End of October

We went to a Murder Mystery party the night before Halloween and it was so fun! Everyone was so in to it and acted the part. I definitely recommend it to anyone. I was the ex-wife and business partner of the man who was murdered, and Brandon was the lawyer of the man murdered. My friend Shara was the current wife and widow of the man who was murdered. So we were supposed to hate each other in the game. It was rad:)





We carved a pumpkin! It was more like me supporting Brandon pretty much. He carved the pumpkin and I helped clean it out some, but mostly I just watched. I really hope everyone can tell who it is! It is Dwight Schrute from the Office!


We went to the Spanish Fork hot pots one night because we have been told that it was super fun. I must have gone to different hot pots, because after my experience, I will never go back again! We had to drive 30 minutes to get to the parking lot, then the hike up to the pots was an hour and a half. We got to the hot pots only to find some gay nudists in one of the pots. Needless to say, it was not as nice of an experience as we thought it would be. However, the hike up was beautiful. The leaves were falling and the colors were amazing.


October came and went, and now on to November!

DISNEYLAND!!!

Brandon had his fall break last weekend so I begged him to take me to Disneyland as an early birthday present (might as well when we get in for free). It was amazing. Here are the pictures :)




I don't know why he is a ghost in this picture.

Autopia! Not as fun when you are older, fyi.

I like how happy B looks in this pic.
Chillin' in the smoke on Pirates.






Space Mountain got a nasty monster without flesh added to the ride for Halloween. Bad move, Disney. Bad move.

Haunted Mansion changed for Halloween to Nightmare Before Christmas.


Thunder Mountain!
This is right when we turned a sharp corner and Brandon hurt my lady parts!

We got to hang out with our friends Mark and Kaylinn Morrell all day Saturday and it was so fun.

Brandon looks so excited.

So we like to hide army men in the park. It is a tradition I learned from friends I went with about 5 years ago. Now B and I do it together. It is our favorite part of going to Disney. We like to see if they are still there:) I placed an army man in Disneyland 5 years ago that is still there!! And we found 6 out of 7 that we hid in February:) Here are 2 of them.



Friday was a blackout day for employees so we decided to go to the beach. It was perfect weather and so relaxing. Just what we needed.




That is it! I already need another vacation...

Ground Hog Day

Have you ever felt like you do the exact same thing every single day? I wake up, go to work at 7:30 am, review loan packages and files all day, get completely swamped that I don't even have time to eat lunch, leave work around 7 pm, drive home, make or buy something to eat that is fast, do chores around the house or run errands, then go to bed at 10 pm and wake up to do the same thing over again. I am getting really sick of doing the same thing! I don't know how people have the same job for 30 years, doing the exact same thing EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Brandon is always doing homework. So I spend the weekdays alone when I get off work. I made him promise me that he will spend Saturdays with me. Well this is really only Saturdays from 4 pm to 10 pm because he does homework until 4. And we often have something going on on Saturdays (family events, church events, friend get togethers, etc), so it isn't always "our" day.

I miss Brandon! I miss being able to go to bed at the same time. I miss being able to rent a movie and cuddle up on the couch. I miss being able to cook him dinner every night. I am so sick of being so busy! But most of all I am sick of Brandon being in school!

Here are a few pictures of things lately:

Brandon decorated my closet for me:) I didn't take it down for 4 days. It was very hard to get clothes out of my closet!

Dinner with all of Brandon's old roommates (+ 3 wives).

The kitties LOVE going outside. They sneek outside the second the door opens. I let them play in the tree.

Sniper found a cigarette butt. And he loved it! hahaha.

Yep. That is it.

Catch-Up

So I have been a little busy with work lately that I haven't had the time to update the blog. So here is the catch-up post! There is a lot so beware.

-----------------------------------------------
Brandon started school and I got a new position at work. I am working about 60 hours a week and Brandon is taking 19 credits plus working. So you can probably guess that we don't see much of each other. All I can say is I can't wait until this semester ends:)

A big event that has happened is we moved to American Fork! I love not living in the Provo/Orem bubble. I also love how my commute is ONLY 10 minutes.

This was our apartment when we moved in. You can't really tell, but it was a nightmare (I broke the blinds the first day).
This is it now. Can you see the cat tails in the window?! All I can say is they love it here. They can look out the windows and even go outside! Yesterday they turned 1 years old! So I gave them tuna and let them go outside for the day. Good birthday for the cats!
So when we moved in, I found out I was allergic to something in our apartment. I couldn't figure out what it was. I had to take sleeping pills to get through the night. So I finally vacuumed after all the boxes were gone, and this is what the vacuum got from one room! Disgusting huh? So yeah, we got the carpets cleaned and I have not had ANY problems since. Amazing huh?
Another big event is Brandon cut his hair! I am not gonna lie, I miss it. But I love his hair this length.

(He messed it up right before he cut it)

We had my Mom's side family reunion at Signal Mountain (on Jackson Lake in Wyoming). It was very short, but so good to be there! Last year Brandon and I missed out on the family reunion because it was the day after our wedding. So this was our first together:)

The whole Moss clan

It is a tradition in our family to swim across the lake, and my Grandpa pays us $100 to do it!! It is a mile across and it is freezing! But we did it. It was Brandon's first time and I am so so proud of him! My little sister got first and I got second. I tried to keep up with her but she was just way too fast for me! It is also a tradition to run back to the room and jump in the warm tub!
So I think I need to tell you all that Brandon is an amazing photographer. You have seen some of his stuff before. But check these out.

My family in Jackson Hole.

We got square ice cream cones on our way home!The next weekend we went up to Ashton Idaho for the Marcum reunion.

We had a talent night. Our friend Austin taught us how to country dance so we decided to share it with the family! This was our first time ever doing it all the way through. We were exhausted!!!
Niece and Nephews' talent costumes!
We went up to Mesa Falls during the reunion.
And we went 4 wheeling. We also went tubing down the river but I don't have any pictures of that.
We sang to Brandon for his birthday.
The Marcum reunion ended on the morning of our 1 year anniversary, so we decided to drive up to Yellowstone to spend some quality time together.


It was a lot of driving. Can you tell?!













Brandon's birthday is the same day as our anniversary, so we went to dinner to celebrate. We asked if they did anything for birthdays and they brought him about 2 pounds of chocolate pudding! It was perfect.
Over Labor Day weekend, we flew to Colorado to visit my family. We hadn't been to Colorado since Christmas, so this was much needed. I got food poisoning the day we flew out there, so I was not in the mood to fly. Turns out, we were late for our flight and had to take a standby flight to L.A. then to Denver, arriving around 1 am. It was an adventure for sure.

We went to Water World and it was perfect! It was Brandon's first time there.

My little sister turned 16 so we celebrated her birthday while we were there!


We took Brandon to his first major league baseball game! We sat 4 rows behind the Rockies dugout. It was amazing.
Our nephew Jordan got his mission call to Tulsa Oklahoma. We went with him through the temple to take out his endowments in Ogden.

I got together with all my old roommates/girlfriends. This is the first time in probably a year, so it was amazing!
I think some of you will make fun of me for this one. I drove by a billboard one day that said "now hiring." I obvously don't need a job, but the place was the thing that interested me. I talked to my friend Shara, and we decided to do it! Well on Friday night I worked at a Haunted House as a MONSTER!! It was super long and really really hot, but seriously I don't think I have laughed so much in 5 hours ever! These are the costumes they gave us!
This is Shara and I after. Our makeup was kinda ruined.
Pretty nasty huh?!
So Brandon and I did something that I seriously will remember for the rest of my life! We rented segways at Thanksgiving Point gardens and rode them around for an hour. That was the funnest thing I have done in a really long time. I wish I could buy one. In fact when we got home, we looked it up to see how much they are. But $6,000 just seems a little out of our budget. I now have a lot of respect for Paul Blart in Mall Cop!

Brandon Turns 28

Today is my husband's 28th birthday. He is pretty amazing and I want to let him know how amazing I truly think he is.

So here are 28 reasons why I love Brandon David Marcum.

1. He surprised me with a kitty on my birthday even though he has never liked cats.

2. He fell in love with the kitty that he first picked out, so we ended up getting 2 kitties.

3. He is an amazing dancer.

4. He can make me laugh, even when I am in a bad mood.

5. He doesn't like cuddling, but he is willing to cuddle with me every night just to make me happy.

6. He tells me that I am beautiful all the time.

7. He tells me he loves me regularly.

8. He learned how to country dance because he knows how much it means to me.

9. He lets me travel to Disney World to keep my seasonal status.

10. He tells me thank you after every meal I make for him and he is always willing to eat my new experiments.

11. He loves my family almost as much as I do.

12. He stares at the kids in church probably more often than the speaker and is completely in love with them by the end of the meeting.

13. He is great with kids and will be an amazing father some day.

14. He is passionate about the church and is always trying to be a better person.

15. He just sits and listens when I come home and I tell him EVERY detail of my day.

16. He never complains about how frugal I am.

17. He loves to be in the water, by the water, on the water, and near the water. Always.

18. He speaks with a very adorable, higher voice when he speaks to the kitties.

19. He makes the bed EVERY day without me asking.

20. He comes from an amazing family and he would do anything for them.

21. He is a very talented artist.

22. He doesn't complain when I take a picture of every single thing that occurs in our lives.

23. He is my garbage disposal.

24. He is getting his degree and is completely motivated to do it.

25. When I get cold, he wraps his arms completely around me to try to keep me warm.

26. He is a softy and quite sensitive.

27. He worries about me when I don't come home on time and actually goes out driving around looking for me.

28. He loves me.


Thanks for an amazing first year of marriage Hubby!

July Wrap-Up

We have had fun in July! We stayed here with no vacations, so we made our own! We went camping 2 weekends in a row and Brandon went 3 weekends in a row! Our friends Brit and Travis took us to the Uintas to camp and fish the first weekend.

So we took my friend Kenna and her dog Adah the following weekend and found the most amazing campsite ever.

What are they looking at?!

Brandon taught me how to use our fancy camera. I am just starting and just experimenting, but I am proud of myself!

Kenna and I started the fire! We are super proud of ourselves!

Adah didn't leave Brandon's side the entire time.

We also went to my friend Jessica's wedding. She married Bryan Kehl, of the New York Giants. It was the nicest and fanciest wedding I have ever been to.

We have been mini-golfing, on double dates, bike riding, fishing, birthday parties, and to Seven Peaks. It was been fun!

Mini Golf.

I gave Brandon a ponytail! His hair is getting pretty long!
Seven Peaks. My husband tells me it is cool to wear jerseys.

Advice Please

So we sadly found out last week that Brandon is not set to graduate in December like we thought. Instead he has 3 semesters left and will hopefully graduate next summer (I will hurt his counselor if she messes it up again!).

This has changed things for us and has set us back in creating "our lives together." Vacations will be postponed since school is so cheap and all.. and the baby plans will have to wait for a while longer.

We have been super bummed for a week... but after a nice session at the Salt Lake temple, we decided that the Lord obviously knows what is right for us and knows that this is necessary in our lives right now. He knows a lot more than we do.

With this, we are trying to find a new place to live (that allows animals) so we don't have to hide our cats anymore.

And I am also looking for some advice. Brandon will be on his computer all day EVERY day for the next year. Since I am not in school anymore, I have nothing to do at night. I will be so BORED!

So I need your advice please... I want to pick up a hobby. Maybe start reading. But I have never enjoyed reading in my life until the Twilight series. So I need a suggestion for a good book. Maybe a romance novel... but a PG one? Or should I pick up a different hobby? We don't have TV, so I can't start watching a show. And crocheting can only entertain me for so long. I would like to learn to play the piano, but I am too poor to pay for lessons. ANY ADVICE???

11 months down...

... and one more to go. It is so crazy to me that it has only been 11 months. I feel so comfortable with Brandon and feel like I know him so well. The past 11 months have been incredible. Since it was our last month to be able to celebrate on a monthly basis, we decided to celebrate the anniversary. After this, it will always be annual anniversaries (which is not enough by the way!).

We had a softball game on the actual anniversary(Wednesday) so we celebrated Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday!

Brandon got me flowers! And wrote me a very sweet note that I hung up at my desk at work.

We went to eat at Cafe Rio (to use a free meal coupon) and went to Tomasso's afterwards for dessert (to use a buy one get one free coupon!) Tomasso's is in the Riverwoods and has tons of flavors of italian ice! We then went on a walk around Riverwoods and enjoyed the weather.
The next night we cooked dinner on our grill that my parents got Brandon
We went and played in our softball tournament.
These are the girls I work with! I love them so much!
After the game we went to Sonic and used another coupon for a 99 cent Chiller!

*copy and paste the link below to get the coupon!*
http://www.sonicdrivein.com/prmtns/2009/chiller/index.jsp

Thursday we made an awesome meal that our friend Matt Stanley made in Bear Lake. It is so good! I swear. Here are the details.

Put in a crock pot:
2 chicken breasts (I put them in frozen)
potatoes
carrots
cream of chicken soup (I use 1 can)
ranch dressing
diet coke or dr. pepper
seasoning and salt to taste
*this is all up to you. Put as much of everything as you want. Put it all in the pot on low heat for about 6-8 hours. Shred the chicken before serving.

We then went on a bike ride. I haven't had a bike since I was in 6th grade and I have really wanted one! So my parents gave me one of their old bikes and I love it!
We decided to ride to Sub Zero (that way we didn't feel as bad about eating ice cream, right?!) and we used another free coupon we had.

(We are trying to save money for many bills we need to pay in the next month. Can you tell?! We live by coupons!)

And lastly...
I LOVE BEING MARRIED!!!

Wild Birds Set Free

So this has been one of my favorite quotes for a while and I believe it is so true.

“Maybe some women aren't meant
to be tamed. Maybe they just
need to run free 'till they
find someone just as
wild to run with.”

So yeah my husband is pretty awesome. He is just as wild as I am and loves to just get up and go with me. He loves to travel like I do and understands that you need a vacation from a vacation!

2 weeks ago we went to Bear Lake with all of Brandon's college roommates and their wives/ girlfriends/ bad A friends that are girls. We had tons of fun. We went boating, tubing, wakeboarding, played games around the campfire, made tinfoil dinners, slept in tents, got dirty, went 5 days without showering, and it was awesome!

Unfortunately it was a bit stressful for Brandon and I since he planned it and we had some issues with the borrowed truck and the borrowed boat we brought. So we ended up turning around 24 hours after we got home and headed to Lake Powell! This was exactly what we needed. A vacation where we weren't in charge and weren't borrowing any expensive motor vehicles. We ate like kings and queens, slept under the stars, danced, played games, played happy and sad, played in the water for 5 days straight, and built some lifetime (hopefully!) friendships.

And thankfully we came home injury free (If anyone remembers, we went to Powell last summer, 2 weeks before our wedding with the same group and came home with massive bruises.. mine covered 5 inches around on my left arm and Brandon got a bad black eye)

And I feel like I am still on a boat. Once in a while, I feel like a big wave comes and it knocks me over. It is pretty funny.

Check out our awesome pictures.
Oh and beware. Camping means no make up or shower, so I am a little nasty in these pictures.

Lake Powell
Our GroupOur houseboatI caught my first fish in Lake Powell! It was a catfish. He was very squirmy and I felt bad for him. So I decided to let him go.

People surfed with 3 people on the board!

And did cool tricks like these.
Girls rule!They taught us how to tandem surf!This is me last year with the guy who taught us how to tandem. I got on his shoulders!Brandon is good.
I suck
We had a talent night. All the girls on the boat made up a dance. I couldn't stop laughing.
Our friend Jake made shirts for everyone on the boat.
On our way there we took a tour of the Dam. It is huge! 350 feet thick!

Now for Bear Lake.
This is us at Costco buying the food for 25 people.
Our campsite. it looks a lot smaller without all the tents and such.Group shot. Minus a few. Girls ruleBoys droolBoys like to wear short shorts.I am apparently really bad at putting sunscreen on Brandon. I guess we will never be using spray sunscreen again.Tin foil dinners.The "Ahhhh I'm Chon" gameGirls buried Dan and Levi
So we came home after Lake Powell, and found the bagels from Bear Lake that we simply just left on our kitchen counter. Look appetizing to anyone?(That is all mold by the way)

That is all.

SUMMA TIME!!!

Summer is awesome. The warm weather makes me really happy. But it also makes me anxious for activities! I can't wait to live where it is summer all year long!
So lately...

We have been enjoying the outdoors. Outdoor concerts, games, activities, restaurant patios, and snow shacks!
We got a free one because they messed up our order!

This is our softball field we play on with my co-workers (right after it rained and our game was canceled). Ghetto maybe? We have one game left until the post-season tournament. We have a winning record so that's good at least right?!


For those of you who actually listen to the music on my blog (not those that scroll down as fast as they can to turn it off before they begin reading the blog), you will appreciate this. We met Mindy Gledhill. She did a free concert a few weeks ago and I LOVED IT!

I went to the Orem Owlz game with my friend Danee. The best part = the kids at the game.
For Father's Day, my parents got Brandon a grill! "He is a potential father," is the reason they gave me... but some odd reason, they forgot I am a potential mother? :) My cousin Rachel got married! So my family came out and all my relatives came down to Utah for the weekend! This equals happiness for me.
Cousins with Brandon

Girl cousins
Of course we had to go to Iceberg while they were here!
Me and Amber
We just left Zupas having a HUGE lunch. We had to stop at Target to get a Father's Day card. My Dad disappears and I can't find him. I start to search. 10 minutes later he comes with 2 bags of popcorn for him and Brandon. My Dad and my husband are literally OBSESSED with popcorn. Advice anyone?!
And now...
So I have been in denial of this amazing creation for a while. I told myself it was ugly and dumb. But it is time people. Time to admit to myself how amazing it truly is. Plus, I needed it. So without further a due, please say hello to the newest member of our home.
My Snuggie.
I love it.
Brandon says it is cheap and not worth the money. I say it is amazing. I slept in it all night last night.