trip! We went down to Moab, which was kind of a random decision- it was close enough that paying for gas wouldn't be a nightmare, but far enough that we would be getting away. I'll be honest- I wasn't really expecting much. I knew it would be super hot, and we would hike a lot and neither of those things really thrilled me.

I was blown away.

Arches National Park is beautiful. The red rocks were incredible and at sunset they would reflect the light, which was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. The arches were so cool. I would post pictures, but my camera cord is in Virginia, oops! I was constantly in awe of this beautiful world that we live in. And it made me realize how much I take it for granted. We met people from France (and saw the men's hairy legs that were shown off through their super short swimsuits...gross,) Holland, Germany, and Australia (she asked us if that was a deer because she had never seen one before!) There were a few buses full of Asians, and people from England staying at our hotel. I was fascinated that all these people had traveled so far to see something that I could see by driving 3 hours down the road. I've been in Utah for 4 years now, and visited tons of times before that, and never gone down. I'm now realizing how lucky I am to have a few years in this wonderful area. I'm determined to appreciate it more in the time I have left here in Utah. America really is beautiful and I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father for this amazing earth He has given us to enjoy.

Tagged!!!

A- Attached or Single? Very Attached
B- Best Friend? Bryan :)
C- Cake or Pie? my mom's delicious chocolate chip cake
D- Day of choice? lately it has been Sunday because it is so relaxing. But, I will always love Thursdays.
E- Essential item? my camera- I always carry it with me!
F- Favorite color? definitely pink
G- Gummy bears or worms?- Worms
H- Hometown?- Richmond, Virginia
I- Favorite Indulgence?- cake batter ice cream with brownies and raspberries from Coldstone- yum
J- January or July?- July because it is always spent with family
K- Kids?- definitely in the future
L- Life isn't complete without? My wonderful family and the gospel
M- Marriage date? July 6th, 2007
N- Number of brothers and sisters? 4 sisters, 1 brother, 3 brothers in law, and 1 sister in law
O- Oranges or Apples- apples
P- Phobia and fears? Spiders. And, lobsters. When I was really little my parents were watching Hook and I sneaked out of bed and watched it from the hall even though I wasn't supposed to (I'm so rebellious.) I saw the part where they put the man in the chest full of lobsters and have had nightmares about that ever since. I don't even like seeing the lobsters at grocery stores.
Q- Quote? "Things will work out. Keep trying. Be believing. Be happy. Don't get discouraged. Things will work out." President Hinckley R- Reasons to smile?- clean laundry, ice cream, free food, finishing a good book, having summers off, a cute card in the mail, flowers, fleece blankets, painted toenails, kool-aid
S- Season of choice- Toughie. I love Spring because of all the flowers, but I think I love Fall even more because of all the colors
T- Tag 3 people: Lisa (haha, I'm forcing you to post!), Lindsay, and Amy
U- Unknown fact about me- I love watching Law and Order. It's sometimes hard to watch because it's so violent, but I get so into it. Sometimes I wonder if I hadn't been a teacher if I would have been a detective.
V- Vegetable? asparagus
W- Worst Habit?- So many to choose from... I talk really fast. Whenever I give a talk or lesson in church, I write go slow all over my notes.
X- Ray or Ultrasound?- I've never had either so I'm going to go with ultrasound because eventually I'll have one, and I could live happily the rest of my life without an xray
Y- Your favorite food?- ICE CREAM!!
Z- Zodiac sign?- Capricorn

Virginia is for Lovers

I'm back from my fabulous trip! Babysitting went pretty well, but I'm glad motherhood doesn't involve 2 kids plus various extra children plus a dog plus 5 people to feed all at once! I picked Bethany up late from swim team practice...twice, then we didn't go to the swim meet because it looked like there was going to be a huge thunderstorm (and there was, I would have driven 30 minutes away just to sit in my car for an hour then have the meet postponed- I'm a genius), then I forgot about practice the next day so she didn't go, then on the last day I drove her to the pool and practice was cancelled (we probably would have known it was cancelled had we appropriately attended other swim team activities.) Hopefully the word doesn't get around that I'm a swim team loser in case my kids want to be on a swim team. Despite my swim team failure, most of our other activities were quite successful- we went to the pool a lot, visited the library (my favorite very quiet hour of the whole week), took Luna on walks, saw Wall E, and went to the Children's Museum.

When Mom and the girls came home from camp, we had a lot of fun all together. We ate the most incredible meal ever at Maggianos, enjoyed our favorite family tradition of watching High School Musical together, I ate at Ukrops with my favorite Linds, went on a little trip to Baltimore to visit cousins, shopping (H&M was having a sale and I was in heaven,) Tyler dominated me at Wii bowling, and we watched Stardust together (Ty loved it and spent the whole next day re-enacting his favorite part) and laughed A LOT.

I have mixed feelings toward being back. It's wonderful to be back with Bry and nice to be in my own home with my own space, and fun to see friends. School starts exactly 1 month from today, so it's back to real life. Today I had a rude awakening when I stopped by my school for a minute. I got my class list for next year- 17 boys and 11 girls. Last year I had 9 boys and 12 girls, so I'm in for an adventure! Plus, I'm getting new carpet in my room so I had to drag all the desks, bookcases, chairs, tables, etc. out into the hall. It was exhausting! Welcome back Mrs. Martinez.

fabulous Florida

Here's the update on the second part of our adventure. We had a blast in Florida with Jeff and Amy- they are soooo nice to us and took such good care of us.

We had many exciting beach adventures. One day we saw a HUGE thunderstorm and couldn't stay on the beach, one day we got to play in the wonderful clear and warm water, and one day we watched the fourth of july fireworks from the beach! Very fun.





















We went canoeing with alligators! I was shaking the whole time, and really we saw lots of gators, I saw 3 that were swimming in the same water I was in. Bryan and Jeff saw a lot more because they canoed on a much longer part. I was (justifiably) a baby during this experience, it was so scary!!!


We ate some of the most delicious food- Mellow Mushroom (my new all-time favorite pizza,) BJ's (I fulfilled one of my lifelong dreams to eat a pizookie! We also ate dinner, but that was of lesser importance,) Rand (Amy's brother in law who is a professional chef) made us the most incredible ribs- yum, Amy taught me the greatest new crockpot recipe that I am in love with, and Jeff made us some delicious yummy meatballs. Sorry, I don't have pictures of any of the food because I ate it before I could get my camera out!

The boys had a few biking adventures while Amy and I stayed home and enjoyed relaxing and talking and being girls! And, of course, one of our very favorite parts was laughing at crazy Ziggie!


Thanks Amy and Jeff, we can't wait to plan our next trip to see you!! love you

Beach Recap

The beach was fabulous. My only complaint was too short! Some highlights:
lots of cute cute kids (evidence in pictures.) crabs. bryan spending whole day in waves then going to bed at 9:00 exhausted. painting toenails with the girls. bethany's 11th birthday. plenty of sunshine. kayak adventures (bryan and i tipped!) building our puppy luna in the sand. reading. bryan getting a terrible sunburn :( me making the most incredible catch for a touchdown. family pictures on the beach. all the poptarts you could ever want. lots of laughing at my crazy family!

happy anniversary

Yesterday Bryan and I celebrated our first anniversary. And by "celebrated" I mean Bryan flew 2,000 miles away from me to Utah... Very sad day. But, we have been having a wonderful trip (details to come) and we decided to celebrate for real on August 6 because one year and one month is a lot more impressive than just one year, right?
So, to celebrate this momentous occasion, here is a list of some of my favorite things about the love of my life

- He's ridiculously good looking, even with sunscreen dripping down his face


- He is so helpful at home- his dinners taste better than mine (I hate to admit that), he cleans the house, and he even does the laundry! Frequently he will push me down on the couch, make a barrier to the kitchen, and not let me in to do any of the dishes after dinner. What a champ!

- He takes me on so many fun adventures- he loves the beach just as much if not more than me!

- He is so sweet, you can't help but love him, especially when he flashes his million dollar smile. When we were at the beach, I had to compete with my 6 year old cousins and little brother who were in love with him!

- He is really smart, and he doesn't make fun of me too much when I ask dumb questions. And, even when he doesn't have a good answer, he makes one up and I never know that it wasn't true!

- He is a great family guy. Like I said, my family adores him (they get more excited for him to come visit than me!) And, he has a wonderful family that he gets along with so well. It's fun to watch when the Martinez brothers get together because they enjoy each other so much.

- He is my very best friend. He knows me better than any other person, and yet he still seems to like me. He is always there for me, and is my very favorite person to be with.

Even though we didn't really get to celebrate on our anniversary, my mom had saved the top of our wedding cake and we ate it earlier in the week. It didn't look too great, but it surprisingly tasted pretty good.