Coconuts.

This weekend was lovely!

With Jamison in school we oftentimes go our separate ways in the morning to work, and then after he goes to school, and we don't see each other until 10:30ish at night. By that time we are both soooo done that we get home and go straight to sleep.

Well, Friday I had decided that it was time to take a "time for us" date. So, after we both got off of work and he got some studying done (aka: nap) we went out to the Suncoast Buffet...yum! It was so stinking good. And we were both super hungry, so it was so wonderful.

After we took a skip and a hop on over to buy tickets to watch the {Legend of the Guardians} in 3D(as it was opening night) and we had found out that we were the very first to buy the tickets for the movie-which we found to be SO weird, but hey! A whole movie theater to ourselves...I wasn't going to complain! It has happened once before when we saw "How to Train Your Dragon".

I really didn't like a lot of the messages in the movie, but the scenery was beautiful and captivating. Not really one that I would be super anxious to see again though. While we were waiting for the time to get closer Jamison said, "I want to show you something!" So he led me over to the escalators and we then boarded the elevator, and made our way to the rooftop. We then spent a few precious moments looking out over Las Vegas at the shimmering lights. It was breathtaking.

We spent a moment there just collecting our thoughts and being at peace, and then made our way back down to watch the movie that Jamison had been waiting anxiously for for a while.

We made our way home after-what we felt was-a much needed break from work/school/and everyday worries. What a wonderful day!

Saturday:

We had made plans to go to the temple, set up our tv, set up the vacuum we recently purchased, and hang up all our pictures that are STILL leaning up against the wall waiting to be hung. That would be a long day in itself, and to top it off Jamison had plans to study long and hard for an exam on Tuesday. FUN!

Well......instead!!!!!!!!! We woke up to a phone call from Jamison's mom asking us to meet her and Kent-her husband-at Hallie's soccer game (Hallie is Jamison's niece). Of course we were excited to go! But I couldn't help but think: "Well, maybe next week we'll get the pictures hung!" haha. No chance of that now. So we went and had a great time with his parents, and brother Ben and his family. We spent quite a number of hours with them touring their new home, and having fun. Then before parting ways, we had lunch with Jamison's mom and Kent at Capriotti's. That was fun too...I miss not seeing them all the time! So it was nice to catch up for a few hours. We spent a lot longer than we should have, so we went straight home and Jamison studied for hours! Nothing else was done-too bad-we were really looking forward to our Saturday temple attendance. Hopefully sometime this week we'll make it, or Saturday sometime around General Conference. *Crossing fingers!*

And yesterday was such a wonderful Sunday, as are all Sundays when Primary kids are involved! It can be very tiring, and very stressful...but that's where I LOVE to be. And I'm so grateful for the calling. :) Our goal for the day was to really focus and keep the sabbath holy, so we watched church videos when coming home, etc. Throughout every day I've got some weird song stuck in my head...and Sunday was NO different...all day I sang (with Jamison's help of course) , "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts...." Sounds weird and lame, but it's actually quite fun and amusing to try your hardest to sing poorly, and find that you really didn't need to try that hard at all!

FUN FUN weekend! I can't wait til General Conference this weekend! YAY! :)

Oops...

Well I've already ruined Top Ten Tuesdays...great! It's Wednesday again..hmm, hopefully I'll get the hang of this.

1. Life is good, life is great, life is wonderful!!

2. I LOVE planners. One of the best things invented.

3. We are currently house hunting. We are in our apt. until wecan find a home (thanks to my dad for helping us out in it all...love him). It might sound weird, but what I really want to do is park a tent in my family's backyard and call it home. I JUST might do that!

4. I'm dying to hang our pictures on the wall. Somehow we find time to do so much, but there never seems to be time left over to do it. My goal is to have them all up by next week...but as that was my goal 2 weeks ago, well, let's just say I don't have high hopes.

5. Had an Elder's Quorum bbq last Saturday for families. It was fun. Good food. Fun company. Cute kids. Overall loads of fun.

6. I LOVE Saturdays. That's the one day in every week that I get to see my boy ALL day because there's no school/no work. AND to top that off, Saturdays have become (since the very week we were married) our Temple day. I hate NOT being able to go. I missed last week with other things going on, so needless to say, I'm VERY excited about this Saturday.

7. Found a new cute recipe to making slime and cool silly putty here...and want to try it for my primary kids. Now, how to incorporate it into a lesson???

8. I. LOVE. FALL. I can't wait to go home and make pumpkin muffins!!!

9. Grandpa's Birthday today! LOVE you Grandpa! Happy Birthday!

10. I crave Cafe Rio every day it seems. Today just happens to be a day that I am NOT. It feels weird. HOWEVER, instead I am craving Baja Fresh. Do the cravings never end? I am so not excited to see how bad I am when pregnant with a precious little one. Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

OR....

hmmm......

Crockpot Lasagna

If any of you know me..and I mean REALLY know me, then you know that Lasagna is my best friend...shh...don't tell Jamison! I LOVE Lasagna. Well, seeing as we have no stove for a while, we've had to get creative with the crockpot. So we got a recipe from a friend...tweaked it to meet our liking, and voila!

Yesterday we had crockpot lasagna for dinner (We used different noodles so it doesn't LOOK like lasagna, but it most certainly has that beautiful lasagna taste!) and it was GoOoOoOoOod!!! mmm...Seriously it might not look good on the plate because I'm bad at my presentation skills (sue me!), but it was SO delicious. Thanks to Amber for the recipe. It has officially been added to one of our family Favorites! Want the recipe? Shoot me a request and I'll get it to you! It's one of those recipes that are good for quick fixes...when you have little to no time to cook and prepare meals for your loved ones. Takes 15 minutes prep time, and 30min-1hour in the crockpot. It really is a great recipe and easily feeds a family of 3 or 4. LOVED it!!!

....stay tuned for Pumpkin muffins.

.......................................................Seriously it's a 3 ingredient recipe. YAY!

Buddy

Benjamin is my buddy.

When he was about 2 years old he moved out of my parents bedroom, and came to be my sleeping buddy. Around that age, he was a late-nighter...he LOVED to stay up after everyone was asleep and watch Disney movies. But he was scared to be up all by himself--he usually stayed up til about 2 in the morning--so I'd leave my door open in case he got nervous, or wanted to crawl into bed with relative ease. One night, I was asleep in my bed and I had that feeling that someone was watching me, so I opened my eyes, and there was that little 2 year old buddy of mine sitting quietly on the head of my pillow, just above me, and he was just watching me as he had his legs criss-crossed and smiled ever so sweetly. It was one of those moments that you NEVER forget. He could've done anything at that point, made a mess in the living room, peed his pants, ANYTHING and I would've been soo happy helping him clean it up...just because of the way I awoke to him sitting there. Obviously at 2, little ones are still learning to talk, so I asked him what was wrong, and he said in his little voice that the movie had ended. I checked the clock- about 1:30am - and then asked him if he was done or if he wanted to watch another movie. "Another movie" was his answer, so I got up and helped put another on, and within minutes he was fast asleep, and as I carried him to our little room I couldn't help but think, "PLEASE let him stay this way forever."

Things never stay the same, we always change, and we keep moving forward. But one thing that DID stay the same is his sweet and loving personality. I wouldn't be the least surprised if one morning I woke up to him sitting there again at the head of my pillow, gently and patiently waiting for me to wake. I asked that he stay that way forever, not being specific. He grew in years, and is now 11 years old...but his heart remains the same. He is the most beautiful boy I've ever known, and ANYONE that knows Benjamin---REALLY knows him---would say the same. He has such a tender heart, and is loving and fair with everyone. He is our Angel.

Benjamin remained my sleeping buddy throughout the years, up until the very end, up until a couple of days before my wedding. Because we have been so close through the years, I will always have an extra special place in my heart for that little one. And I will always remember that day, oh so many years ago...when I awoke from a deep sleep, and saw... an Angel.

Autumn is for walking

Who wouldn't want to go for a walk in a place like this?!?

Jamison and I are going for a walk today after work. Not any place special. This time of year just makes me want to walk everywhere and all the time! Yay for fall!!!

Top Ten Tuesday...well err...Wednesday!

Before starting off with my list of top tens for today...which I will try and keep up on every week...but usually on Tuesdays (bad start, I know)...I want to point out in my defense of not having many pictures on here I usually only find time to update the blog when I'm at work. Because of this I never have my pictures, since they're on the computer at

home. :( But I'm trying to be better and remember to add them onto a disc, or do my blogging later on in the day. With so much going on right now, it gets complicated but I will try a little harder.

Now.......onto the top ten:

1. We are SLOWLY organizing our apartment, and getting things in place. The apt. is a very small, one bedroom space, but right now seeing as we are both at work everyday and he has school, (we are only really there to sleep at night and then get up the next morning and get going) the space is just fine. Because it's a rather small space, there is not a place for everything [which drives me CrAzY! but I won't get into that]. With no oven/stove and little wiggle room, we are currently mostly "living" at my parents house....which I'm grateful for. I'm hoping that we can find a nice house soon, especially when right now is a good time to buy, and for once in my life have a place for everything and everything in it's place. That will be nice!

Organization...a beautiful thing!

2. Starting today I will be using a planner. I hated planners in high school, even if I wasn't using it for "school" simply because it made me feel like my life was on a schedule - and I didn't like the thought of that at all! I wanted to run my life the way I wanted to and have fun and adventures along the way. Now a days, I find myself righting my to-do lists on scrappieces of paper and then losing them everywhere, which leads me to making MORE notes on paper, and it's just getting out of hand. I am giving in - I NEED a planner to schedule out my life. And I'm totally okay with that.

3. Because Jamison and I have no stove/oven in our cozy and snug apartment...we have been challenged to come up with creative dishes. Yeah. Mmmhmm...cause I can come up with that type of thing. I'm struggling to say the least, and we often dine at my parents. Sad I know...but my new goal is to seek and FIND great and easy crockpot recipes. We have a wok, griddle, skillet, and crockpot. Any and all recipe/ideas are MORE than welcome!! I'm going to start making a schedule each week of the meals we will have the following week and go grocery shopping each Saturday for the ingredients necessary. But step one is obviously...find quick, easy, and yummy recipes! HELP!

4. I have made a resolution to USE my curling iron. I have NEVER in my life curled my hair, and am quite scared to do so, but there's something in the air today that's putting a drive in me to try new things, and experience the unknown (I know...I'm a bit of a dramatic). Tomorrow shall be the first attempt, seeing as it's my day off, so if it turns out a horrible wreck I won't have to go and see anyone with my hair messed up! And I can take my time, without my wonderful husband laughing, teasing, or even cheering me on. Yikes! I'm a little nervous. Wish me luck!

5. Got a new phone. Mine was tattered, seriously. But it was my fault, I dropped that thing like you wouldn't believe. It had a mind of its own, and when it wanted to vibrate, it did a different dance each time so I couldn't ever keep a good grip on it to save it from falling. It was a MESS. So, last week I went in with my dad and got a new slide phone type deal with a keyboard and all, and it is WEIRD! I really don't like change, and this is one I really need to get used to. I honestly could not ever have a touch screen phone, everything is too high tech for me and I really would rather stay with something simple that works. I like the phone so far, and hopefully I can learn all the little tricks to this one soon...crossing fingers!

6. I really need to catch up on my journaling...every time I sit down to do it, something takes precedence and I find myself putting it off. Good thing I have the blog to help out in that way. I seriously am SO good at keeping papers, handouts, flyers, etc. and then want to journalize them. My journal looks a lot like this right now:

7. What number am I on??? Oh yeah! --okay seriously! My mind has been ALL over the place with SO much to do. I still haven't even started changing my name yet, nor have I even mailed in the forms for our official marriage license yet. Yeah, I've gotta get on that. We've got pictures to hang on our walls, things to unpack, Primary to teach, work to go to, and lives to live. It gets complicated, and with SO much to do..............I can't help feeling like my brain has wandered. I don't blame it. But really, just in case it's reading this:

"Dear Brain, I need you...please come back! Thanks!"

8. I love my job! I couldn't have asked for a better one at this point in my life, with the exception of one in the field I'm going into. I currently work at Kayenta Therapy Center. We have two buildings just up the sidewalk from each other. I work with a great deal of my relatives...Roberta Vande Voort, and Cherrie Fernelius. Tiffany also fills in on occasion when we need her. It's really the best. I do reception work, and when all the work is done I am free to do homework, catch up on the blog, and do "my" thing and STILL get paid for it! It's such a blessing and I will always be grateful for it.

9. I L.O.V.E. Family dinners. More than ever now that we're all off doing our own thing. Can't wait til Sundays come around, even moreso when we have dinner with Grandpa and Cherrie. I can't get enough of it! Can't wait until Thanksgiving either!!! Yummmm.

10. And the final thought for the day: LOVE him....and fall more and more in love with him every day. I'm so blessed!

~Amy

A Stolen Moment

In March of this year I took place in the bridal party of one of my closest friend's wedding. We had SO much fun, and gained some new friends. One of which was the wedding photographer, Donalee Walker. We grew to be friends over facebook and have kept in touch within the past 6 months.

Well....a couple of Saturdays ago, on the 4th of this month I ran into her at another friend's wedding. While there, she snapped up TONS of pictures. She is really a wonderful photographer! One picture that she took was of Jamison and myself while we were dancing. Here's what she had to say about it.

"A Stolen Moment
Here I am in the process of editing thousands of images from a wedding and the one I fall so instantly in love with and just HAVE to post isn't even of the newly wed couple... haha They ARE, however, {"A" newly wed couple.} ;) This shot reminded me so much of the WWII portrait of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square. Look at how he's grabbing her. I love it!"

LOVE IT! I'm so glad she captured this! I will always treasure it.