MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I was so on top of this thing but suddenly a month flew by and I realized I hadn't added any updates. Sorry!!!


Thanksgiving!

Its Thanksgiving morning and Gary and I are eyeing the Black Friday deals! He sees an x-box that he thinks might be a good deal at Wall-Mart. He had planned on us going and getting in line at 3 in the morning to try and get this great deal. Once he realized what an ordeal it would be to get the discount he quickly changed his mind.

If your are thinking he changed his mind on the whole idea your CRAZY! No no no, he jumped in the car and ran over to buy it at full price! lol. I cant complain though, it's great entertainment

We spent our Thanksgiving with some of Gary's family. We wanted to spend some time with each of our grandparents in Idaho but at the last minute decided to just stay in town. Gary was kind enough to take me to see Twilight in theaters Thanksgiving day! I enjoyed the movie but it has its cheese moments. Following the movie we went to Gary's great aunt's house for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was quite tasty! We also cooked our own turkey (Gary won it at work for getting the most sales). It was my first till cooking a whole bird so I did some research. I think it turned out really well for my first try. It was juicy and had some favor to it. I used the meat to make a couple batches of Turkey Bundles and some turkey Alfredo type of a meal. The rest went towards delicious turkey sandwiches.


Less Exciting Stuff...

I was anticipating the opportunity to decorate our house in Christmas decorations! I was sad to find that I only have 2-5 Christmas objects. It did humor me a little though and made me realize it means I'll get to do some shopping for next year! Its the week before Christmas and I still haven't done my shopping or my Christmas cards. Heck, I still have a couple thank you cards to send out from the wedding! I was doing so well and I'm starting to fade. I apologize!

Speaking of slacking; I had been having some minor health issues the past few days. I'm all for trying to cure my issues on my own so I'd been taking extra good care of myself but I wasn't feeling any better. This morning Gary not only asked me to but demanded that I go to the doctor to get everything taken care of. We don't have insurance quite yet so I was looking for an office that was willing to accept me anyway. I looked for a couple hours and ended up finding one in Payson (about 30 mins south of us). Sadly Gary had to come home from work and ended up having to take the whole day off for this lame appointment. It was a bad day, that's all I'm going to say about that whole situation... Anyway, I'm great! I'm on some antibiotics while they watch my test results. I'm sure I should be better by tomorrow.

I should also quickly mention... We got SNOW! That usually doesn't excite me but for some odd reason this year it does. It snowed about 3 inches this morning but its looking like that should be it for a while. Other than that, we have just been living a boring (but AMAZING and FUN) life here in Provo.


Christmas Plans!

Baylie is getting baptized this month! I'm really excited for her and I'm even more thankful that she held off a month so I could be there to share the exciting time with her. With that said, we are going to Washington for Christmas! We'll leave the 23rd and spend a few days with my mom in Sherwood Oregon. After spending a few days with her and Scott and my little brother Jeremy we will head up to my dads. I am so excited to go home and spend some time with my family! I really love them more than I could ever explain.

The weather is forcasted to be pretty stormy this next week from here to our destination. I'm honestly worried about our safety on the road. I'm sure we will be safe, I just worry. I will be sure to update the blog once we are back in Provo.

I love all of you and hope you have a great holiday season!!
Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I was so on top of this thing but suddenly a month flew by and I realized I hadn't added any updates. Sorry!!!

Thanksgiving!

Its Thanksgiving morning and Gary and I are eyeing the Black Friday deals! He sees an x-box that he thinks might be a good deal at Wall-Mart. He had planned on us going and getting in line at 3 in the morning to try and get this great deal. Once he realized what an ordeal it would be to get the discount he quickly changed his mind.

(If your are thinking he changed his mind on the whole idea your CRAZY! No no no, he jumped in the car and ran over to buy it at full price! lol. I cant complain though, it's great entertainment)

We spent our Thanksgiving with some of Gary's family. We wanted to spend some time with each of our grandparents in Idaho but at the last minute decided to just stay in town. Gary was kind enough to take me to see Twilight in theaters Thanksgiving day! I enjoyed the movie but it has its cheese moments. Following the movie we went to Gary's great aunt's house for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was quite tasty!

We also cooked our own turkey (Gary won it at work for getting the most sales). It was my first till cooking a whole bird so I did some research. I think it turned out really well for my first try. It was juicy and had some favor to it. I used the meat to make a couple batches of Turkey Bundles and some turkey Alfredo type of a meal. The rest went towards delicious turkey sandwiches.


Less Exciting Stuff...
I was anticipating the opportunity to decorate our house in Christmas decor! I was sad to find that I only have 2-5 Christmas objects. It did humor me a little though and made me realize it means I'll get to do some shopping for next year!

Its the week before Christmas and I still haven't done my shopping or my Christmas cards. Heck, I still have a couple thank you cards to send out from the wedding! I was doing so well and I'm starting to fade. I apologize!

Speaking of slacking; I had been having some minor health issues the past few days. I'm all for trying to cure my issues on my own so I'd been taking extra good care of myself but I wasn't feeling any better. This morning Gary not only asked me to but demanded that I go to the doctor to get everything taken care of. We don't have insurance quite yet so I was looking for an office that was willing to accept me anyway. I looked for a couple hours and ended up finding one in Payson (about 30 mins south of us). Sadly Gary had to come home from work and ended up having to take the whole day off for this lame appointment. It was a bad day, that's all I'm going to say about that whole situation... Anyway, I'm great! I'm on some antibiotics while they watch my test results. I'm sure I should be better by tomorrow.

I should also quickly mention... We got SNOW! That usually doesn't excite me but for some odd reason this year it does. It snowed about 3 inches this morning but its looking like that should be it for a while.

Other than that, we have just been living a boring (but AMAZING and FUN) life here in Provo.

Christmas Plans!
Baylie is getting baptized this month! I'm really excited for her and I'm even more thankful that she held off a month so I could be there to share the exciting time with her. With that said, we are going to Washington for Christmas! We'll leave the 23rd and spend a few days with my mom in Sherwood Oregon. After spending a few days with her and Scott and my little brother Jeremy we will head up to my dads.
I am so excited to go home and spend some time with my family! I really love them more than I could ever explain. The weather is forcasted to be pretty stormy this next week. I'm honestly worried about our safety on the road. I'm sure we will be safe, I just worry.


I will be sure to update the blog once we are back in Provo. I love all of you and hope you have a great holiday season!!

3 months of Great Food! (and a very happy marriage)

So we have been married for 3 months now! After about a month of no repeat dinners we thought it would be fun to see if I could make it two months. When I did that we thought, what the heck... lets go for three. Yes, I did it! I did not repeat a dinner in our first 3 months of marriage. I wish I would have kept a list of all the things I made because Gary LOVED all but one of them. The one he didn't like was an Asian salad consisting of coleslaw, crunchy noodles, almonds, chicken and a great dressing. He liked the dressing but not the overall meal. I will admit that the recipe was my personal least favorite as well.

This is a list of all the things I remember making...

Pork chops in cream of chicken soup with rice
Sweet and sour meat balls and rice
Fajitas
Beef enchiladas
Creamy chicken enchiladas
Beef Tacos
Chipoltle chicken tacos
Smoky Sweet Potato Stoup
Potato Soup
Chicken and Cheese Crescent Chimichangas (Eric's Favorite!)
Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo
Beef Lo Mein
Tuna Pasta Bake
Chicken Devan
Tuna and cheese braid
Steak and potatoes
Chili
Nachos
Vegi Stir Fry
Kielbasa and potato skillet
Phad Thai
Stuffed Pasta Shells
Pot Roast
Chicken Salad Roll ups
Chicken Bundles
home made Chicken BBQ pizza

Jazz vs. Blazers Game! and a bit of disapointment

Last Wednesday we had planned on going to a burger place for restaurant night and then going to a haunted house. When we heard Grandma and Grandpa Hall were in town we quickly changed our plans and headed down to Spanish Fork to have dinner with them and Keith and Juliann. It was great to see them! When we got home we had a group over to watch a movie and play x-box. I think that was the hi light of the week.

This past Wednesday we again had to put restaurant night on hold. Gary had bought tickets to the Jazz game because they were playing against my home team, the Blazers. It was a BLAST! I had a ton of fun and was so happy to get to go. I love being at games, where the action is.
The Jazz won which was a disappointment since we were cheering for the Blazers but it was a really close game!

Thursday Tanya came down. We went to Target for a few hours. I was really excited to get to shop slowly rather than hurrying up so the guys don't get bored. We had a blast! Then we came home and had dinner with Gary. I hate to brag but the soup I had made was the most amazing soup ever!!! SO GOOD! We then watched Juno which I must say was a pretty awkward movie.

Friday Tanya and I went to the Provo Town center to shop a bit. I bought Gary new shoes since his had holes all the way through the bottoms. After she bought be lunch we headed back home and she headed out. When Gary got home we went to see Madagascar 2 in theaters with Sid. It was a great movie!

Saturday morning we started the day off by going to Aquatica with Krispin and Jess. They just set up a fish tank and wanted to check out the fish store we're always raving about. That night we went to Eric's to play rock band.

Sunday was just the same as most. We went to church, came home and took a nap and went to Keith and Juliann's for dinner.

Overall it was a pretty low key but fun weekend!

"There is a funny smell on the street"

On Saturday afternoon we went riding up around Alpine Loop. It's a beautiful area! You can see views of Mt. Timpinogos and surrounding mountains and Aspen groves. It was a bit cold but we were bundled up pretty well. I can't deny the fact that I love those scenic rides up into the mountains!

After the ride we came home and cleaned the fish tank. Gary and I began watching a movie but ended up up-stains watching fire men and other emergency responders try and figure out what "that smell" was. They blocked off the road at all three entrances which trapped us in. An hour of so later they figured out that someone has spilled industrial strength insecticide. They ended up just hosing it down to dilute it. Once it was finished we had already started watching Terminator 3 with Dan and Robynn and some of their friends so we just ended up staying. And that was our Saturday!!!

As for this week....

It has been a pretty average week. It's the week after Fall break so the teachers are all at work healthy and happy which puts me at home jobless. I did work Wednesday! I'm ok with that as long as next week is busy.

Wednesday was restaurant night. We went to the Seigon Cafe. It was supposedly Vietnamese food but really, its just Chinese. It was amazingly delicious food and surprisingly cheap. Our meal was $14 and fed Gary and I for dinner and lunch the next day. It was a pretty fun night! There were 7 of us this time which made it neat. Dan, Robynn, Eric, Krispen and Jess went with us. When we were finished we came back to our place and Sid brought over the X-box him, Gary and Eric played for an hour or two.

Thursday Gary had an interview at work. He is trying to get a job that is open. It's full time, salary pay plus commission and benefits. He really wants this job and I hope he gets it!!! He is such a hard worker! He has done an amazing job on the sales team and has surpassed the top salesmen in the department. He's just that AMAZING!

After he got home and ate dinner we went down to Aquatica in American Fork to buy 4 more angel fish. We now have 8 of them which puts us up at 26 fish in our tank. Yes, we are done buying fish for a while.

Now it's Friday and I'm sadly not working. I think we have plans for tonight but I'm not sure what those are....

And there you have our week!!

Farmer's Market

Last weekend Gary and I went to the Farmer's market down the street. It was the smallest one I have ever been too but it had the most tamale stands I've ever seen! We decided to buy one so I could try it. Not only was it amazing in my opinion but Gary thought it was pretty amazing as well. Since he served in Mexico, he knows when he is eating real Mexican. It was pretty fun.

When we got home we ran downstairs to grab the thank you cards and saw that the mail lady was already on our street. We ran up and sat in front of the mail box stamping them as fast as we could. Luckily, we did it just in time!! Now I'm working on my side's thank you cards. I got through quite a few yesterday and should be finished in the next week!!

One Crazy Week!

This has been a pretty great week! I was disappointed to only be working one day but since it's Fall Break I didn't have much of an opportunity to do more. So, I worked Wednesday as a teacher's assistant in the special ed program. These students were not as functional. In fact, a few were completely non verbal. It was the worst subbing experience I've had in my two years of teaching but I learned a lot.

The other 4 days I spent cranking out thank you cards. I'm done with Gary's side now and hope to mail them out today when Gary gets home from work. Now, when I'm finished writing I'll start on my side. I enjoy writing letters to people but 200 of them is a little much! I'm disappointed that its taken me so long but it's pretty time consuming.

Gary was successful at work as usualy. He made a few sales this week and is working on applying for a higher position in the company. His boss loves him since he makes so many sales and helps the team out with all his great ideas. It sounds like he doesnt want to lose him so we'll see what happens.

New Fish!
On Wednesday we went to the fish store and bought two more Angle fish for our tank. One of the two we have (Goatee Man) picks on the other one (Millhouse) and we read that having group helps. Now we have 4 Angel fish. The new ones names are Charlie (after Charlie Chaplin because he has a mustache) and Ruben.

Robynn bought me a frog for the tank as a birthday present too! That was a dream come true! Ha ha, that sounds cheesy but I've always wanted a frog and now I have one! He stays in the fish tank but he hides under the sand so we don't see him much. Maybe next time he climbs up I'll name him.

Oh, for restaurant night we went walking down town looking for something good. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant. It was amazingly good food and really cheap. I'm not sure what it was called but I'll write it down when Gary gets home.

Anyway, that was our week. Its been great. I'm excited for the weekend!

Questions

10 years ago I:
1. Was 11
2. In 6th grade at Jemtegaard Middle School
3. Excited to have two one year old brothers!
4. Liked a boy named Kaden and was best friends with Kayla Doty
5. Never thought I'd be this happy in life and married to such an awesome guy!

5 things on today's "to do" list:
1. Vacuum
2. Make cookies
3. Make dinner
4. Pick paint off fish tank
5. Have FHE with Gary!

5 snacks I enjoy:
1. Chex Mix (the bold or original flavor)
2. Fruit snacks
3. Grapes
4. Well... any fruit really
5. Crackers

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. pay off our debts (house, car, business...)
2. buy 2 new cars
3. Invest
4. Invest
5. Buy a new house!

5 places I have lived:
1. Portland Oregon
2. Washougal Washington
3. Camas Washington
4. Rexburg Idaho
5. Provo Utah

Five jobs I have had:
1. Day care assistant
2. Data Entry/ Secretary for Heaven's Best Carpet cleaning
3. Nanny and baby sitter
4. Substitute teacher in Provo UT and Washougal WA
5. Resident Assistant in Rexburg

*Now you should do the same!

Fish Tank...

About three weeks ago Gary bought me a 10 gallon fish tank for my birthday. We decided that building up to a huge salt water tank would be our goal.

Well that only lasted, oh.... six days. We grew impatient and decided to start looking on Craigslist for a bigger tank. We found a 75 gallon for a great price and decided to just go ahead and do it now. It was seriously such a great deal!! We went and picked it up on Friday. Sid came over and helped Gary bring it down stairs and we spent about three hours setting it up and filling it with water. When we were finished we watched "The Invasion". We didn't get to bed til about 2:30!

So now we have a 4 foot long fish tank in our front room. It's amazing but now we need a few more fish so we're going to go get some tomorrow!

Oh, and I cut Gary's hair this weekend. I have never cut a guys hair before so I was a little hesitant but Gary talked me through it. I am sad to report that it is far from perfect. In fact, Dan commented on it on Sunday asking Gary "who cut your hair?" Ha ha ha... its really not that bad but you can tell that I'm still learning. I hope I do a great job next time.

Birthday!

We celebrated my 21st birthday this weekend! I worked Friday then ran home to wait for Ryan and Rachelle to come. They came to stay with us for the weekend since they had tickets to General Conference. Ryan went to a mission reunion and Rachelle and I watched "The Break Up" while waiting for the guys to get back (Gary was at his office). Once they got home we went and got pizza. Sid and Eric came over for a while too.

Saturday Gary and I woke up, got ready and ran to the bank. We got back and Dan and Robynn had come down and set up conference on the tv. After the first session Ryan, Rachelle, Gary and I went to the pet store to buy some fish for the fish tank Gary bought me two weeks before. We bought 4 Neon Tetra's, 2 Angel fish, and 2 Albino Cory. The fish were a gift from Kent and Jeanette and like I said, the tank was from Gary.

After watching the second session of conference we went to Keith and Julie's so Rachelle could see everyone. We hung out for a while then came home. Rachelle made amazing apple crisp! We started watching a movie but I was tired and just went to bed.
Sunday was great! I woke up and Gary had got me apple crisp with ice cream and put candles on it and had everyone sing to me. That pretty much made my day! Then we watched conference!

After confrere I opened my presents from my grandparents and Tanya. They gave me two amazingly cute shirts, a necklace and a target gift card. Oh! And Rachelle gave me an awesome picture frame! Then we went to dinner at Keith and Julies which was amazing! They even made me a birthday cake! Then we went home to get ready for bed.

Monday I got a package from my family! Colton got me chocolate raspberry sticks, which are my favorite! Bayli got me a couple cooking sets and my parents got me a cute fall candle holder.

A Typical Work Day

Now that we've been in our house a while we finally have a routine! Gary got a job working for a company called Orange Soda. He's doing a great job on the sales team and has made quite an impression on his co-workers and bosses. He and Eric are still running New Growth in their spare time too.
I am excited to be working as a substitute in the Provo School District. I am only working at Dixon Middle School right now because it just around the corner from our house. Next week I will add Timpanogos Elementary to my list(it's not finished being built yet). I'm really excited about working with the younger children!
So our daily schedule goes like this:
6:30- I shower and get ready
7:00- I wake Gary up so he can shower and get ready
7:30- we eat breakfast together and head out the door.
8:00- Gary and I both start work
3:00- I get home. I clean the house, do any grocery shopping I need to do and cook dinner
5:30/6:00- Gary gets home from work, we eat dinner together
6:30- Go out or have people over and hang out a while
10:00- Go to bed

Honeymoon!!!

On August 9th we woke up and got ready to fly to Mexico! I think our flight was around 11:00 and we finally got to the resort in Puerto Vallarta at 1:00 am their time (11:00 pm out time). We were hungry so we found food at an all day food bar thing and went for a "moonlit walk on the beach". Gary made sure that I took note of the moonlit walk on the beach.

While we were there we went to some super fancy restaurants. One served Mexican food and another was Italian. The food was so SO amazing! The service was just as great except they only spoke Spanish...

The beach was AMAZING! The sunsets were beautiful. We took pictures with Gary's camera but sadly they weren't coming out right so we didn't take as many as I would have liked. That's a huge bummer but oh well.

The trip was unexplainable amazing and perfect! (other than the getting sick part...) I think it will be the greatest vacation on my life!

Wedding!!!

August 8th was our wedding day. We got married in the Portland Oregon Temple at 11:00. I was pretty happy that everything went as smoothly as it did. It seems like every wedding has it's challenges but ours went perfectly as planed.

After waking up at 6:00 and getting my hair done we headed on our way to the Temple. It turns out that 08/08/08 was a popular day to be married, there were 22 weddings that day. Getting dressed in the bride's room was a challenge with 5 other brides and their mothers too. The sealing then took place and went really well. The sealer reminded us that we need to treat each other as princes and princesses.

After the sealing we took an hour taking pictures on the temple grounds with our photographer (my Uncle Tony). I felt that the pictures went really well. They turned out amazingly well too. You can check out our photos at his website: http://www.tonyduongphotography.com/clients/laura-gary/

or you can just check out his work at: http://www.tonyduongphotography.com/

Dan, Eric, Gary and I then drove down to the court house in Oregon City to get copies of the wedding certificate. After fighting traffic for what felt like forever we finally got a few moments to spend at my parents before the ring ceremony. After Gary had time to check his games online and I uploaded wedding pictures it was suddenly time to go to the reception.

As I waited to walk down the "isle" I was more afraid than I ever thought I'd be. Even though I was already married, the actual walking down the isle with my dad, Gary waiting at the end freaked me out! I did it though, and it all went really well. Oh! Lets not forget that we walked down the isle to the Smashing Pumpkins! That wasn't intended but someone (not sure who) just turned on the music and it happened to be "Today". It was a classical version but none the less, it was SP...

The reception felt like it lasted an eternity with everyone calling me here and there. It was great though! I honestly enjoyed being in the spot light for the day. All in all, it was the greatest day ever!!!!