Surprise!

A few weeks ago I planned and purchased a surprise for Ryan, and I have been DYING to tell him ever since. I am really terrible at keeping secrets, especially from him, but this one I kept totally quiet until lastnight... when I couldn't stand it any longer.
Here are some clues as to what the surprise was... Can you guess?

... YEP, WE'RE GOING TO HAWAII!
Over the last few years I have begged Ryan over and over to let us go. He doesn't know what he's missing! So in connection with the mean trick he played on me a few weeks ago (it was ultimately the deciding factor) I decided to just go ahead and plan and purchase the trip. We'll be going July 15-21. I found an amazing price on airfare that is practically unheard of for a flight to Honolulu. I also found great deals on the two hotels we'll stay in... one on the North Shore in Laie and one on Waikiki Beach...

And I found discount tickets to the PCC!

And just incase you're wondering... Ryan is so stoked to go! I KNEW he would enjoy it - he's the kind of person that needs someone else to go ahead and plan it all out so he doesn't have to think about it and talk himself out of it. :)

Happy and Healthy!

A lady in my ward started a relief society focus group that is our very own Biggest Loser competition. Everyone is trying to lose 10 lbs in 2 months - starting 2 weeks ago and ending May 9th (just happens to be the day of our wedding anniversary). Now, I know I don't have a lot of weight to lose, and I promise I'm not obsessing over the actual pounds or about being super skinny. But it's more of a change in lifestyle and habit that will make us all more healthy and happy! The rules and the weekly chart are set up SO WELL! I've already forwarded it to several friends and family (outside of our ward) so they can start working on it with their spouses or whoever. If anybody wants a copy so they can start it on their own let me know and I'll email it to you!

The whole system is based on points - there are certain things we are supposed to do, and if we do them we get those points. Plus, by doing those things to each day, we can see results at the end of each week by losing weight. There are several teams of 5 women and each team has a team leader who hosts the weigh-ins each week (ours are saturday mornings). Last saturday when I weighed in, my weight showed that I'd lost 1 lb in one week! And this week I lost 1.5 lbs! It's such a good feeling, and I feel so much better in general. I work out for 45 minutes everyday (except sundays), eat 5 or more servings of fruits and/or veggies, drink 64 ounces of water, get 7+ hours of sleep, and I don't eat anything after 8 pm (two hours before I go to bed). These are all things everyone is supposed to be doing, and if everyone did, then we would all be so much healthier! It's as simple as that. One thing I've really appreciated is the fact that my headaches have gone away! I had a headache almost everyday. People always say it's because of dehydration... well it turns out they were right! Drinking 64 ounces of water may mean a lot of annoying bathroom breaks, but it also means less or no headaches. :)

Ryan started his block week yesterday and it ends next friday. Please pray for him and his friends! They have had incredibly long days studying. I've kept myself busy with several things ... hopefully I can stay supportive 'til the end ... it gets super hard by about wednesday. Luckily I have a large scrapbooking project to work on (my younger brother's). Other than that, we're doing great! Ryan's spring break is coming up in a couple weeks and we're headed up to Salt Lake! Oh, I can't wait. We'll spend a long weekend there and then hopefully get back home in time to do a short camping trip somewhere close by. We have recently purchased a bunch of things on clearance from a store that was going out of business, so now we have everything we need! People stop camping comfortably here by about the end of April/first of May. I wish we could camp up north somewhere - in an actual canyon with mountains instead of red rocks. But we'll see how it goes!

We love visitors!

My sister and her husband (Lindsey and Dan) came to visit us last weekend. They needed a little vacation and were able to leave their boys with their new nanny for a couple days. They enjoyed some relaxation and sun, and we sure enjoyed having them to laugh and chill with. We always have a good time with them!

On Saturday, we drove them (and Ryan's brother Kyle, who was down for the basketball games) to Lake Las Vegas. They'd never seen it, or even heard of it, and we thought it would be fun for them to see something new. Plus the weather was WONDERFUL, in the mid 70s.

Photos of Lindsey and Dan enjoying the so-called "white sandy beach". Trust me, it's a joke. 
Notice how nobody else is there? Yeah... it's a small murky puddle about ankle deep with coarse white sand surrounding it. I blogged about it a couple months ago too.
After that little outing, we decided to head to the strip to visit The Palazzo, a newer casino that none of us had visited yet. Let me first warn everyone against going down there during spring break. It's NUTS! As an example, Ryan had to go back to the strip to pick up his brother later that night and he went only 1/2 a block in 15 minutes! Anyway, we found our way through the Venetian and into the Palazzo. We had heard about a little show they do there and found it just about to start when we walked in! We could not have planned the timing better. It's called the "Living Garden" show where 3 women dressed as statues come down the escalator and walk really slowly to their fountain. They hook themselves in and do some sort of "dance", if you want to call it that. Music played and they moved their arms around, haha. I don't know how else to describe it. Anyway, sometimes water would shoot out of their fingers/gloves (shown below) and even out the top of their head. It was kind of neat... something new, at least, and they were fully dressed, which is a rarity down there!
Lindsey and Me. 

This is another picture of the Living Garden show. Meet the vine woman. Can you say creepy? Two dressed-up ladies, 10 feet tall on stilts, would walk around really slowly and pose in strange positions. It was... interesting. haha Seriously, where do they come up with these things?! 

For dinner we went to the blessed LUCILLE'S BBQ! Mmmm, yummy. We ordered enough to feed a small army, and it sure was good! Dan was so excited about filling up on yummy food that he literally took his belt off and hung it on the coat rack by our table. Only Dan. ;) Sorry I didn't get a picture of that.
The weekend was so much fun and yet very relaxing! It was perfect and just what all of us needed. Thanks for coming down, L&D. :)

Like the good ol' days!

Last weekend, as you all know, the Mountain West Conference was here in town. Thanks to one of the attorneys at work, we were offered 2 extra tickets to the thursday night game - Utah v. TCU. Usually Ryan can NEVER get away from studying on a weeknight and I usually wouldn't even ask. But when we found out these tickets were 3rd row, we couldn't pass them up! So we went, and sat by two of my bosses and their wives, and in front of our Bishop (also an attorney, who was also with a bunch of his partners).  We felt a little out of place next to all the wealthy people! But MAN was it awesome to be around Utah fans for the evening. We were definitely the under-dogs when it came to the amount of fans who were there. I swear, only 20% of the people there were Utah fans and everyone else (UNLV fans, Wyoming fans, BYU fans, etc) were cheering for TCU. But we sure shut them up in the end! Literally, the last few seconds. GO UTES!

Lately...

I wanted to post a couple recent pictures of us. We have such a good time down here with each other and with our friends. :) 

Ryan and I went to dinner at Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ (our favorite local place) last weekend with our friends Paige & Robert, and baby Reagan...

Today was our girl's day out! It was a nice change of pace. The girls went out to Confessions of a Shopaholic while the guys watched the two kids. It was so great to get out and I know the moms really need that sometimes. Hopefully we can do it more often! In this photo is Casie Dekker, Paige Reynders, and Kim DeVera.
Last month I finally did something about our bare bedroom walls. I found a simple 12x12 frame (without glass) at Michaels. It was in the "wood projects" aisle and was natural wood, so I sanded and painted it, and did the same to the letters. Then I created a sort of scrapbook page, which matches our bedspread, and placed it inside. It was exciting to feel so crafty! :) I hope to do more things like this because I realize how easy and fun it is!
This was from a couple weekends ago when we hung out and played Rock Band with some friends. What a talented group! ;) Especially the singing. I wanted to add this pic in particular so you can see a few of Ryan's good friends from school. They see him more than I do.
Our friend Kim held a 'princess tea party' and even had little heart-shaped tea cups. It was quite a spread of treats!
This photo was from a month or two ago - another "girls' night" while the men studied. On this particular night we talked about lots of ... interesting subjects. haha. ;) Good times.
Free bowling night!! The school hosted a free evening of bowling for some reason at the local sunset station casino so I met Ryan over there after he finished at school. In this pic are the DeVeras, Dekkers, Chris Larson and his littler sister who was visiting.
If you look closely at the screen, you will see that my score (the "J" line) was still only 92 while Ryan's (the "R" line) was already well over 100. Typical.
The Clarks, Larsens, Karrens, and Dunlavys.
Well I think that just about covers all of our recent activities. Things are good here! :) 

April 1st? I DON'T THINK SO.

Ryan played THE worst trick on me today. I'm not joking when I tell you that my heart rate is still not quite back to normal and my hands are still shaking from being so upset.
I received an email from Ryan around 12:30 today. See email below:

"I signed up [for the Army]!! They gave me lots of free stuff and we are going to get our money in a couple of weeks. The bad thing is that my summer is now shot. I'm off to San Antonio at the beginning of June, but at least we will have the money and I'll come back with a cool uniform for you.

I love you and I hope your day is going well.

Lt. Ryan Turner"


Ryan and I have been back and forth about whether or not to join the military to help pay for school. Some of our good friends are doing it that way, and I think that's great! But I never felt it was the right thing for us. Each time it came up, and Ryan begged me to let us do it, I would stick to my guns and say no. So when I received this email I was FURIOUS. I was literally in tears within minutes and pacing at work... trying to decide what to do. Yell at him? Kill him? Accept it? Never talk to him again? I wasn't sure.

I tried getting ahold of Ryan but he was in class and wouldn't answer. Making me MORE and MORE mad. After a little help from my friend (who texted HER husband in order to get MY husband to tell me what was going on), he sent me another email saying this...

(subject line said "HAHA ?")

"Um, did I take that one too far? Robert said that I may want to let you know that I didn't join the army. Just a goof taken the wrong way. Funny, but I'm sorry".

What should be his punishment? I'm still pondering on that...