not a whole lot

something i've realized with my new obsession with instagram, is that I feel less of a need for blogging. i can upload my instagram photos to facebook or twitter, if i so choose, which sometimes i do, and part of me feels bad that i will post those photos oh all 4 of these social networking sites... but... most of me doesn't. so i'm gonna do it anyway. if you follow me on instagram... you can just disregard those posts, i will still love you. 

we've haven't been up to a whole lot lately. mostly just adjusting to having basically completely opposite schedules. at least will still sleep at the same time. i don't know what i'd do if that had to change! it seems like most of the week, devin's shifts overlap my work just enough that he lives right before i get home, and doesn't get home until i'm in bed about to fall asleep. it's worth it, right? right. always will be. we still have a good time. my favorite things are meeting him for lunch: out or at home - i absolutely love those days! and i also love going into the gym while devin is working just to work out or boulder. i have also convinced him to have me in mind when he's route setting which has so far resulted in some really great technique training! when devin sets a rock climbing route, he sets it with a sequence, and following a sequence and using proper technique is what i'm trying to learn! today he texted me and says "i set a 5.6 for you today. it will be a good warm-up route." how great is he?! 

i'm also going to start climbing more with Banner. Banner and Devin have been climbing together as climbing partners for 10 years! Their climbing styles are so similar, and Banner coaches climbers as a living, and teaches the rock climbing classes at UVU. She just wanted a climbing partner, and that means I get free coaching out of it! I have a lot to learn, and between Banner and Devin, I'm bound to get good at this evenually.

We went climbing last night (banner devin and i) and i got so frustrated on my first route. my fingers kept locking up and i felt like i couldn't control them, and it was scary! it took me a long while after that to get back on the wall, and it's sort of discouraging to see devin and banner walk up 12.A's... (they are both amazing!) but I eventually got 2 more routes in, not very happy with any of them, but banner gave me some tips and devin made the point that if i start climbing regularly, my skill level will sky-rocket. i'm sure it's true. it's just a matter of getting up there often enough, with someone to climb with me! (any takers??)

work has been good. getting pretty used to it, and getting trained on senior stuff (that's the next step up i can take), and other than that... not a whole lot. at all.

our anniversary is in 38 days. 

which means devin's is in 35 days.

which means we've got a lot of celebrating coming up! 

i can hardly wait. 

oh, and don't worry about how there's no photos in this post. you'll be overwhelmed come the weekend... trust me!

the weekend

on Saturday, I didn't do much all morning/afternoon. Devin had to work for a few hours, and while he was gone, I mostly just pushed every button I possibly could on my iphone. I'm still learning. Who of my friends knows everything about iphones and can answer my questions? haha! I love it. I'm basically obsessed. It makes me glad that Devin and I got our at the same time. Originally, we had planned on moving to our own plan when my contact with AT&T was up at the end of April, so I would get a new phone, and then he would just wait to get him until June when he was eligible for an upgrade. Instead, we worked it out to get them early, and not pay any huge cancelation fee! It was lucky. We also got a discount on our monthly bill because we are UCCU members, which isn't huge, but still makes a difference! Anyway, I'm glad we got them at the same time, or else I would feel like an awful wife. I am absolutely glued to that thing! But Devin is too, which makes it slightly better. He's not as bad as me, but he's had a smart phone before anyway, and I haven't. I'm like a kid at christmas, all day every day!

Once Devin got home from work, we headed to the riverwoods to take some family pictures for our good friends the Harrison's. Devin went to high school with Ben, and he and his wife have a little girl named Alice. They are in our ward, too, and we did their family photos a while back, but on Friday, we did all of Leah's family - they were so quick and easy and that little Alice was making everybody crack up! She is adorable! I love it when little, little kids have big personalities, just like Addi does! It's the cutest thing.

After that, we walked around the shops at riverwoods in hopes of finding me a new pair of sunglasses. I can't seem to keep track of sunglasses. I'm constantly losing them and breaking them. we had no luck.

after that, we headed up to kamas for dinner with brandon and amy! brandon had some really nice new york strip steaks he got for free, and wanted to grill them! brandon is an amazing chef - everything he makes is always delicious! he made the new york strip w/ spinach, caramelized onions, feta cheese and mushrooms on top, with some really good asparagus - there were also some potatoes- but i didn't eat those, haha. even better? he had mexican cokes for us! my very favorite drink ever! how did he know? we ended the night with colbert report and brownies/ice cream. it was so much fun! we hate that brandon lives Kamas - it's too far away! but it's so awesome when we get to spend time with him, let alone have him cook for us! and Amy is easily one of the coolest people i've ever met. plus the dogs were up there! i can never get enough of those dogs. i wish i could clone them, and just have my own personal copy of riley and koda. they are so great! it was an awesome night - couldn't have asked for a better saturday!

we got home pretty late, which made us pretty tired - on our drive home, there was a HUGE MOOSE in the road. huge. luckily, devin is always expecting to have stupid wilfelife run in front of the car when we drive through that canyon, so we were able to slow down in time, but MAN, those are BIG ANIMALS. i think moose are so cool, but also pretty scary. like sharks. cool, but scary.

Sunday, Devin's alarm didn't go off, and even though mine did, I rolled over to wake him up, we both fell back asleep and missed church. so we went with his parents and the Wagstaff's instead! he spent the morning editing photos, and i spent the morning making amazing breakfast!

after church with Devin's parents (who are celebrating 31 years of marriage today! i love them so much!!!) and Jason and Amanda and the babies, we dropped off some bridals, and headed home for some food. we bought one of those giant bags of potstickers from costco, and to be honest, i was definitely expecting them to taste like relatives of hot pockets. but instead, they are like a slightly less delicious version of shoots' potsticker! they are so amazing! especially for coming out of a bag in the freezer! an industrial sized bag, for that matter! yum.

we then did some TV catch up. our favorite show right now is called Awake, and it blows my mind! it's so good! we spent the rest of the night on the couch, watching miscellaneous television, and of course, running down the batteries of our new phones (seriously. we probably sound super pathetic, but they are great phones! they are definitely worth all the hype! - i'm pretty sure it's been only 48 hours, and i already don't remember what life was like before my iphone. it is such a utility! so helpful and nice. a little pricey, but worth it so far. i'm just nervous about the fact that it's GLASS. if i break it, i will cry.)

it was a perfect weekend. just the right amount of relaxing, playing and good food - the important parts! i'm ready for the week!

happiness is...

in light of a new blog i started to follow, i decided doing a weekly post about something that makes me happy would be a positive addition to this little blog. i love her style, and she also has pretty helpful tutorials. plus, we're both Katies. and Katies are basically always awesome. I have only met a few Katies I didn't really like, but they are the exceptions. They usually should have just been named something else, something less likeable, I can't think of an example. Anyway, I love her blog, and I love how she focuses on happiness, and does the "happiness is..." series, so I thought I would join her! I know a lot of other blogs that do series, like Sydney at The Daybook and "Awkward and Awesome" Thursdays, or "Dear Erin," from Living in Yellow, and I already do 5 Things, which I picked up from Cupcakes and Cashmere, but I thought this would be a good addition! anyway...


happiness is...

a big, delicious breakfast on a lazy sunday morning.

(read: bacon.)

something really great happened yesterday

and i'm not just talking about how i got to leave work an hour early

and i'm not just talking about how i got called into HR to be put on "probation" for missing so much work when I was sick, but then HR deciding I was too sick to be accountable for the hours anyway, so they let me off the hook.

and i'm not just talking about how we finally went to buffalo wild wings and had amazing wings with Josh and Amy.

and i'm not just talking about how we watched Shutter Island after.

but i'm also talking about that hour after I got off work that we spent at the sprint store:

devin and i both got iphones! he got a black one and i got a white one. we both got new numbers. i really just wanted a new number because it's like a fresh start. too many people i don't like have my old number, so getting a new one meant leaving them behind! haha that sounds rude, but there's nothing worse then unknown numbers texting you mean things on a regular basis, right? right. that won't happen anymore! wahoo! we are so excited to finally have new phones - this has been at least 1 year coming!

just be prepared though: because i'm already obsessed with instagram. maybe i'll have to do a weekly iPhone photo post or something!

couple things...

-it's been an incredibly busy week at work. just lots to do. i love it, but it gets a little stressful sometimes. we have a lot of incentives that require us to "zero out" by the end of the week, which means you have to have returned all voicemails and emails, done all your calls, completed all your tasks, and done all your other work. it's sort of a lot! and i happen to work with a girl who is a really hard worker, and she gets a lot done every week, which means there's a lot of work for me each week as well! as stressed as i was today about getting everything done? i did it. i did all of it. boo. ya.

i sent a lot of forms out to clients today... like, a lot. see what i mean by busy?! haha

- today, i took an extra long lunch and met up with devin at the provo temple to go to the wedding of his old roommate, Spencer. spencer is one of the guys devin was living with when we started dating, and he has become a very dear friend! spencer married a beautiful girl names lindsey and they are perfect for each other! we were so excited to be a part of their sealing

-you know what helps getting through a busy work week? christmas in my cubical, or in other words: a new chair. when i heard John pushing this beauty down my aisle... it was immediately a great day.

- devin and i have become addicted to these. seriously. this is a huge bag from costco, and it was practically half way gone after 3 days.

- remember that time my sister got her husband an iguana for his birthday? here he is: ignacio. in all his glory. he's extremely flexible.

- we're also addicted to... this stuff. probably moreso than the pomegranate chocolates. i don't even like dark chocolate, but this stuff is my new favorite chocolate of all time.

- we've also become candy hoarders. all of the sudden, you can constantly find some kind of candy under the coffee table. always.

- sometimes i like to think i'm a pretty great visiting teacher. even if "pretty great" is referring to that one time i bought trail mix and didn't like it, so i gave it to the women i visit teach. maybe they'll have better luck with it... that's not mean, right? it was just too sweet for me. i like salty trail mix, that's all...

- devin gets off at 8:00 tonight. his earliest for the whole week! yahoo! i can't wait. maybe we'll go to dinner. it wouldn't be unusual for us to eat that late anyway. or we'll probably go grocery shopping. even more exciting is that he has tomorrow off. i get my husband back! for the weekend, at least, haha!

5 Things

1. got to hang out with little baby bay - man is she perfect! she is still so tiny. when i visited her, she was 10 days old, had grown 1 inch, and 7 oz! she isn't allowed to use a binky. they are too big for her face and block off her nose so she can't breathe! i think that's a little funny. she is just too tiny! she slept on me for awhile, and then as she started to wake up, she was making the funniest faces and it was adorable! i sure love that little bales! we took valeri and garrison some soup, too! i can only imagine how busy your lives get once you have a tiny human to be responsible for.

2. Costco is the absolute worst place to be impulsive. you end up spending way too much money. heck, we end up spending way too much money there regardless. anyway, the point is: costco is a bad place to shop impulsively, unless that impulsive buy is this extremely soft and fuzzy blanket that technically just sits on the couch, but i have claimed it. even though it was devin's idea. i am planning on going back for a second one to keep at my desk at work. i'm serious. i'm also convinced this blanket is infused with tryptophan, or some other sleep-indusing thing, because every time i get under it, i am immediately comfortable enough to fall asleep!

3. every once in awhile i'll try to do my hair in this scrunchie, "natural beach wave" sort of thing. it lasts about 30 minutes, and then just looks stupid. and i forget that every time. i caught it in a semi-good state before it fell flat and weird this time though. you think i'd learn my lesson! 

4. late night cravings resulting in mcdonald's runs with my husband bring pure joy. just like the bag says. mmm. this makes me think of that meme that says "one does not simply... drive home without eating the fries" or something like that. totally me.

5. remember how outdated my doctor's office is? this man delivered me as a baby.. and i'm sure the last time his office was updated... was before that... because look at this table. i'm almost positive i've seen this in a scary movie before... and yes. i had to lay on it. 

6. part of our new conference tradition... apparently... for the past 3 sessions... has been a drive up a canyon. last april, we came up provo canyon and went on a walk up big springs. in october 2011, we went up to silver lake to test out the truck's 4WD, and this year, we took our new altima up south fork to see how zippy it was. our findings: pretty zippy.

also... i realize that was 6 things.

just deal with it.

i suppose i should update my blog...

but our life has been just slightly too crazy to do so! i finally found a moment to catch a breath. not that i really wanted this moment... it's only here because Devin's new job elicits frequent late shifts. he doesn't have a set 9-5 type of schedule anymore. every day is different. every week is different. some days he works mornings, others he works nights. unfortunately, today is a night shift. which meant that i glared a little bit as he laid in our warm, comfortable bed as i kissed him goodbye at 7:40 a.m. this morning, and i'm moping around a little bit now, seeing as he won't be home until about 11:00p.m. boo. another sacrifice we've gotta make to get to where we want to be! i'm sure a few lonely nights a week will be put to good use, and hey, maybe we'll even be glad we did this in the future! (ha. just kidding. we'll totally be glad. and by that, I mean... we better be...)

anyway...

we had a great conference weekend. that's when we bought our new car, which we have enjoyed quite a bit. i don't drive it very much, which is probably better, because it sufficiently freaks me out to leave the car key in my pocket, push a button on the handle on the car door to open it, and start the care by pushing a button... and after you push that button, you don't hear anything. the only way you can tell the car is on is when the dashboard lights up. it's weird. it's prius technology, so it's very quiet and eco-friendly and all that stuff.

we also enjoyed a lot of laying around. and on one of those morning, i made a big breakfast for the first time in a long time:

yes. devin's favorite yogurt right now comes with candy...

we very much so enjoyed our couch sitting and feel-goods feeling while we watched the prophet and apostles (shout out to my uncle D-Todd!) and other authorities of the church testify of the gospel. just what we needed! we also visited family and slept a lot.

after that, it was all about our new jobs! i have finally finished all my training, and today was one of the most stressful days i've ever had at a job ever! i am taking the place of a girl who hasn't been working there for maybe a week now, and she had a lot of "tasks", as we call them, that were "past due" - which basically means I had to do twice as much work today, just to catch up! but i did it!

devin has already had one day at the gym and he loves it. i love that he comes home from work in a good mood, and has all kinds of great stories to tell. i also love that i can climb with him for free at either gym, and even go up and boulder while he's working if i feel like it! it makes me so happy to see devin finally working in his field. he is so in his element at the climbing gym. he's a different person when he's there. someone with more focus, someone who is more relaxed, and someone who is really happy! not that he isn't that way all the time, it's just different at the gym. he is where he wants to be, and that is a big deal to both of us. it makes all the sacrifice well worth it.

the week went by pretty fast, and this weekend did too: we spent friday doing not much. i think all we did was go grocery shopping a little at costco. saturday, devin worked, and i went with my sister Kelli, who drove down from layton, to provo, to pick up her husband's birthday present: a pet dinosaur. you'd think i'm kidding. but i'm actually not. okay, maybe he's actually an iguana, but he's huge, and pretty feisty and super fast. so he's basically a dinosaur. he's pretty cool though. growing on me, at least. the whole time, all i could think was "i am such a dog person..." haha! but he is a pretty cool iguana. he even changes color. and they take him on walks. and his name is Ignacio. (ig-nas-ee-oh) we call him Naci for short (like... nah-see) it's a spanish name, I guess. anyway, the other birthday present she got him? uh.. no big deal, just

A HELICOPTER FLYING LESSON.

i think she will forever have a hard time topping that for the rest of his life. and i definitely failed when devin and i gave him a bag of his favorite candy for his birthday. like, yeah, his all time favorites, but after an iguana and flying a helicopter? i'm pretty sure life just plateaus at "meh". (just kidding. sort of)

after that, we took some bridals for a girl devin's dad referred to us, and then we did some errand running, some grub eating at bajio, and some movie watching with the holdaway's. ryan and i got in a fight over which movie to watch. i wanted Easy A. he wanted The Sandlot, Danica settled our argument and had us all watch "Eagle Vs. Shark", which is basically the New Zealand version of Napoleon Dynamite, but probably funnier. I just can't get over their accents! so awesome. it was a good night. full of doughnut holes and cake bombs, too.

on sunday, we skipped church to save the nursery children (and the wrath of their parents) from our recent illnesses. i was still showing symptoms, and devin had conjured up a pretty nasty cold over the weekend, so we slept in, which felt amazing, and then went to my parents for a big easter lunch.

my mom and i had put together a big basket for kelli that was a "congratulations / good luck / get well soon" basket of all her favorite drinks, treats and magazines because A) she just landed her dream job as a choir teacher at a charter school (!!!!!!) - that's the congratulations part, and B) she is getting foot surgery on thursday, but none of us can visit her, because they lives in BFE. and by that i mean layton. - that's the get well soon part. both parts deserve a "good luck" - so i threw that in there.

after a super long Masters, we finally left to devin's parents house. i don't really mind golf on TV, but when my dad has other guys to watch it with (which rarely happens) he has this need to grace us all with his constant commentary. over the commentators. it was obnoxious. i also would like golf on tv more if it weren't 5 hours long. that's a little much. but congratulations Bubba, I didn't watch you golf at all, but I did watch you cry at the end. Which I thought was pretty sweet and gentleman like. But after all, isn't golf a gentleman's sport? whatev. i was just glad it was over.

we got to devin's parents and we all had a lot of good laughs as the kids did an easter egg hunt. addi was being absolutely hilarious and about half way through, just sat down and unwrapped and ate practically every piece of candy, which very quickly resulted in a HUGE sugar high, which resulted in a lot more laughing. i got some of her ranting on video, but i don't know how good it is. she was being hilarious! my goodness.

after that, we had some of devin's mom's cheesecake, which is AMAZING, and then we all had a lot more laughs when Vicki (devin's mom) started playing with Siri on sean's new iPhone. Chloe told Vicki to ask Siri to marry her, which was pretty funny. but then, Chloe asked her to tell Siri to talk dirty to her. OH MY GOSH. hilarious. she wouldn't say it, which was even funnier. oh, i love that woman!

i probably could have easily taken out half of these. because they are all of addi sitting with her bucket. but i didn't.

it was a pretty great weekend.

this week, we are excited to go to the sealing of Devin's old roommate, Spencer! Devin lived with Spencer, and their other friend Colton, when I met him, so we spent a lot of time around those two guys. They are great! I am so happy for Spencer, and his wife-to-be, Lindsey is gorgeous and perfect for him! I am so excited to take a long lunch and meet with Devin at the temple to see their sealing! It will be well worth the extra time i'm working all the other days this week to make up for it!