Cheers to Music!

I was thinking while I was cleaning my house this morning how incredible music is! (By the way, Maroon 5 is a fabulous Pandora station). But really, along with y'all, I'm obsessed with music. Waking up this morning and seeing what was awaiting me (usually dishes. See Kim?! I hate my own dishes but will do yours..) I wanted to immediately go back to bed.

BUT:

Why is it that once I turned up my ipod, my load is lifted? Growing up I hated doing chores but realized as long as I had music blasting I could easily do them.

Getting ready for the day is so fun when you have some good tunes going down.

I love when my husband sings. He's my favorite singer. One of my birthday presents to me this year is SJ singing in church (haha).

The most "spiritual day" at EFY for the youth is concluded with a huge musical program.

Road trip time was instantly cut in half when you had some sing-a-long time. 

Music is one of the reasons why when Celine Dion came on stage I bawled like a baby.

I love love math. But I couldn't even think to do my homework without having music on (yeah that one was weird).

MUSIC IS SUCH A HUGE PART OF LIFE. What the heck--I love it even more because of that one fact. A couple weeks ago in the 17-18 age Sunday School class that SJ teaches--we were talking about music. Talking about how it brings such a special spirit. We talked about different times in our lives where we have felt the spirit so strong through music. One of my laurels pointed out that we have heard the lyrics to these songs over and over in our lives. They are teachings of the gospel that are taught to us in our classes, by our parents, or in General Conference...but when put to music, it brings a whole new meaning. I loved that! I can hear beautiful testimonies from people about how they know that their Redeemer lives but there is just something different about the hymn I Know that my Redeemer Lives that overcomes me.

veinte y nueve

I'm obsessed with birthdays. I don't care if I barely know you, I will make it special for you. Not in a creepy way but a "I have to celebrate you not because I know or like you, but because it is your birthday" kind of way. It makes sense in Nicole's head. SJ hates his birthday. Okay he doesn't HATE his birthday but he doesn't like answering what his favorite things are or making decisions about what he wants to do for the day. Frankly, I think he'd rather just sleep and play computer games the whole day. BUT I wasn't going to let that happen. Yes, you could say I FORCE him to celebrate himself. 

Unfortunately for me, Shaun was getting his stitches out at 7:15 in the AM which threw a wrench in my breakfast plan (threw a wrench? who says that?). So I just pushed it back. I got up at 6 so I knew I had enough time to master this crepe recipe that I have grown up watching my sister and Dad perfect. If you know me, it takes me a while to make something good or if it's cookies than I ruin them every time. EVERY TIME. Good news, I DID IT! I wish I had a picture of the beautiful crepe filled with berries, yogurt, and powdered sugar to brag but I don't. 

For dinner, I was very willing to go to a seafood place because every other day I will refuse. But Shaun was nice and picked CPK. I don't know why we are obsessed with this place. Probably because it's easy to share and we are now obsessed with the strawberry colada.

After we went to the new Oz movie. I was surprised how good it was! I was not planning on laughing as much as I did and it tied in with Judy Garland's original :) We got out and were driving home and I realized that it was 11:52 PM and we hadn't blown out Shaun's candle yet! Considering my OCD-ness this was sad because you HAVE to blow it out on your birthday or it's dumb. So being the accommodating husband that he is, Shaun sped home and we ran as hard as we could up 6 flights of stairs to our apartment (of course I can't even run because I'm laughing so hard). I got the matches, and he grabbed a candle. He blew out a candle that he was holding in his hand at 11:59 PM.

I'm so grateful for the birthday boy TWENTY-NINE year old husband. So glad he humored me doing all of the birthday celebrations that I had planned. I'm so lucky to have somebody that cares about my happiness over his own. 

{Mom and Kristine this post is for you}

A couple weeks ago we had Evening of Excellence in YW's. Our theme this year is "Stand Ye in Holy Places" so we decided to do a Candyland theme. The path leads to the ultimate Holy place. It took all morning to set up but we were so pleased with how it turned out. There is a few pictures missing but we had the Peppermint Forest table, Lollipop Woods, Gumdrop Mountain, and Mallasses Swamp was a big chocolate fountain. 

Also, I got rid of my colored frames and just painted them plain black. Boring but I like it a lot better..

Our First Visitors!!

I knew I would love visitors from home, but I didn't realize how sad I would be when they left! I NEED MORE VISITORS. Shaun's parents came out for about a week and it was a blast. Unfortunately we got "Celine-ed" (yeah it's my new saying when things don't work out) with the weather and the one week that they came out was FREEZING. They left this morning and of course it's currently 64 degrees right now. We went to Savannah for the weekend, toured a little bit in Atlanta, watched movies, played games, and ATE and ATE and ATE. The tripod wins again. I carried that thing around with us so we could get some group pictures without having to beg somebody to take a less-than-average-photo. I haven't laughed until I cried for a while now (yes I live with a comedian) but I feel like I was cry-laughing the whole time. Such a fun week! Thanks KC & Audrey for making a trip out. Now come back. . .

We went to take a gander at Stone Mountain but it was too cold to go to the top.

Food was a highlight as it is on every Vacation.
Went to Paula Dean's Restaurant in Savannah. It was amazing.

Wormsloe Plantation was incredible.
The drive to it was better than the house.

While in Savannah we went on a Ghost Tour which rides you around to all the different haunted places in the city.

Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump sat at this fountain supposedly.
(I hate that movie)
I love the fountain!

River Street

Martin Luther King's birth home in Atlanta.

The evil bear at the Coke museum 

This is getting weird.

Well I was all ready and settled into the hotel. I had just met up with Kristine who was also in Vegas and we were telling Shaun about the incredible experience he was about to have at Celine {no exaggeration} and I opened my email and I couldn't believe it! At first I just laughed. But then it set in. 

 THIS WAS THE ONLY REASON I FLEW TO VEGAS.

3rd time cancellation for Nicole.

second year in a row SJ.

 honeymoon--cancelled

one year anniversary/business trip--cancelled

I think for fun we're going to write a letter to her manager or something...worth a try.