An Update of Sorts.

My blog called, and it feels neglected. I guess it's my fault, but we have been sooooo busy that I honestly forgot that I had this blog thingy to update. I guess I'll take this time to back track a little bit and let you all in on the chaos that has been our lives since Thanksgiving. The day before Thanksgiving to be exact...

It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Mark's parents were in town and took us to Brick Oven to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday. On the way home I started having stabbing pains in my stomach that lasted for about 2 hours. Not fun. Unfortunately these pains continued to come back whenever I ate during Thanksgiving weekend, and on the following Monday Mark took me to the doctor. She mentioned that it could be a gall bladder problem and ordered an ultrasound for the next day.

One painful ultrasound later, and I was being referred to a surgeon since they found possible stones in my gall bladder. Not good news to hear.

That Friday I met with a surgeon who said that it needed to come out. We scheduled the surgery for the following week and hoped that the recovery would be quick, because I would be having surgery on Friday the 10th (a reading day to prepare for finals), then finals would be the week after (the 13th-17th) and my little sister was getting married on the 18th. Talk about bad timing. But I wanted it out then, rather than waiting until January and being in lots of pain in the meantime.

The surgery went well, even though I was still in quite a bit of pain for the next week, and I still feel some pain at one of the incisions when I sit in weird positions. I luckily got through my finals for the most part, and did a lot better than I thought I would, with the exception of one class that I'll have to finish next semester.

So that's the story of the evil gall bladder. Thankfully he's out of my life, and not wreaking havoc on my body anymore. I even have a picture of him so that I can remember this time of my life forever. Sweet, huh?

We also made it down to Arizona for my sister's wedding. It was so sweet, and I'm so happy that she's happy and married. Unfortunately I can't get pictures from my camera until we get back to Utah, so this post will be pictureless, but my sister looked gorgeous.

Mark and I are still in Arizona until the 2nd of January. We both feel awfully spoiled since we get to hang out in shorts and t-shirts and don't have to worry about bundling up before going outside. It's the best feeling ever. We also got to see my new nephew Kendall, who was born on December 13th. Pictures will be coming soon because he is the most darling baby with tons of dark black hair...he has more hair than Mark, I think, and it's definitely softer than his too. Just don't tell him that or I will deny it.

We've been spending lots of time with my family, and it's been great having everyone together, since we haven't been together since our wedding back in May. We've been playing lots of games and seeing lots of movies. Christmas Eve was especially sweet, as we put on a family "talent show" of sorts. Songs were sung and stories were read, and I think most everyone had tears in their eyes by the end. I think it was by far my favorite Christmas Eve talent show to date. My mom also surprised each of us on Christmas morning with a box full of our grade school memories. We had all of our school pictures from each year of school, all of our report cards since kindergarten, and other projects that we did in school. It was so fun to show Mark all of my school memories, and I guess it took my mom months to sort through and organize all of those memories for each of us college kids. Thanks, mom!

Now we get to relax and enjoy our last week of freedom before school starts again and life gets super crazy. My mom bought a canner and started canning a lot, so she's going to teach me how to can and we're going to work on some sewing projects together, which I'm quite excited about. Pictures will most definitely come once we get back to the land of freezing snow, which, right now, I'm not so excited about. If we could just stay here and open up our own Bahama Bucks instead of going back up to school, then we'd both be really happy. Really happy.

But, I guess after the past week that we've had and all the time we've been spending with family, I guess I could say that we're really happy right now. Really happy.

I'll be happier when...

I've always been taught not to put conditions upon my happiness. Before I was married I always heard the age-old example "Never say to yourself: 'I'll be happy once I get married' or 'I'll be happy once (insert whatever dream or wish you want to come true here).' You can choose to be happy now." I'm only giving this as an example though...I wasn't one to walk around advertising my un-happiness because I wasn't married, and I felt that I could choose to be happy whatever my circumstances were.

However...today is one of those days when I really believe that I will be truly and completely happier in 1 week when I turn in a 12 page English research paper and an 8 page Italian research paper. And then the happiness will continue to come 2 weeks after than when I turn in yet another 8 page research paper.

Until then, my homework will keep beating me senseless and I will keep wondering why I didn't drop out of BYU 8 semesters ago and go to culinary school. Or move to Italy. Or both.

I didn't mean for that to be a rant on how unhappy I am right now...I'm just hating on school these days. In fact, I am so completely happy right now, I could burst. Life is so good, and I have an endless amount of things to be grateful for right now, the first being my awesome husband. I am so grateful that he believes in me and tells me that I can do anything if I set my mind to it (in fact, if it wasn't for him kicking me out of bed every morning and telling me to go to class, I probably wouldn't go). Here's an example of a conversation that actually occurs weekly in our home:

Me: I really really love my Personal & Family Finance class. I wish I had taken it earlier, because I really would have liked to have taken more Finance classes and maybe I could have studied accounting. That would have been cool.
Mark: Then do it! Get a second Bachelor's or a Master's in Accounting! You can still do it!

This is a conversation that happens all the time, except each time it's with a different career choice. Thanks for believing in me Mark.

Speaking of Mark, isn't he so cute, being a pro in the studio?


We had a blast in the studio that night, and I'll be sure to post his finish project once he finishes it. It was due today, but the entire computer/software technical thing that they use to record in the studio crashed, so the hard drive has to be sent to Portland in order to recover all of the studio sessions that Mark has done in there. Let's cross our fingers that it works and he can finish his project!

Oh, and Happy Veteran's Day! Being an American and the granddaughter of two Veterans, I am indeed grateful for those who fought and those who continue to fight to preserve our freedom. We are truly blessed.

Welcome Winter!

This is what we woke up to this morning:

I am sooooooo not ready for snow. And winter. And chilly walks to work.



But I am looking forward to:
*chocolate mint hot cocoa
*birthday shopping trip to Park City with my hubby
*wearing my scarves
*crocheting Mark a grey scarf
*my little sister's wedding in less than 2 months
*the end of this nightmare of a semester
*my last semester of school (Business Italian, First-year Spanish, and Cooking)
*April 22, 2011-the day when Mark and I get to don caps and gowns and graduate from BYU

Senioritis

Now that both Mark and I have received e-mails from BYU saying that our graduation applications have been accepted we both have senioritis. Badly. While Mark's case of senioritis may not be as crippling as mine, here's an example of my to-do list for school:

*write introduction to an 11-12 page paper for English

*read 7 chapters for Italian Lit class and answer study guide questions

*study for and take a Finance exam

*read an entire book and another chapter from a text book for an Italian History class

*write the 2 page conclusion to an 8 page Italian paper

All of these things are definitely due by Thursday (or earlier) and I may or may not be procrastinating all of them.

On a much more cooler note, this may have been mentioned earlier, but Mark has the coolest major that they offer at BYU. He's studying Sound Recording Technology. Even though he's been taking classes for over a year now, today is the day when he finally gets studio time to "lay down some tracks" and do some live recording for some song clones that he's working on. This week he's working on "Come Together" by The Beatles, and next week he'll be working on "Love the Way You Lie" by Eminem and Rhianna. I'm so excited for him and even though he's super nervous, I know he'll do a great job! I even get to help him fade all the tracks in "Come Together" since he doesn't have enough fingers to do it all himself!

And did I mention that he's been in contact with Capitol Records in LA and might get to intern in one of their studios this summer? I know, I know. I'm jealous of his major too.

One day...

This will be me, carting my children around in a Madsen cargo bike. But for now, I'm just dreaming of winning one! Click on the link and read about how you can win one too!

And I'm sorry for the obvious lack of posting. I am up to my eyeballs in research and annotated bibliographies for 3 different 10 page research papers. And midterms.

But as far as good news goes, we're hoping to catch the last of the fall foliage while it's at its peak...it'll be our last fall in Utah for a while, so this weekend is our last chance! Hopefully I'll be able to post some pics!

Colorado.

Blogger is being super lame right now and won't let me post all the photos that I have, so I'll have to post the rest of the photos of our trip later.

This past weekend myself, my husband and his younger sister Janae took a road trip to Colorado Springs, home of the Air Force Academy. One of Mark and Janae's aunts, Michelle, teaches at the Air Force Academy. Since BYU was playing Air Force in Colorado this year we thought it would be fun to go to the game and visit with Michelle and Uncle Andrew for a weekend and go to the game.

The drive was gorgeous and we got to see the changing leaves of the gorgeous Colorado aspens. Unfortunately I didn't any photos of the leaves, but just imagine the most beautiful changing leaves, and that's pretty much exactly what we saw.

Now for some pictures:

(This is Rain, one of our cousins)

(Mark, myself, and Janae)

(This is Uncle Andrew)
Did I mention that Andrew is a chef? In addition to visiting them for their coolness, we also got to eat the most delicious foods. We were also sent back to Utah with a bowl full of chili and a bag of homemade rolls. So delicious!

(Us at the BYU tailgate party before the game)

(This is another cousin-Tiernen)

We had a good time at the game, even though BYU lost big time. It was awesome to be at the stadium on September 11th and see all of the remembrance activities that took place there. There were many guests of honor and my heart swelled with pride as I watched the cadets march onto the field in their uniforms, their own hearts filled with pride and sacrifice as they serve their country. It was an awesome sight and definitely worth the drive to witness a game like that!

More pictures to come soon!

Meet Macky.

We are pleased to introduce the newest member of the Christenson Family!


His name is Macky and he came to our home last Wednesday! We already love him so very much.

We also apologize for the lack of posts lately...we started school last week so life is busy busy busy! But its coolness factor was multiplied by about 50 now that Macky has arrived.

Hopefully I'll be able to give you an update of our lives once we get back from a short vacation in Colorado next week. Until then, I'll congratulate my awesomely talented husband for being 1st chair alto sax in BYU's Wind Symphony!

Paper Soap

Flight 001 sells this awesome anti-bacterial soap made out of paper. You just add water and the paper dissolves in your hand! The company has all sorts of fantastic travel goodies--I want to plan a trip now just so that I can buy some of their products!

I'll Never Look At A Pencil The Same Way Again

Dalton Ghetti has been creating these miniature works of art for as long as I've been alive. I think it's amazing that he can carve these pencils without the use of a magnifying glass.

(Images via this website)

Overwhelmed

(Image via: hasvt.wordpress.com)

Is it possible to feel overwhelmed with school even though classes don't start for another week? I didn't think it was either until my Dante Professor e-mailed us the "Final Draft" of our 12 page syllabus.

But you must be asking yourself..."If that was the final draft, wasn't there a 'Rough Draft?'

Yes. Yes there was. She e-mailed that to us back in June.

I'm hoping that Dante Alighieri and I become fast friends or else I'm in for one heck of a semester.

Rewind

This weekend we:

• Introduced Snyder and her bf to Chipotle
• Dreamed about one day owning a cute little house as we walked in the neighborhood around Mark's childhood home
• Made a delicious chocolate malt cake (picture to come later)
• Got an amazing complement from Mark's dad about said cake
• Went to the Ogden Dinosaur Park and got chased around by some dinosaurs
• Taught our year old niece to say "Ally"...so cute!
• Ate these for the first time...so yummy! Mark's dad's BBQ'd steaks weren't so bad either.
• Took a look at Mark's old baseball hat and rock collections. And yes, I cringed when he pulled out an old San Antonio Spurs Championship hat.
  

• Dreaded coming back to Provo to start yet another work week. The last one before school begins. Bleh.
  

Saturdays

Now that Mark and I are both working full time we have come to love our Saturdays together. These past two have been jam-packed with fun activities and we have really enjoyed the homework free weekends!

Last Saturday we went to downtown Provo's Farmer's Market. In all the years of living in Provo neither of us had ever been to the market, and it was pretty fun! We left with some yummy produce, including these cute plums that were the size of cherry tomatoes!

This Saturday we decided to go on a hike to Stewart Falls, up the Provo Canyon. Unfortunately we left our camera at home, so we don't have any pictures, but it was a gorgeous hike! It was pretty difficult for me, but we did it! We didn't find out until later that we ended up taking the longer and more difficult route to the falls, but we still had fun. Both Mark and I resolved that we needed to do it again and bring our camera the next time. It was great to get out of Provo and enjoy the gorgeous mountains! And we had fun cooling off under the spray of the falls once we made it to the base of the falls!

We were also inspired by Food Network chef Ina Garten to make a greek-style lasagne called Pastisio for dinner tomorrow night. We had fun getting the ingredients for it, and we're excited to try out a new recipe!

We have both decided that weekends are the best. Hands down!

I Pretty Much Love My Job

Working in a Health Clinic that sevices 2500 young adults between the ages of 19-26 certainly brings me some laughs every now and again. Often we deal with a lot of sick missionaries who aren't from America and and so filling out a form in a language other than their own can be a pretty daunting task. One foreign male missionary gave us all a laugh the other day when he wrote that his problem/symptom was...

wait for it...

wait for it...

...morning sickness.

Summer Delight

I just tried some of this for the first time today. It is so delicious, and tastes like summer.

I am in love.

Project

I am in looooove with this necklace. But, unfortunately, I am a cheapskate. I do not want to spend the $38 (nor do I even have the $38) for one of these lovelies, so I am determined to make one myself. And depending on how that goes, I may make one in every color. Hopefully a new crafy obsession will find its way to my heart!

Catch Phrase

On Sunday night we played a rousing game of Catch Phrase with my mother, my younger brother Jake (who were visitng from Arizona), my sister Keri, and her husband Scott. We played boys vs. girls, and us girls definitely won more games than the boys, and we all had a blast! One particularly humorous round went a little something like this:

Jake: Ummmm, the guy who made the first car.

The Boys: Henry Ford?

Jake: Yeah, but his father...no wait...his son!

Mark: Harrison Ford?

Nice one, Mark. Come to find out the word was Gerald R. Ford.

What a Find!

10 years ago Rick Norsigian bought a case of 65 negatives at a garage sale for $45, thinking he was just getting a case of negatives of nature photos. Apparently these weren't just any old nature photos. After a 6 month examination of the negatives it has been determinted that these negatives are none other than the work of famed photographer Ansel Adams. The negatives were believed to have been destroyed in a fire in 1937.

And guess how much a collection of supposedly destroyed Ansel Adams negatives is worth these days?

200 Million dollars. Million.

Here's one of the recovered negatives. Adams' work is incredible:

I guess I need to be hitting up the garage sales more often.

Lovlies

We received these little lovlies in the mail on Monday, and I can't stop looking at them.

http://picasaweb.google.com/allysonmecham/MarkAllysonWedding

and for more of our photographer's awesomeness, here's his official site:

http://www.thisisnick.com/

Dreams Really Do Come True

Mark and I had a stellar weekend. I took an insane amount of pictures so that you can all see how much fun we really did have.

On Friday morning my co-worker offered Mark and I a couple of tickets to the Pioneer Day Commemoration Concert that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir puts on every year. I had never been before, and it gave us a chance to head up to Salt Lake to have some fun, so we accepted the tickets and planned to have a wonderful evening!

The evening started at Siegfried's in Salt Lake. They have delicious German food, and a German food market where we picked out some of our favorite Kinder and Ritter Sport chocolate that instantly reminded us of our favorite Italian memories.

(Mark and his Weinerschnitzel)

(Me with about to eat my German food)

After dinner we went to the concert. It was incredible! I highly recommend going if you ever get the chance.

After the concert we caved into our desire to see Inception so we caught a 10pm showing in downtown Salt Lake. The movie was so great! We definitely want to see it again, but we'll probably wait until it hits the dollar theater. Needless to say, we didn't get home until almost 1:30am, since we had to drive all the way back to Provo.

Saturday morning we went out to Lake Shore, a town about 30 minutes south of here and picked up a portable A/C unit! Our apartment doesn't have air conditioning, so it has been just about unbearable with the heat we've been experiencing lately. It has definitely been a welcome addition to our home! It has made such a difference and we love the cooler air!

After the A/C adventure and a lovely time at the temple we went to the Llama Fest! It was blazing hot outside, so we were sweating up a storm, but we had a great time! Now for the photo documentation:

(The Hare Krishna Temple, where they have a huge llama farm)

(Petting the llamas!)

(Mark and a llama)

(They're so cute! I love their eyelashes!)

(We ran into some mission friends while we were there)

(Getting ready for a Peruvian dance)

(They had people race the llamas)

(Taking a break from the heat inside the Temple. There were marble cut decorations inside. So beautiful.)

(There was a band inside singing "Hare Krishna")

(Some little girls started dancing to the music.)

(They had one baby llama on the farm. It was so adorable. Here it is, chilling with it's mom)

(A close-up of the cute baby)

(We cooled off with a little bit of Mango Lemonade before heading back to pet some more llamas)

(One of the llamas really wanted Mark's Mango Lemonade!)

(Right before we left this llama flashed us this happy smile!)

We had so much fun, I wish we had gone last year. Apparently this was the 16th Annual Llama Fest. And did you know that you can rent these cute guys to carry your stuff if you're going on a backpacking trip? I think having llamas on a backpacking trip would increase its coolness factor by at least 85%. At least.

I, for one, can't wait to start planning my backpacking trip.

Llama Fest

If you're in the Spanish Fork/Provo area and have always wanted to pet one of these:

You're in luck! The Hare Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork is having their 16th Annual Llama Fest tomorrow! I can hardly wait to get the chance to feed one of these little guys. They are so cute! I hope to get some pictures of all the llamas there and tell you all about our weekend on Monday!

Buon weekend!

Thank You BYU...

For creating something that has truly made my day and made me an even bigger fan of our already awesome library. I quite possibly may study there even more next semester. Maybe. I mean, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Happy Birthday Audrey!

On Saturday our niece Audrey turned 1 year old! We celebrated on Monday with a fun party at Mark's sister's & her husband's place. We had a blast swimming and partying with family! Here are a couple of pictures of the birthday girl!

(The cute ladybug cake that Alyssa made for Audrey)

(Audrey was definitely enjoying the cake!)

(The end result...covered in cake!)

We had fun and loved watching Audrey eat some cake and open presents!

Happy Birthday Audrey!

Evening Walk

I love the view from our front room's window.

Pizza Dough Recipe

Some have inquired about the pizza dough recipe, and here it is!

Pizza Dough:
Blend 2 cups flour and 1 tsp. salt in a bowl.
Combine 1 cup warm water, 1 pkg. yeast and 2 tsp. sugar in a separate bowl and let bubble (about 10 minutes).

Mix all ingredients, knead (you may have to add some more flour at this point to get a more doughy consistency), and let rise 30 min. or longer (the longer it rises, the yummier it becomes).

Roll out and put toppings on.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes on bottom rack.

Enjoy!

07.04

This Fourth of July weekend was a blast! We kicked off the festivities at my sister Keri's place with a BBQ, lawn games (lawn darts, which was really hard, and bocce ball...my favorite lawn game ever) and some firework watching.

(grilling the hot dogs and hamburgers)

(L to R: Brent (Scott's brother), Scott (our brother-in-law), Michelle (Brent's wife), and Keri. Keri did an awesome job at decorating their place...she even had copies of the Declaration of Independence hanging on the wall!)

(the delicious spread)

(Mark showing off his amazing juggling skills that I didn't know existed)

(Keri launching a lawn dart)

(Mark and I attempting and failing to take a decent picture before the fireworks started)

(Michelle, Brent, Scott and Keri enjoying watermelon before the fireworks)

We had an awesome time!

On Monday we got up super early to go to Provo's 4th of July Parade with Mark's family. Our brother-in-law Jared is the band director of a local high school and his band was marching in it, so we were excited to see the parade!

(Mark and I roasting in the sun while we watch the parade)

Afterward we went to Mark's sister's place in Orem to have another BBQ and go swimming. We grilled some yummy brats and enjoyed relaxing with Mark's family.

We also discovered that our nephew Kimball knows how to smirk. If you ask him to show you his smirk, this is what you get:

(Kimball's smirk)

That boy is such a hoot! We had a fantastic weekend, and we were so lucky to be able to spend it with family! We wish that every weekend was that fun!


And on an entirely different, but just-as-cool note, guess who we get to see on Saturday night (and we couldn't be more excited)?

(These two!!!!)