For the love

This year's Valentine's Day was the best one. EVER.  Usually Valentine's isn't a big deal for us and our first Valentine's when we were dating was a disaster.  So glad that good memories are replacing bad ones! :)

Dustin spoiled me with the trifecta of Valentine's gifts:
Jewelry (ShaneCo pearl necklace and bracelet), chocolate (See's Truffles), and flowers (long stem red roses and lilies- my favorite!)

Valentines Day new jewelry selfie? you betcha!

I gave Dustin a nice new watch that I had him pick out, and then I decorated his car with a basket of goodies while he was in clinic.  They had cutesy sayings.  Thanks Pinterest :)

 

Once upon a time we decided that we would have candle lit pizza dinners for Valentine's Day and then go out on the weekend, but that was when we thought we'd have kids some time soon and would want to spend the night with all our loves.  Seeing as we still don't have kids and VDay was on a Friday, we figured we might as well go out.

We enjoyed dinner at Panera, which was perfect because there was no line, no waiter to tip, and the food was delish.  Then we watched The Lego Movie at the Clackamas Town Center.  It was so funny!

We had lunch together on Valentine's Day and Dustin told me some shocking facts.  Of all the married couples who started this Chiropractic program with Dustin, 50% of them are now divorced.  Of the married couples that are doing the Sports and Exercise Science Master's Program as well, 2/3 of them are now divorced. Grad school is HARD.  We hardly see each other, especially true the further he gets into the program, and it's hard not being able to spend much time together.
A few people have asked how we're able to do all our fun dates or outings.  I'm not sure if they meant financially, or how we find such cool stuff to do or whatever, but I honestly don't know how we'd survive these couple years WITHOUT the quality time together.  I literally get so cranky when I can't see Dustin for more than a few minutes a day. We need time together. And some days we see each other when we wake up, and then for maybe an hour before we go to bed.  I know we should get more sleep, but I like those few hours that we have to spend together.
Financially we are fortunate to be able to easily prioritize fun dates.  My job has been excellent and I have increased my hourly pay rate by almost $3 more an hour since I started 2 years ago.  We're also still taking out max student loans.  Starting grad school I was FREAKED OUT by the financial side, but we have been very blessed.  We use Groupon often and usually spend at least one weekend night (Friday or Saturday) at home.  We use our credit cards to our advantage to receive rewards like cash back or Thank You points that get us gift cards.  We pay them off in full each month and never pay interest.  Sure, we could have a lot more in savings or could take out less student loans, but we are making memories and taking time to be together. I'm happy to be in that 1/3 that are still married and even happier that our love for each other has grown during the past 2 1/2 years in grad school. We're in this together FOREVER and I'm so glad I have Dustin with me to go through this hard time in our lives.

 

When the family gets together

We've loved having visitors so far this year!  The first week of April Dustin's sister Nicole and her friend Emily came to visit.  It was Nicole's birthday on April 1st so we made her an April fools birthday dinner of "hamburgers and fries" and then served a real dinner of manicotti. I was at work during most of her stay but Dustin had a great time with Nicole hiking waterfalls and such.

The same week my family came to visit for their spring break. We did what Jacks do best... eat lots of good food!  Some Rheinlander, Sushi-go-rounds, Mancakes, Voodoo Doughnuts, House of Beijing, and Cinetopia, Saturday Market, Rhododendron Gardens, and old school arcading made a great vacation!

It was great to see family and spend time with them in our crazy Portlandia!  Thanks for coming to see us!

The offer is still extended to anyone that wants to come visit us.  We love visitors!

Epic Girls Day

Our friend Brittany moved to Portland and into our ward the end of January this year.  And she HATED Portland.  Her job was a 6 month minimum gig and she decided from the get-go that she would not be staying here past that.... though I tried to convince her many many times that she should stay.

Before she left, we put together an EPIC girls day filled with tons of fun things to do in Portland!
To save on time, I've decided to blog this day in captioned pictures only.  Enjoy!

The Waffle Window deliciousness.

Yolanda, Vicky, and Brittany enjoying their waffles.

Portland Saturday Market. I loved everything with Portlandia references, specifically the "Put a bird on it!"

So I had to buy a baby onsie with a bird on it... and Oregon.  I bought a blue one instead of this adorable pink since blue is more gender neutral.  This pink one was the most adorable one though!

Saturday Market Old Town. Brittany, me, and Yolanda

Brittany's haul from Powell's City of Books

I know this is a horrible picture of me, but we stopped at a 7-11 for  drinks and found this GIANT Rice Kripie treat! How crazy is that?!

Brittany and Yoland on the OHSU tram

Japanese Gardens

Yolanda and Vicky at the gardens

Practicing my geisha skillz.

Brittany and me... cuz I'm weird like that.

When in a Japanese Garden, make peace signs as Japanese tourists...

Portland Rose Garden.  All the roses were in full bloom and it was beautiful!

One of my favorites- a pink and yellow mix rose.

Me and Vicky striking a pose.

Finished off the epic day with BJ's Pizza and Pizookies!

We miss you Brittany and are so glad we got to hang out with you while you were here!!

Pay off my car two and a half years early....

CHECK!!!

Next step: Student Loans paid off. Save for a house. And an Alaskan cruise for next summer.

Goals made. Now ready, set, GO!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Because we left for Utah on December 17th, we celebrated Christmas at our home on December 16th, just like the Dunphy family from Modern Family. Only we didn't have an express Christmas, we had a normal one :) Santa Claus came to town and we were able to open presents and stockings and enjoy the day together. We packed up that day in preparation for our flight on Saturday.
My family picked us up at the airport in SLC, then we went to the Grand America to check out the giant gingerbread candy house. We were going to check out the lights at temple square, but no one really felt like it, so we skipped out and went to dinner at Zupas in Draper instead.
It was fun to have almost everyone together including....
Elder Dallin Jack!! He returned from his mission in Tokyo Japan on December 21st, just in time for Christmas celebrations!
I always thought it was so wonderful to have our families so close together cuz that meant we could spend the holidays with both families, but this trip I felt the stress of trying to get equal amounts of time in with both families. We spent Christmas eve with the Creer clan in a big family party complete with Christmas ham, white elephant gifts, and hot chocolate chugging. Dustin's grandparents brought HUGE white elephant gifts and Dustin and I agreed that we would be the ones to end up with them, just cuz we were the only ones who wouldn't be able to bring them home on a plane. And guess what.... we were right! Check out my sweet new fireplace cover.... that is currently residing at my parent's house.Dustin's gift he ended up with is a Nutcracker set for the 12 days of Christmas. It was actually pretty cute, but is also hanging out with Cowboy Santa and his posse of snowmen.
Christmas day we spent with the Jack fam complete with stockings from Santa, Christmas sugar plum ring, opening lots of presents, Christmas sacrament meeting with the home ward, and a Roast Beast dinner.
The day after Christmas, Dustin and I headed up to East Canyon with the Creers for a couple days. Now our normal December trip to East Canyon is filled with lots of hot cocoa, sledding, and building snow igloo slides. This year there was NO snow, so we spent the vacation playing a lot of Just Dance 3 and Michael Jackson dancing on the Wii, watching movies, and shooting guns. I shot a gun for the first time in my life! At first we thought I was slightly retarded, but then realized I'm really just left eye dominant and needed to shoot left handed. And then I was a bull-eye every time. Okay, not every time, but I think I'm a pretty decent shot for a beginner!
After East Canyon we spent some more time with the Jacks, celebrating my Momma's birthday, introducing them to Just Dance 3, and lots of Carcassonne.
New Years Eve was spent playing, that's right, Just Dance 3! with the Creers. We saw The Muppets with the Creer clan, which was cute, but not as AMAZING as I was hoping. Then we had a dance off, Ticket to Ride Germany, Uno, and a countdown with bubbly to 2012.
New Years day brought a missionary homecoming talk by recently returned Elder Dallin Jack at an early 9 AM. He gave a great talk and it was fun to have family over for the afternoon. We love our Jack family and we don't always get to see them!
The rest of our time in Utah was trying to spend as much time as we could with family and friends. Of course I had to visit Roberts Crafts with it's store closing 75% off sales and was super excited to get 21 items for $21 including tax! We flew back to Portland on January 6th and were happy to see our apartment and car untouched while we were gone for 3 weeks. The day after we got back, we were sure to stop by Target to pick up our own copy of Just Dance 3 on the wii. It was so great to be with family and back in Utah for so long because we probably won't get to spend that much time with them for a while, if ever!
The holidays were very happy and the Christmas was very merry! As busy as December always is, it really is the most wonderful time of the year when you get to spend it with family!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

3 posts in 3 days! Don't worry, this won't become the norm. I've just been working on my lesson in relief society for this Sunday and need a break, especially because next week I will be writing a talk for sacrament meeting. Holy cow, this ward is going to be so sick of me, but then we'll be leaving for 3 weeks, so I guess they'll get over it in that time.

Plus, I needed to blog because I'm excited for Christmas! Our house is decorated and ready for Santa to visit! Which is awesome cuz he will be to our house in 2 weeks exactly! That's one of the many perks of going home for the holidays- that we get to celebrate Christmas more than once.

So to share in my excitement, here is a little project I made that is now displaying on my piano. Hope you like it as much as I do! Thank you Buddy the Elf for helping it look a lot like Christmas!

For the Love of Groupon

Groupon has to be one of the greatest creations. I know they don't always have the greatest deals, but they have been awesome lately, allowing for the perfect dates as we explore our new state!

A couple weeks ago we used a Groupon to go to the Portland zoo. It was fun because they had started to put up all the lights for Christmas time. It wasn't a big zoo, so we were able to see EVERYTHING. Here are a couple pictures of trip:

Last weekend we used a Groupon to go bowling with our friends the Stanfords. The groupon was $25 for up to 6 people bowling for 2 hours, including shoe rental, $10 to the snack bar, and $5 of arcade tokens. Split between the two couples, it was a cheap and way fun date night! With 2 whole hours of bowling, we almost fit in 4 games. Our last game we knew didn't have much time left, so we had to hurry. We did "lightening" bowling where one person would bowl right after the other, to hurry and get as many frames in as we could. We were bowling so fast that the computer couldn't keep up with us and our scores got all jumbled. Which was really too bad, because we were all bowling our best game ever! Everyone got strikes or spares almost every single frame. It was awesome.

This weekend (today!), we are going to the coast and staying in Seaside with a groupon deal I bought before we left Utah. We got a stellar deal for a one night stay at a hotel in Seaside, a welcome package with flowers, wine (oh boy!), and chocolate, and $25 to a restaurant for dinner. We leave this afternoon and are so excited for a little getaway. Dustin has never been to Seaside so it will be fun to go explore with him! Especially cuz he's had a bunch of tests this week and needs a break!

Thank you Groupon for allowing us fun dates for cheap!

Some more of my favorite things

Shout out to Kara Jarvis, cuz I know you watch this show (let's see if you read my blog hahahaha), but I LOVE the show The Sing Off.

This is our first season watching it and I can't believe we didn't watch it before. Not only are the judges some of my favorite artists, Ben Folds and Sara Bareilles (love, love, LOVE), but BYU's very own Vocal Point, with ROBERT SEELY (far left in the picture above) whom I graduated high school with and sang in high school choir with, is on the show!! And they're doing so well!!! I love how the judges or Nick Lachey will introduce them as "the clean-cut BYU boys." It's so great seeing them on there and I hope they win it!

I also have a {relatively} new addiction to Pinterest.

I liked it a whole lot before, but now I am 100% addicted. I feel like I can't miss what anyone posts cuz what if it's AMAZING and I want to pin it too?!!? Okay, so I'm not really that dramatic about it, but I do love it a whole lot. I love trying new recipes I find on it, planning my dream home, finding cute new crafts to make, and being introduced to awesome new blogs out there!

And, just cuz odd numbers are the best and it would be weird to end this post with only two of my favorite things, another one of my favorite things is.... sweater weather.

image from my clothes pinboard on Pinterest. Of course :)

Portland is now approaching sweater weather and I basically am in love with it. It's not too cold to scare you from going outside and enjoying the day, but it's enough that you can curl up at night and snuggle. We've been taking nightly walks and even played frisbee on our grassy courtyard yesterday afternoon and it was perfect weather! Portland, you still feel like vacation, but I could definitely get used to this. :)