Cheesecake and Coffee Tables

So not much to update the world on... We are just living life, doing our thing.
There has been seriously so much snow in Utah this year and I am ready for it to go away! Especially since I have to drive to my internship everyday and driving in the snow is incredibly scary.

We had a fun time this weekend. Friday, Doug picked me up from work and we went to the Cheesecake Factory to pick up some cheesecake for later that night! An expensive dessert, but so delicious. Have I mentioned we love wedding gift cards? We tried the white chocolate raspberry, the caramel pecan turtle, and a peanut butter chocolate one. Yummm.

So after picking up our cheesecake we buzzed over to Costco for our glamorous main course: pizza. Hey its cheap and good pizza I might add. Then we made one more stop at Ikea before we went home. We finally have a coffee table! We had been using a big plastic tub as our coffee table since we moved in. I was more than happy to put that thing away in the closet where it belongs. Now we are one step closer to not living like poor college students.  (The table was only $20 btw... such a steal!) We ended the evening with a movie as we assembled our table and ate our cheesecake.

Saturday was the usual: running errands, working out, lounging. That night, we went to BYU's production of the Phantom of the Opera. It was amazing! I love love love that musical. All the actors and actresses did an amazing job and the costumes were fabulous. There is really nothing that compares to watching a performance live. Movies just don't always cut it. Yeah sure the effects are cooler and movie sets are always grander, but listening to the vocals live is such an amazing experience.

I feel so grateful for all the wonderful people in my life. I do not know how I got so lucky to be surrounded by great friends, wonderful family and the best husband. They are all being so loving and supportive as I try to figure out this internship thing. I am sure I can be a grump sometimes after spending 12 hours a day gone, but they never complain. Doug is being so wonderful and helping out with things around the house like making dinner and cleaning up. I am seriously one lucky gal.

Yay for coffee tables!

P.S. The white chocolate raspberry was my favorite, then the peanut butter, and the caramel cheesecake came in third. Just in case my opinion matters to you and you are getting cheesecake soon...

One cold January night

Being a working girl is tough! Where does my time go? Basically I figured out that by the time I get home I have a solid 2 and a half to 3 hours before I have to go to bed. That is not much time! In that time I have to make dinner and eat, clean up from dinner, maybe hopefully work out, and connect with my husband plus do anything else that is on the agenda like run errands, or visit people. There are not enough hours in the day. I have a new appreciation for single working parents. I cannot imagine the crazy life they live and how they get everything done in a day.

So last week I realized that it had been 1 year since Doug and I got engaged. We got engaged on January 11, 2012. Just after the new year. So I thought I would tell you the story of how Doug proposed to me.

We had gone ring shopping together right after Christmas, after spending Christmas break away from each other. So it was not a complete shocker that we got engaged....I knew it was coming eventually, I just didn't know when. It had been pretty busy for both of us. We both had a full schedule of classes and work and the beginning of the semester is always busy. With roommates and such it was hard for us to find any alone time together. We decided that we would go visit Doug's family for MLK day because we both didn't have school Friday or Monday. So the Wednesday night before, Doug suggested that we do a Thursday-night date the next day to have some alone time just for ourselves away from roommates and before we had to be around family. Of course I agreed. He told me to dress warm since we would be going up in the canyon. I was prepared. This is January in Utah we are talking about here! Its cold. I had on a sweatshirt and a coat and ear warmers. Not taking any chances here.

When he picked me up he told me that we were going to have a bonfire. I love bonfires and all but in January?? Yeah I was a little surprised that was the activity he picked, but I didn't question. We got our blankets, wood and matches and headed up the canyon. We went to a park in Provo Canyon where we used to have a lot of bonfires with our friends the summer we met. We had our January bonfire at the very same spot that we first held hands. Very sentimental and romantic of course.

After a good 20 minutes of us shivering and trying to coax the flame alive we finally had a small fire barely warm enough to heat our fingers, but hey at least we had a little heat. We started talking about our days and sharing what we had learned in our classes this week. It was a normal conversation so I didn't think too much about it. Yes it was a little weird to have a bonfire in the middle of winter, but it was fun to be there with my sweetheart.

After we talked for a bit, Doug said he had something to show me. Out of a grocery bag he pulled a little day planner. Inside the day planner was a ton of writing. Now Doug is not the planning type, so I was a bit confused. He began to explain to me that ever since our first date he had kept track of what we had done everyday we had been together. He had everything written down from simply "ate dinner together and took a walk" to "had our first fight" and "she first said 'I love you.'" I was so surprised that he had done this! I didn't even have a record like this! It was so cute to see all the little things he wrote about us.

By this time I had a little tiny whisper of a thought entered my head that maybe he was proposing because this was too cute and too planned to be just a normal date. But I quickly dismissed that thought because I knew that he hadn't finalized everything with purchasing the ring and getting it resized.

Then Doug said he had something else to show me. He pulled out a calendar with cupcakes on it. I had mentioned in passing that I was going to need a new calendar for the new year and he bought one for me! Inside he wrote little things on the days we did them. For example he wrote things like, "I said I love you on this day" or "we kissed for the first time one year ago" on the corresponding date. He then flipped to the January page and showed me the Sunday previous where he wrote "We told your parents we were going to get married." Then he showed me January 11th where he wrote: The day we got engaged! I gasped and exclaimed, "But that's today!!" Then he got down on his knee and asked if I would marry him. I didn't say yes... I said "of course!!!" I didn't know whether I should cry or laugh or smile or squeal. I was so happy.

By the time we had composed ourselves a little bit, we were so freezing cold! We quickly put out the fire so that we could ditch the cold. We went and got cupcakes at our favorite Sweet Tooth Fairy and called our families to tell them that everything was official now. It was so great to be engaged. Turns out he had bought the ring like 4 days before without me knowing it would be done so soon. That sneaky boy. Oh how I love him. Now I get to keep that calendar forever and always remember when we got engaged and the other little cute notes he wrote in it.

Can you tell that it was cold?

Hope the story was at least mildly entertaining. If nothing else, it was good to write down for posterity. 

No school for Natalie!

Today I crossed the threshold into real adulthood. Okay- it is not real adulthood until you get a real paycheck, but I am moving up in the world. On this freezing cold January morning, I did not make my way up the mountainous hill towards campus. Instead, I hit the pavement on the I-15 Northbound for my new commute to Salt Lake for the first day of my internship. I felt so official with my own desk, laptop and stack of company sticky notes. I even got to record a voicemail message for the phone. Extension 124 in case you were curious. Yeah I am feeling pretty official.

Things I learned at my first day in the office:
- Salt Lake is different than Provo... I forgot how much of a bubble I was living in!
- People are not kidding when they say the commute is horrible. Traffic was crazy coming home.
- 8 hours is a long day at the office.
- College taught me some things, but not everything.
- I enjoy dressing up in business casual clothes :)

Holiday Recap

Back in Provo once more. It so so so so cold here. Like we have ice on the inside of our apartment cold (thank you badly insulated college apartments). But all in all it is good to be back. Visiting family is always fun, but nothing is better than sleeping in your own bed. Monday Doug starts school again. And me? I start my new internship in Salt Lake! I am so excited and nervous. I hope they like me. (I sound like I am meeting my in-laws for the first time)

So a recap of the holidays. Again, I fail at picture taking. Christmas morning I took zero pics. Actually, pretty much the rest of the break I took zero pictures. Ooopsy. Not like we did anything you would feel like you need to see pictures of anyways. Lots of movie watching and game playing. Which I am sure you know what that looks like. I did take a lot of pictures before we left of Idaho though. Would you like to see them?

Lunch and games at Aunt Linda's house:

Lights at Temple Square in SLC:

Yeah it was freezing cold.

 Traditional visit to Crown Burgers after the lights:

More traditions. Bowling on Christmas Eve: 

Pale pale winter face.

Somehow, Jenessa's ball got stuck behind the bumper...

So are you tired of seeing pictures of my family? Good. Because that is the end of them. 

We were blessed with a white Christmas! It was beautiful. Christmas was so much fun. We got some really neat gifts from my awesome family. All us kids took the sleds up to the canyon for some epic rides and that was a blast. There was at least a good 18 inches up in the canyon. We had fun just pushing each other over in the snow. 

The 27th we made our way up to Idaho to spend time with Doug's family. We had a great time playing tons of games, watching movies and eating good food. Eating way too much good food. We played some epic games of capture the flag and dodge ball. I was seriously sore the next day. 

Now our life is going to seem dull in comparison. But I wouldn't miss a minute of it. Nothing is better than having my husband with me and us making memories of our own together. Happy New Year!

Oh hey blog!

Oh hello blog... it has been awhile! I promise I haven't been ignoring you. Actually I have been thinking about you everyday waiting for the time when we would reconnect. My fingers lightly tapping out words that make you come to life and you making me smile when you tell me that a whole 17 people looked at my blog yesterday. At last this day has come. We have finally been reunited. I am so sorry for leaving you alone and blank for so long. I have been making memories with family and friends. Christmas was so wonderful. How great it was to spend time with my family. It was super fantastic to be able to Skype with my brother in Ukraine! Oh the beauty of modern technology that allows us to stay connected.

For the past week I have been bonding with my in-laws in Idaho. Doug lives out in the boonies and thus, the internet is not the best. So my dear blog, I do have good reason for leaving you unattended for so long. As soon as I make the treacherous icy journey back home I will spend more time with you. I promise. Until then, Try not to miss me too too much.

Love,
Natalie