Pillow Talk

Wow, two months since the last post already?! Time. What am I to do with it? Well, as you can imagine I have much to say.
A quick overview from the past couple months:
smores over the stove burner
A trip to the dunes with Elliot and his cute wife.
A perfect weekend to Sammy's for a coconut cream pie shake.

That same weekend we decided we needed to get out of the house for a couple hours so we went to Mill Hollow and walked to Snoasis for beautifully constructed "Malibu Barbie" and "Wedding Cake" snow cones. We headed over to Porter Park to sit in the shade for a bit and saw soooo many wrong things. This being one of them...

But other than that we had a perfect time together just forgetting about school and spending some quality time together.

{which also included some fort building!!}

Still working on my jewelry business ... coming slowly but surely.

Now, to start, Mike and I completed our Half Marathon! We are proud owners of our wooden medals for finishing (just finishing).

But, let me tell you, it was no easy task. Those first 8 miles may have been the easiest, except for the straight up hill for 3 miles, and we held our pace pretty well until about the last 2 miles. That's really when I started strugglin a little bit but Mike was a champ and wouldn't let me fall behind. I think finishing was the hardest part because we could barely walk to our car (which was uphill.. YAY). The fruit they provided after the race was unfathomably delicious. I could have eaten watermelon, bananas, and oranges all day long. What a fabulous treat. I also heard there were massages going on after the race - too bad I didn't get to take advantage of that although it's probably best considering how ticklish I am. I doubt any progress would have been made. Getting home was absolutely the worst part. We got super sick. Not the lay-on-the-couch sick but more of the in-the-bathroom sick {hence the sad faces}. It was not so fun and I wouldn't be surprised if Mike denies me on any type of request for a Half Marathon again. I am quite sad I lost a running buddy.

Mike has been doing fabulous in his Ultimate Frisbee games!! What a stud. He's been improving like crazy which is I know is such a stress relief to him. I took a couple pictures on a fabulous rainy day that they had, check out the sweet DOUBLE RAINBOW. :)

{and me.. getting ready for the rain}

This past weekend was absolutely fabulous. We basically had all weekend to just hang out which is the second weekend in a row. We contribute that to our power outage that blew out our router from our internet service. I guess that's a blessing? We got it, thankfully, today but apparently it had happened to other people in the area. Too bad.
Friday we had a couple tests that had to get done before we could spend time together but we watched "Equilibrium" and popped some Mormon bubbly - Martinelli's Grape Sparkling Cider. MMMMM. We have been on this sparkling cider kick for the past two months and found it for super cheap at Winco so we haven't minded spoiling ourselves with it. Other flavors we really like are the raspberry lemonade and Apple Mango; they're both fabulous for summer and it doesn't ruin the memories of the original specifically for holidays. We also made a delicious dinner. We made tostadas (...Mike reminding me how to spell it... toast- tadah!! Hahaha love him) with seasoned lentils and toppings of yellow squash, broccoli, artichoke heart, tomato, and sour cream. Delish and so healthy. Score.

Saturday Mike had his game, the last game before the finals, and unfortunately they lost. BUT... they are still ranked #1 (WAHOOOO) and they play in their first finals game this weekend. They're going to kick some serious trash (watch out visor guy, they're coming for you). It's interesting to see how many crazy wives show up to those games and yell their little lungs out as if they have a say in how the game ends up. Entertaining? Only the first 5 minutes and then I want to shove a sock in their mouth, although I do admit to getting quite into the game. Later that night the original plan was to go on a hike up to a lake with some of the team and their wives/fiances/girlfriends/"just friends" but I was so bummed when I found out we couldn't go. We changed our plans to the new water park they have in Rexburg called "Rexburg Rapids" and we had an absolute blast! Are there sweet water slides? Not really. Are there tons of people there? Yes. Do the Seagulls poop on you? Only Mark. :) We had such a blast and definitely got toasted.

After our adventure to the park, we decided to watch another movie since we didn't have enough energy to do anything fun and weren't tired enough to go to bed. "This Means War" was a great movie although for some reason I was bummed with the outcome. I feel like the nice guy should have gotten the girl (right?) but he ended up getting back together with his ex-wife. So I'm happy about that.
Sunday was great. Church was great. Napping for 2 1/2 hours was great and going to a BBQ with shishkabobs was also great. So fun and so delicious. The BBQ sauce they had was to die for - raspberry chipotle. OH. MY. WORD. I highly suggest it. It's always so crazy to see the connections people have once they start getting to know each other. The boys all go along swell for that reason and the girls, well, we can always get along. I got to see Becca Ray, she's the sweetest girl and I freaking love her to death. We played games, ate to our hearts content, and ended up... surprise... watching another movie! Hahaha We are so lame when we don't have homework to do. But, my goal was to watch about half of "The Hulk" and I got so into that I just couldn't help but watch all of it. I was hoping to talk to my lovely friend Kenzie about life because I miss her so, especially about her wonderful missionary boyfriend WHO JUST GOT HOME!!! I'm so flippin excited for her. I certainly did stalk her facebook all day to finally see the adorable picture of them both together. :) YAY!!

Another random little side note: I was going through old documents on my computer and found a blog post that I never posted.. had good intentions but you know how that goes. It was actually logged more than a year ago now and what a sweet little message it was. Here it is:

Pillow Talk 6/28/2011

It’s been one of those weeks where setting goals and accomplishing them have surprisingly been unfolded to my advantage. What a journey this life is, and I haven’t hit my 20’s yet! Lucky for me, I now know I can accomplish goals. Setting realistic ones is where it gets tricky. Throughout this semester I have been handed trials and realizations that some things in my life need to change-for the better: Relationships, future plans, what I know about myself, etc. I can tell you it’s been a crazy couple months with so many changes, but it’s given me a time to grow and explore my life in ways I never fathomed. This week in particular I have been working on patience and happiness and I will tell you, once I decide to change something to my eternal benefit, Satan is attacking me twice as hard! He doesn’t want me to progress, but guess what! I’VE WON SO FAR THIS WEEK!! I have been a happy go-lucky, laid back, and patient little girl! Granted I wasn’t 100% of the time, but it’s the thought that counts and it’s trying and fulfilling that really matters, and that is why I’ve won this ongoing battle (for these past couple days in particular). My relationship with my Heavenly Father has definitely gotten stronger, and my love and commitment has strengthened as well. Not only that, but, my relationship with my future husband is continuing to get stronger and deeper. We have been in perfect sync this week and we have been able to talk our little hearts out. I contribute that to his amazingness of course, but my positive and patient attitude has helped my point of view change also which I’m sure has made his life much easier. He’s very stressed with school and his stake so I know that I need to be understanding of his situations as I expect him to be of mine.  It’s been a busy week. I had my physiology test to study for over this last weekend, which I took on Monday, I have been studying for my Lab exam in Anatomy, which is Thursday, I have a Psych test which opens Wednesday and closes Friday, and I have an American Foundations test that opens Friday and closes next Wednesday. He took his accounting test today which he didn’t do very well on considering the situation within his stake. He said he let that get to him and he could have done a lot better. I am proud of him for realizing how much he can accomplish. He really expects a lot of himself and that is rare to find. But, guess what else is coming… A TRIP HOME!!! A much needed break from this little town called Rexburg. I haven’t been home all semester and seeing my family will be wonderful! My grandma is coming into town with Aunt Janet, and we will all be going to the Stadium of Fire for the 2nd of July! We’ll see fireworks, Brad Paisley, David Archuletta, and have a fantastic time. The 3^rd I will come back to be with my love for Sunday night. We are planning on a little movie in the park that night. And then the 4^th of July will be so fun! We will be going to Idaho Falls to watch incredible fireworks! It’s supposed to be the best show on the west coast (I think the show is called Melaluca? Or that’s the name of the actual place we’re going to. I can’t remember). Anyhow, this week is full, and I’m so grateful for everything in my life this week! I’ve also decided to change majors. Currently I’m thinking of switching from nursing to dental assisting! I found out they don’t have a real program here for dental assisting, so I will have to get my bachelor’s degree in Health Science and finish all the pre-requisites for whatever Dental Assisting school I will have to go and specialize in. It will be wonderful! I think this is how it will work out- of course things never go according to plan. But here is my thought process. I will change my major by next semester, the next semester (which is in one year) I will be married to Mike. (That is a positive). He will most likely get on the fast grad system which means I would be able to also, so I could get my bachelors and finish about the same time that he finishes his degree! Then, of course, I would have to apply to get in to the Dental Assisting schools and work up from there. I want to be able to support my family too and make some income. Mike gets stressed about providing everything because he wants nothing but the best for me and I love him for that. But I want to take off some of the load, so hopefully I can get into a career that will lighten that load and earn us some extra income. My goals for this week: Go to the temple, study scriptures every day, practice piano, be patient and happy!! What a wonderful world this is and I have the opportunity to be here!!

What a sweet little note. Well, I should probably get to helping my sweet husband with the finishing touches on dinner. We're having steak with raspberry and chile sauce tonight. So spicy. So delicious.

Mrs. Engel