Its about that time...

Here are a few of our favorite engagement pictures. We have TONS more but since I can't add them all I thought I would just put the few that I had with me that I liked. Enjoy.


I am not quite sure why the resolution is so screwy when I upload them but you get the gist.

Just want to share

It is easy to forget how much someone means to you or helps you when they make you upset so I think the reason I am posting about this is so that I can refer back to it when I get frustrated with Marshall...

This weekend...
On Friday night I found some nightstands that I wanted and have been looking for for about 2 months. Marshall and I went and picked them up late with no time to do anything to them. I got the project of refinishing them going Saturday afternoon when I decided to take a break from studying. Marshall got home around 4 from Lacrosse practice and he immediately started helping me with the task that I took on. After about an hour he took it upon himself to go and get us some dinner and he only had one drink cup in his car so he brought me a diet coke and got nothing for himself to drink. We were up until 2 doing these blasted things and we still were not finished.

Sunday morning when I got up I found him on the deck finishing painting the last coat on the nightstand. It needed one more coat of black, varnish, holes drilled and the hardwear put on. When he was finished he came in and started helping me clean. When i got done with the back side of the house he had the kitchen and living room done and all the furniture moved so I could vacuum.

Immediately after finishing cleaning I had to go to a study group. I got home around 5 to find the nightstand complete and put where it goes, all of the laundry done (at least 4 loads), including folded and put away, he had ironed the work close from the laundry, including mine and he had dinner almost ready. My favorite part is that I didn't ask him to do these things, he just does it and doesn't say anything to get recognition.

Even writing this post makes me teary. There is no possible way that I could get everything done around the house and still have time to study for my classes and I don't know what I would do without him. Not only does he keep my spirits up but he makes me laugh all the time, he makes light of a crappy situations, always encourages and pushes me and he helps me see the light at the end of the tunnel. My classes this semester are by far the hardest classes I have ever taken and they require extreme amounts of time. Not only that but I am right in the heart of wedding plans on top of everything else.

Marshall, you are my superhero, my sanity, my entertainment and my best friend! I love you so much!! In case I forget to tell you sometimes, thank you for all you do for me. I promise it does not go unrecognized and one day I hope that I can be as good of a companion to you as you are to me.

The latest

This was our weekend project...

BeforeAfter

We are slowly trying to get the furniture we need for the apartment but doing it in the most cost efficient way as possible. We found these great, solid wood nightstands on KSL for $50, paid $16 for new hardware and about $10 on paint and supplies. A nice wood nightstand usually runs around $200 and we got BOTH of these for about $75!!!! And it is always fun to do stuff like this with Marshall until 2 in the morning... you talk about some really random stuff at that hour...

My name is Jennifer and I'm a polishaholic!

Ladies and gentleman, the first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem so here it goes... Marshall pointed this out a couple years ago and I didn't think anything of it until yesterday. I was at Walgreens getting some chapstick (it was an emergency ;o)) and I was in a major hurry but no matter how fast I needed to move I could not help looking at the fingernail polish!! Every time I go into a store I MUST look at the, and sometimes buy, fingernail polish! I even do it at grocery stores, its that bad! When I am with Marshall I make it a very smooth transaction so he doesn't know that is what I am doing, I totally rubberneck the aisle and just stare as hard as I can at all the wonderful shades of colors that I most likely already have! My real problems are when I go to Rite-Aid or Walgreens though because I buy at least one EVERYTIME! For instance... yesterday, I bought a new top coat that supposedly dries super fast and is super shiny. How many clear top coats does a girl need??? I tried it at the red light on my thumb and about 2 minutes later when I was back at work, It was totally dry! I was proud of my purchase at this point! I will try and post a picture of my collection later, I just wanted to get this off my chest. About 2 months ago I went through all my colors and gave all my duplicates or colors that I don't wear anymore to on of my friends and my bag is still bulging and wont shut :( Oh my horrible, troubled life... why me?!?

Cheese Nips NOT Cheez-Its

So... last month at the grocery store on a random whim Marshall and I picked up some delightful cheesy crackers because they were on sale. I had forgotten how much I love the little delights until I divulged. Well, this month at the grocery store I thought that since I loved them so much I would get another box. Well, I pulled them out at work today and after eating just one I realized that this was not the same delicious snack cracker that I had the month before. I thought about it for a while and the only logical reason for this taste discrepancy would be that last month I must have bought Cheese Nips and this month I bought Cheez-Its thinking they were what I bought last month. If these people could get creative with there names this sort of catastrophe would not happen! Moral of the story... Cheese NIPS=GOOD, Cheez-ITS=NOT SO MUCH

Down with the bean game!!!!

My brother's family got me "the bean game" for my birthday last month and I have played it more than any other game EVER! Marshall absolutely LOVES it! Every night we play at least one round (he always wins, that may have something to do with why he always wants to play), whenever we go somewhere he makes me take it with us and now he is asking our friends if they have played and if they want to play! Last weekend we were going to drop some stuff off at my mothers and she texted me to bring it down, but of course Marshall already had it in the car, so we played it with my mom and grandma and it was a riot! It is seriously a super fun game and it is addicting but for crying out loud Marshall, we need a new game!!!! Mix it up a little or something!!!

Just New

So we are trying to make our house more like a home but since we wont be living there forever we don't want to put a ton of money into it so we are trying to improvise. For instance, i made these fabulous curtains for the guest room...

(they are sage green and plum purple... you can't really see the colors very well in this picture)

I just wanted to post this because it was so cute. I got home last night to find my cute little teacher grading papers of his middle school students in the living room. I don't know why but I just think it is adorable!!

The Bishop's Dinner for The Cathedral of the Madeleine

Marshall & I got the opportunity to go to a galla for the Catholic Church this Saturday. Since he is the new guy at a Catholic school they extended him the invitation. It was $1,500 for a table (luckily his school flipped the bill ;o)) It was an experience. When Marshall asked what the dress code was the principle of his school told him to wear the nicest thing he owned because there were going to be furs and diamonds and she was not joking! When we got to the hotel security was EVERYWHERE! Apparently the gentleman that spoke was VERY high up in the church. It was really amazing. We walked out to have a little socialite in the garden with ushers wandering around with wine trays, just like you see in the movies!!! Then we went into a very elaborate, very large room in the hotel and listened to a talk while we ate an excellent dinner. After the speech there was a band and a dance floor and if I do say so myself, we cut some serious rug! It was a great experience. I wish we could have taken more pictures but I thought that may be a tad inappropriate ;o) So these were before we left. WOW-E we looked smokin'!!! (Sorry about the glare at the bottom... that's whfat happens when you take your own pictures with the timer i guess)

I though it he said it

"We must overcome the notion that we must be regular. It robs you of the chance to be extraordinary and leads you to the mediocre."

Uta Hagen

Weekend Excitement!!

Tiffany, me & Ashley
Just the beginning...
This weekend we decided to go down to Zion and hike The Narrows. The Narrows is basically a huge path way between the sandstone. The width varies but I think the narrowest it got was about 10 feet. The catch is that it is a river. They say that the depth is usually about ankle to knee deep but lucky for us in some areas it was above our WAIST! It was seriously a lot of fun though. We hiked up for a few hours then came back down when it started to get chilly and the sun was starting to set.

On a bad note... Our credit card got stolen Friday! The bank called because there was some suspicious activity... um yeah, like hundreds of dollars to Toys R' Us... they will obviously refund us the money but it us a huge hassle and totally scary at the same time. They got away with a little over $700. Why don't places check I.D. anymore? Seriously!!!!

The Big Move...

Our new place (better pictures to come)
Our kitchen table

Our new couch that Marshall is in love with!

So.. Marshall and I were kind of between a rock and a hard place when it came to our living situation. He starts his new job in Bountiful in August and I start at the U in August but I am keeping my job in Orem for now so when we got married we needed to find a place in the middle. Well, Marshall's contract for his housing ended in May and he moved into his mothers house for the summer and then he was going to stay with some friends of ours until November (when my lease was up). I have been having some serious problems with my land lord and I decided that I had to move out. I could not find anything that was month to month (because it would be stupid to sign another year and have to figure out a way to get out of it in January). So anywho... after some deep convos and some serious thought we decided to start looking and see what we could find if we moved in together now. Well, the first place we went to ended up being amazing and we decided to take it! We move in this week and we are both super excited! We have been sanding and staining furniture to match and just make this place look jazzy! We also made a list of things that we need because neither of us really have anything that it takes to make a home. We made a budget and have slowly been getting pieces for the house. These are a few of the items we have chosen. I will post pictures of the finished product and the furniture we re-did later.

4th of July

Watching fireworks from the back of Marshall's car.

Tiffany & Josh Austin







About 3 minutes up the canyon the Austins popped a tire. Good thing the boys were there because Tiff and I just sat in the shade and watched them change it ;o) It makes them feel manly.

So for the 4th of July we went camping with the Ausitns. They had access to a bunch of private land in Provo Canyon right along the river. It was a great time! We left on Friday and came home Saturday night just in time to have a little bbq and watch the fireworks in West Jordan. We always have a good time when we hang out with the good ol' Austins!

My trip to Idaho

So while Jenn was sitting at home missing me I was busy working hard trying to bring home the bacon... OK not really it was more of a vacation for me, mainly because I made my buddy Chris(chuck) do all the work. But really we had a lot of fun. A block away from where I ran the camp in Pocatello was a city park called Ross Park this park had hundreds of climbing routes all over it making it the perfect location for two guys like us, It was a match made in heaven. Each day we would fight to get through the day and then form 3pm on we would rock climb till dark. Of course we were to excited to remember to take pictures but I have a feeling that I will go back this summer. The rock is all Basalt and really fun to climbing.

After the first week we packed up and went to Massacre Rock State Park were some of the best climbing is. We camped right outside the park which we had to access via private property and I think we camped on private property as well. The Park is Across the Snake River which was really cool and there is no way to get it besides this back way. Any ways It rained the hole time, we only got 1.5 Climbs in 2 days...don't ask about the .5 This did not stop Chris and I from exploring the hole park, we hiked for a good 7 hours, seeing some really great wildlife especially Birds of pray and other types, Including Hawks, Eagles and owls. Closer to the Snake River the amount of birds increased it was pretty cool. We also ran in to a porky pine, the one thing that I will never forget was the rattle snake. We read that they were a lot out there but after 7 hours of hiking we did not see a one until we got 50 feet from our camp spot. and there it was. Let me tell you, that is a noise that you will never forget. we were coming over a rock and right when i saw him he saw me and started to rattle and coil. Scary..... Here are some pics ... Look Close he is there and he is a big one. The other picture are Flower at the State park us hiking in the rain and us climbing in Boise.

Climbing in Boise on Granite, One of the hardest Climbs ever we think it was a 5.10c great foot work as well as a Great view.... Can you see him He is up there..

jj
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Enough Already

So, last Monday Marshall left for Idaho to run his yearly lacrosse camps. He usually only does one in Boise but this year he got an offer to do one in Pocatello as well so he arranged them to be back to back. It is funny how you realize how much you depend on someone when they are gone. I was fine for the first week. I did wedding stuff, did stuff around the house, I got myself 2 chapters ahead in my statistics class and just enjoyed the time I had to myself. Well last Friday it started to get really annoying that he was gone. I worked all day and had class until 9 but I was still really bothered when I got home and I didn't sleep very well. Saturday was terrible! I went to class in the morning but had no motivation to do anything in the afternoon because all I could think about was how badly I missed my Marshall. Sunday we had a BBQ at my grandmas and everytime we have a BBQ we all play volleyball and Marshall has a riot with it. Well, the whole time people kept asking where he was and then during volleyball they kept saying that they miss him or they need him on their team. Nothing like adding insult to injury. So anyways... this week is starting out rough. I am trying to stay busy and just counting down the days. I guess it is true what they say... Absence makes the heart grow fonder...

Faux Engagements

(this one is my favorite)
The photography teacher at the school Marshall works at offered her students extra credit if they could take some "real" engagement pictures... so of course they talked Marshall into doing it. So I went and hung out at his school for a couple hours and let the kids go crazy. Some of them actually turned out pretty jazzy.

Our Arches Adventure

It was a great time to go, the weather was awesome and the breeze throughout the day really kept us going!
This is Delicate Arch, the most known arch. The hike was about 3 miles and it was not easy. You start walking on a trail and everything is fine until you turn a corner and you can see people ahead walking up a STEEP rock! Yeah... that makes you think twice about your decision.
On our first hike Marshall was being a nutt and he made us take a back way down. Well, of course we got lost.... Anywho... after a little bickering we knew we were headed in the right direction and Marshall let out a big sigh of relief and said "I feel much better going this way, at least i know we are not taking the routes the 80 year olds take". I think he was losing faith in his hiking ability after he saw how many older people were there. Too funny.
This past weekend Marshall & I packed up and went to Arches in Southern Utah. It was amazing! We had so much fun! Even though it was only a 3 1/2 hour drive a road trip gets you pretty goofy. We talked about some really funny stuff, but hey... whatever keeps you awake.