Marriage

Before I got married, I never really thought about what it would be like to actually be married. When I did think about it though, I never thought it would be hard at all!  You know, the “happily ever after” kind of thinking…..

Turns out .. it is Happily Ever After! just not the kind of happily ever after I thought it would be :)

Obviously, it’s hard to adjust to living with someone, and with men and women being so different, working things out can be a struggle at first. But I can tell that as time has gone on, it has gotten easier because we understand each other better now.

When I hear people say  “we’ve never had a disagreement, or fought,” I think that either:

1. They are lying  OR 2. One person is dominating or controlling the relationship.

I would like to think that we are past the “honeymoon stage” since we are coming up on 2 years of marriage this summer, but I know that I’m not in anyway a marriage expert. I know that when we start having a family, and life changes happen…. we will have a lot more to learn.

I do know that marriage takes work, and will always take work, but it is SO worth it!

If any of you have not read The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman… you NEED to read it with your spouse (for those that are married) It talks about love languages, what makes you feel loved and how you show your love to others.We read it before we got married and it really helped!

For example my love languages are

#1 quality time and #2 acts of service

There is a test you can take online that tells you what your love language is :

For wives: http://www.5lovelanguages.com/assessments/personal-profiles/?profiletype=wives

For husbands: http://www.5lovelanguages.com/assessments/personal-profiles/?profiletype=husbands

Take the test and then read the book! You can thank me later :)

Weekend

On Friday, Hans and I took ourselves to Five Guys! So good! They serve Hamburgers and Hot dogs, and you can pick anything you want to put on them… love it!

While you are waiting, you can eat peanuts

Hans thinks it is so cool when people circle things on the receipt with their fingernail….. I don’t see the point in it, but he had to try it out himself.

 

Funny guy. Here is our food.

Yum!

After we ate we went to a movie in the “Bengal theater” It is the theater at ISU. So cheap! It is only 2 dollars if you aren’t a student and free if you are! The popcorn and snacks are really cheap too. It was great!

Yesterday we went to the temple and dinner with our friends from the ward… it was fun!

In other news, Hans got his hair cut, a very good thing :)

And we are happy as can be :)

Frugal Living

We got a really good deal on this stuff at Walgreens!

I LOVE the Venus razors, but they are usually pretty expensive. Well.. they had  a good sale at Walgreens on them AND I had a coupon, so, of course, I had to snatch that deal up!

OK guys, lets see if you can keep up with this math ;)

They were 8 dollars

when you bought one, a coupon printed for 4 dollars off your next purchase.

Which technically made them only 4 dollars.

caught up?

ok, well I had a 5 dollar off one Venus razor coupon.

So, they rang up at 8 dollars… minus my 5 dollar coupon ……means that I paid 3 dollars for the razor…

And I got 4 dollars off my next purchase!

so….. I MADE 1 dollar!

So hopefully you caught all of that… If not, I’ll just tell you that I did similar things for the other items pictured.. and the valentines things were 75% off… 

So for all of that stuff we paid about $4.50 and we got a coupon that printed for 4 dollars off our next purchase… so there you go!

yes I did get temporary tattoos.. I like them :)

I still don’t understand why in the world you would want to go somewhere and get a REAL tattoo? The whole concept of a permanent marking on your skin for the rest of your life doesn’t make ANY sense to me.

Hans wanted to get the warheads…. He has childhood memories of them

So we both have had some, and last night I was wondering what the ingredients are  that make them SO sour…?

So my good friend Google helped me out…. I found some pretty funny things. Here is what one person said:

“ This is funny because i had a friend that had 15, yes 15, at once. His tongue went numb and he had to be rushed to the ER to get his stomach pumped.”

Another person also said:

“I think this is true. One of my best friends knows someone (and they were there) who had three at the same time. After a while, their tongue actually started to bleed. The acid in the Warhead ad deteriorated their tongue enough to make it bleed.”

Of course a bunch of people commented after these little stories and basically said these people were lying, and that there is no way that could happen..

Hahaha! In case you are wondering….. The ingredients are sugar, corn syrup, malic acid (found in apples), citric acid, and absorbic acid (vitamin c)…..

Crazy people. Oh, the internet.

Long Week

What a long week for us!

After having a very long weekend, we were really thrown back into the swing of things…. full force!

I was called on Tuesday morning to come into work, to work for someone. While I was at work, the girl I was working with got really sick and had to leave right then! That day, I worked almost 12 hours.

The next day I came in to work for the girl who got sick, and I worked yet another 12 hours. Again the next day I came in and worked 12 hours again!

3   12 hour days in a row!

Truth be told, it wasn’t actually that bad. Hans was so kind to bring me lunch AND dinner everyday! part of the reason for that is that he went to school to work on research hours (right across the street), and I normally don’t get very many breaks at work to eat since it is WAY too busy….

I did have some fun at work though.. here is the evidence:

I would explain this, but I think I’m just going to leave it up to your imagination!

Well, after working so much I have gotten myself a cold…. I’m just hoping that it doesn’t turn into that nasty flu my coworker had!

I have also decided that I need to take joy in the fact that I am providing financially for us. This will probably be one of the only times in my life that I will be bringing in more money than Hans!

In other good news, it looks like I’ll be able to get my job back after Hans’ internship, and although we could get by without it, it is still a big blessing!

We did some grocery shopping yesterday! yay! The best part is opening our refrigerator and seeing this:

Well, now that you have an intimate view on our life…. I’m just going to tell you that we are SO ready for this:

And this:

Summer hurry!

Oh, and I found this picture of me trying on my moms wedding dress when Hans and I were engaged

We used the lace and beads on it for my dress:

Random things from the past I guess!

Cold weather doesn’t usually bother me…. but lets keep thinking SUN! Think sun! It will come eventually I promise!

A Little Trip

Yesterday we made a trip to Rexburg!

Hans’ cousin Becca and her husband Brad just had a baby on Thursday, so we decided to go see them and the baby. It was nice that we didn’t have school or work on Monday so we were able to make a trip out of it!

It was so good to see the baby and them! Even though we don’t live close to much family, we do have some around that we can go visit :)

Here are some pictures:

 

 

aren’t the “moms” so beautiful?

It was too bad we didn’t get to see Brad because he was at work! But their baby boy they named “William Curtice” (I think that’s how you spell it) is so tiny and so cute! We love him, and them :)

After we visited them, we decided to stop by and say hi to some other friends/family! We Said hi to my cousin Emily and her husband Mike, and I got to spend some time with my really good friend Alisha, which was so nice!

We also hung out with Sarah and Jaren for a while! We went to Craigos for some pizza and then we played some games.

Here are pictures of that

Haha. We had a really good time. It is so nice to catch up with friends and family! And especially good to see that cute little baby :)

I’m not THAT young

Ok so I thought some of these stories would make you smile… and maybe even giggle a little.

Due to my wonderful genes… I have always looked younger than I actually am. I usually act like that bothers me, but in reality it is a good compliment, and I like it! at times it has been frustrating and maybe a little embarrassing to me. So, with all of that said, I would like to share some stories with you.

#1

I walked into a restaurant with my parents, Hans, and President and Sis Todd (good family friends). We are all adults, but the girl seating us looked at me and said “how many kids menus do you need?” Mind you, this was only about a month ago.

Now.. I’m probably just looking into it too much, it’s probably just something automatic that she says, but I’m still lead to wonder….

#2

I walked into the temple with Hans and my family, they automatically looked at me and asked if I was there to do baptisms. Ok, now that may be a given since they probably didn’t know I was married to the man standing next to me. I tried to flash my ring around, but still she asked my husband if he was endowed and didn’t even bother to ask me… haha.

#3

On our way to California Hans and I picked up our niece Julia, and she rode with us there. In the middle of the trip she said “Aunt Stephanie? Are you a grown up? You look too small to be a grown up.” ……. HAHA. You know how honest kids can be!

Ok, what really made me think of all these things was a story Hans told me today that we both thought was hilarious! So that brings me to…

#4

Hans was sitting in class, when a girl behind him saw this picture on his screen saver:

She asked “Is that your Daughter?”

bahahaha! The guy behind her busted up laughing and said “how old do you think he is?” and Hans said “ No, that’s my WIFE.”

The girl was Chinese and asked “Is that bad that I asked that?”

he said “No, it’s just funny, she’s cute isn’t she?”

eh, I’m used to things like this now. And I know that when I get older I’m going to be even more grateful than I am now that I look younger than I actually am.

I can’t even count how many times I have been told things like “oh, you have to be 18 or older to do this” or something of the sort. The truth is, my looks/ body type  haven’t changed much since I was about 14!

I’m about 14/15 in these pictures

This was taken in 2006 when I was 16

still 16 here

I added that one in because it is a good memory!

So, I’ll be 21 in about a month, and you can probably tell that I am younger in those pictures, but not by THAT much!

I DID get married at 19, but I am almost 21 now, and there hasn’t been much change!

Lets compare:

14/15

Now

hm, I guess I’ve changed a little, you know, different hairstyle, maybe I was a little more tan when I was younger, but you would think 8 years would make more of a difference?

Anyways, all of that wasn’t really necessary, but now you know a little more about me! :)

Celebrating LOVE

We will take any reason to celebrate!

The last 2 days have been fun for us.

Monday was Valentines day and Tuesday was our 1 year 6 month anniversary. It may seem a little odd that we are celebrating at the 6 month mark, but like I said… we will take any reason to celebrate!

So, last year for valentines day we made a steak dinner at home and we watched Pride and Prejudice. This year, we decided we wanted to make a tradition of that and do it every year.

Sadly, we weren’t able to find Pride and Prejudice (last minute) So we watched The Curious Case of  Benjamin Button… a very odd movie. But we still had a steak dinner!

This was LAST year..

And this is THIS year

Last year, for our 6 month anniversary ( I guess it wasn’t really an anniversary) We went to dinner at Applebee’s and we went to a movie. Of course, we wanted to do that again this year, so we did! Minus the movie.

Here we are at Applebee’s!

YUM!

The reason we didn’t go to a movie was because I had to work that night, and there aren’t any good movies out, lame!

On Monday we also got some new Wii games in the mail! We have a 14 day free trail of 2 games that we have been wanting to buy, but we didn’t want to spend the money. Well, now we are probably going  to buy them because they are so fun! I guess we got pulled into the trap :)

This week so far is going great! I only have to work 2 days, which is a great break for me, Hans has some days off from school, we have been able to celebrate some fun things, and this weekend we have some more fun things planned!

 

 

On a side note: I have decided to stop watching CSI because it gives me nightmares. ha.

Update

Last week I worked A LOT… again. I worked 12 hours on Monday, and about 8 each of the rest of the days.

So… this weekend has been great! A nice break.

On Friday Hans was gone all day with the car, and I was waiting for him to get home, so when he did… of  course I was ready to get out and go do something. He, on the other hand…. wanted to stay home because he had been out all day…. story of our life.

So. We compromised and got Chili’s to go!

We had a gift card to Chili’s, and there is one just down the street so it was great!

 

Yum!

We really need a new camera… a nice one preferably… We both have one of our own and they are terrible quality pictures! My Birthday is coming up…. who knows! Maybe I’ll get one then (ok probably not, but I can dream right?).

On Saturday we worked on our talks and did a little shopping, and just hung out at home!

Yesterday we gave our talks… ah! I was SO nervous, and Hans was too :) They went really well. We talked about putting Christ and Heavenly Father first in our lives. I am just so glad it is over! Now I can start getting nervous about us singing in sacrament next Sunday….

We made some Valentines cupcakes together yesterday

We also had some friends over last night to play games…. sorry no pictures. That was a lot of fun :)

Today is Valentines day and tomorrow is our 1 year 6 month anniversary! We have some fun things planned :)

Life is good.

Adventure

The summer is a time for fun and laughter right?!

That has been true for us!

We go to family reunions in the summer, take some trips to the beach, we’ve gone to Disneyland, and traveled to the most important places in church history,….. we even got married in the summer!

Well….. this summer it looks like we are going to be taking ourselves to Washington D.C.!

Hans accepted the offer to an internship in Washington D.C.

What an adventure this will be for us!

So… at the beginning of May, we are packing  up all the we can fit into our little car… and we are heading to D.C.!

I guess right now it’s time for me to shop for one of those ridiculously priced apartments in D.C……

Week

This week was full for us, but once the weekend came, we didn’t do much of anything which has been great!

Hans had 2 interviews for internships this week. One would be in D.C. and the other would be in Virginia.

The good news is… he got an offer for one! They are still trying to figure out pay and such… and we are left to decide between the 2. I guess we’ll see!

This week I worked, and couponed… Hans did homework and studied, probably the same things we’ll be doing next week!

We give talks next week and then we are singing in church the week after… so come visit us! No. Really. Come visit us please! I need some friends to hang out with!

Coupons, Coupons, and More Coupons!

Today Hans came along with me to do some serious shopping.

I have become pretty good at couponing in the last month or so. Let me just tell you…. you can save SO much once you know how to do it!

I print coupons off online, and I get the Sunday paper. The Sunday paper has coupon inserts, and all of the adds from the stores from around town. The key is to use coupons on the things that are on sale in the ads… sometimes you can get things for free or close to free at least!

So here is what we got at our latest coupon trip.

How much for all of this?      6 Dollars!!

I’m not lying to you!!!

This includes:

Eggs, Tyson anytizers, peanut butter M&Ms, regular M&Ms, Reeses pieces, york pieces, a bag of Ranch Doritos, 4 cans of Campbell’s chunky soup, 2 bottles of Teriyaki sauce, Degree deodorant, dove body wash, 4 packages of Stayfree  pads, 2 Reeses mini bites, 2 packages of Butterfinger Snackers, Pain relief gel, a package of 12 post- it notes, 2 packages of hot dogs, one bag of Tostinos tortilla chips, and 2 frozen Stoffer entres.

WHAT?? I know! I can’t even believe it myself!

This is so worth the time I have spent clipping coupons and looking up good deals.

Oh, and I forgot to add….. I still have 6 dollars off my next purchase at Walgreens!! I guess that makes this all FREE! haha.

I got all of these things at Albertsons and at Walgreens oh and Staples (for the post its). These places do have high prices, but they also can have some really good deals.  The reason I got a bunch of things at Albertsons for free is because Albertsons doubles coupons (up to one dollar) every so often.

For instance the teriyaki sauce was 1.79 but I had a coupon for 1 dollar off of it. AND if I bought two of them, a coupon would print off at the register for 1.50 off my next purchase! SO…. If I doubled the coupon I had (one for each sauce) that would make it 2 dollars off of 1.79 PLUS it got me 1. 50 off my next purchase! So I actually MADE money off of them!

I don’t know if that made any sense….. but

We got some crazy good deals!

HI HO, HI HO

It’s off to WORK I go!

This work week has been a long one for me.

I have been called in to work early almost every day. At first it was gladly accepted. But by today I realized that I was expecting a call from work with either a question or to come in early. I was thinking … please don’t call, please don’t call…

Of course the hours are gladly accepted, so If they ask me to come in early I always accept.

For instance Hans and I were going to go help out/ give blood at the red cross blood drive this week, but we didn’t go because I got called in to work and I said yes…. (Hans was very happy he didn’t have to give blood)

Needless to say, I still like my job and the people I work with.

This week has just  pushed me way outside my comfort zone, and even though that is not fun, I know it is good for me.

I gave a lot of shots, talked to a lot of pharmacies, took a lot of blood pressures, scheduled a lot of appointments, and most importantly…. cleaned a lot of vaginal speculums…. ( yes I did just say that )

So…. I like my job, it’s good for me. But working is still not the most enjoyable thing, and I have begun to realize that I’m glad that I’m not planning on being the one who works to provide for our family for the rest of our life.

Hallelujah for the weekend.