"For you see, marriage is a lot like an orange. First, you have the skin...then the sweet, sweet innards..."

Ryan and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary this week and it got me thinking that 16 years is a really long time. I met Ryan when I was 19, so in two more years and I'll have spent half my life hanging out with Ryan. When you think of things that way, it can kind of make your head spin. When I saw Ryan in the BYU bowling alley the first day of my sophomore year, I have to admit I didn't think we'd be spending the rest of our lives together. I just thought, "He's cute and doesn't look like your typical BYU return missionary. I wonder if he'll make out with me?" In one way especially, meeting Ryan really saved me. I was flunking out of school and it was Ryan, with his 1985 Mac Plus and exceptional study skills, that kept me in school. I still tried to break up with him once but, luckily, he didn't take it that seriously.

The evidence:

When I started to fall back into old habits of sleeping instead of going to class, Ryan was there to remind me not to be a complete loser. Because of his support, my academic advisor gave me a high five when I came in at the end of my first semester back. I had gone from a .73 to a 3.45. Maybe my next blog entry will be about why I did so badly my first semester.

He also put up with me through this. This is the first and last time this photo will ever be made public.

I don't get mushy a lot on my blog but I do really love Ryan. I'm tend to be a tad crazy/neurotic and he still likes me. Oh and when he was at Ross one day, he bought me a new sports bra. Does your husband know you need a new sports bra and actually remember to look for one when out shopping? Okay mushiness done.

I got Ryan sunglasses for our 1st and he got me a pair for our 16th.



A great dinner at Bambara. I was searching through photos for this post and found that, throughout the years, I've done a lot of thumbs-up in photos.

Four birds and a wedding

If you know me at all, you know I hate birds. Okay, maybe hate is a strong word but I'm definitely suspicious of them and think they have a big advantage over humans with the flying and all. When I was 16 I was mowing my family's acre of yard with a push mower (after I just finished my day job of mowing all town owned grass with a push mower) I was viciously attacked by a mother starling who had a nest in our big pine tree. I had to drop to the ground to avoid it pecking my eyes out and feasting on my brain. I jumped up and ran into the house with said bird chasing me. We had a glass door so I watched, for a long time mind you, as the bird stayed outside the door waiting for me to emerge so it could attack again. I finally convinced my dad to go turn off the lawn mower and that if they wanted any more free lawn mowing, they'd have to take care of that bird one way or another. So when Ryan showed me what birds had been building in our BBQ, my PTSD flared up as did my loathing for all things bird.

A lovely wedding
I know a lot of Mormons complain about the amount of weddings they have to attend but since both Ryan and I are from such small families, this has never been a problem. I haven't been to many weddings. So when I got to attend a wedding where I knew both people, I was pretty excited. Ryan's cousin Taylor married my fellow first grade teacher Mary. All the girls in this family think Taylor is pretty dreamy and quite the catch so we had often wondered why he didn't have a girlfriend. Hanna and Grace had both said they'd be happy to fill the spot, if Taylor would wait. I had to tell them there were several things wrong with that. When I was hired last year, I didn't know Mary nor did I know that she was dating Taylor. I mean, what are the odds? One day last summer Mary, Alisha and I were planning together for the upcoming year. Mary and Alisha told me it was funny because Mary's boyfriend and Alisha's husband were both named Taylor. Since Mary had mentioned her boyfriend was going to BYU and I knew Taylor was at BYU, I asked her what his last name was.
Me: "What is your boyfriend's last name?"
Mary looking at me like I'm an idiot because how would I know her boyfriend: "Bull"
Me in Elaine mode: "SHUT-UP! HE'S MY COUSIN!"
Now, because of me, they are married. Well I wish I could take credit for it but they did it all themselves. They are too sweet, beautiful and perfect together. I'm glad I'm now related to them.

The girls at the wedding. They loves Mary and Taylor. Grace asked me the other day if it was okay to hug Mary at school. I told her it was okay as long as Mary didn't mind. I guess to a kid who only has two cousins, gaining another one seems pretty cool.

While we were waiting for pictures to be taken, we hung out in the visitors center. Hanna took this picture of us.

Brooke and Alisha came to the reception. I'm so glad we are all coming back next year! They make work fun. Alisha is the one having a baby. See if you can figure out which one she is.


This is where Ryan wishes I would shut up
I'm not super regular and never have been according to my mom. So I decided to try a colon cleanse after we got back from California. It was kind of a impulse purchase at the health food store (It was on sale! With a coupon!) but I had thought about doing them before. I don't know if I've ever blogged on here about my atrophied intestine that gave me trouble back before I had kids? Well it was more painful than having kids. Demerol at the ER was the only thing that ultimately worked. That was after trying to take care of the severe stomach pain myself by buying an enema at the grocery store in the middle of the night. Think of your most embarrassing situation and times it by 10. "Yep, that's right, I'm buying an enema at 1 a.m. No, you're not invited to the party." Since then, I've taken better care of my body but still have troubles now and then. The cleanse I'm doing is mostly just lots and lots of fibre. I described one of the drinks to Ryan as "dirty grass". It's fine. I don't see anything miraculous happening and I don't think I'll do it again. This is what my friend Kim said when I told her what I was doing.

Kim: "Colon cleanse, really? No sci evidence for that one. Yuck!"
Me: "No sci evidence!? Um how about a shiny clean colon!"
Kim: "I'd rather have a pedicure!"

Final thoughts about colon blow, I agree with Kim, a pedicure sounds loads better.

"You got a banana, you don't need no snack pack."

We're packing our snack packs and heading back to school tomorrow after a nice long Spring Break. We took our much anticipated Disneyland trip. The "Ryan and I have worked very hard and deserve something nice blow-out" trip. It was pretty fantastic and a great time was had by all. Bring on the pictures!

View from our room. I used to walk by these rooms and want to be those people. This time I was! We could see the fireworks, Space Mountain and the Matterhorn from our room. It was fun to see all the people and going ons of Downtown Disney. Since we were connected to the park we took more breaks. The pool was fabulous and the girls had a great time swimming while I slept on the lounge chairs.

One of the perks of staying at the Grand Californian, the girls could have a private hair styling at Studio 365. The cornrows were nice and easy for the rest of the trip. The fake hair, while not something I'd normally do, seemed perfect for Disney. They got a lot of compliments from strangers.

Happy kids who finally got to "drive" the Thunder Mountain train. On Tuesday we were riding this during the fireworks. Pretty cool.

I remember as a kid, loving anything that let me pretend I was driving. Our kids love Autopia for this reason. Although I get whiplash from Graces "driving".

I was tempted to crop my head out of this picture. Hanna and Grace look so cute. I look, well, not cute. This is on the balcony of our fantastic room.

Oh Gracie. I can't remember the specific event that brought out this look. The kids were pretty good. Hanna had a surprising episode involving Tower of Terror but Ryan and I used guilt to get her on "It's mommy's favorite ride!" and after one ride she was fine. Grace had a few and usually they were because she was tired or hungry. The first night she fell asleep on Ryan while we waited for our food. He carried her back to our room which wasn't far away but I'm guessing that was the hardest part of the trip for him. Oh, I let Grace wear her souvenir shirt every day. So eat that haters!

Next to Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain is my favorite ride. See how happy I am. If only I could ride a log everywhere!


I liked this picture. Shows how relaxed Ryan is at Disneyland. I'm also digging this hat he bought there after his head was burned. We aren't used to sun in these parts.

This was me after Grace suggested we stand in line for Space Mountain at 9:00 on our last day. We didn't have a fast pass and the wait ended up being 70 minutes. This was really our only long wait. My feet felt like they were on fire and my legs were a painin'! Ryan was kind enough to capture the moment without my knowledge.

I thought this was a pretty good "Happy family at Disneyland" picture that some nice people in our raft took for us. No one is sad because their feet hurt (me) or they didn't get what they wanted to eat (me also. no fried PB&J kid's meals!?!).
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