Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day this year was awesome--Manuel made me breakfast in the morning (although I helped a little with the fruit parfaits), we got to hang out a lot and I made him dinner. The day was simple but fun and it was nice to just relax and spend sometime with my wonderful husband. Manuel surprised me with flowers which made my day and I got him (well it's really more for us) a book of date ideas for married couples. Can't wait to use it! Here are some pictures from our Valentine's Day:










I just wanna say I love my husband more than anything in this world! He really makes me so happy, always knows how to make me laugh and would do anything for me. He's the best!

New Year, New Resolutions

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family! I am so excited to start out a new year and make new goals and resolutions. For some reason, after Christmas is over, I am ready for summertime! Although it's still super cold out, I love when the sun comes out and it just feels like a new start. Manuel's back in school for the winter semester and I am still working at the dental office. We've received so many blessings from the opportunities given to us this past year, especially through a tough economic time. I'm excited for a new presidency for this country and hope that things can really get turned around. It's been hard to see the many that have struggled with the pitfalls of what has happened recently and I only hope that we can see a light at the end of the tunnel even if it takes some time. As for my resolutions this year, here is a list of only a handful of things I'd like to work on, not in any particular order:

1. Eat more healthy, natural foods (Most people put losing weight as one of their top goals but I truly just want to have better, overall health in general)
2. Read the Book of Mormon in Spanish
3. Have Family Home Evening night more consistently
4. Attend the temple once a month
5. Make one special date night a week with my husband out of the house
6. Be a better wife, in general
7. Learn yoga
8. Deal with my stress in a positive way (exercise, meditation)
9. Plan a budget, save more, spend less
10. Keep my house cleaner
11. Sew more
12. Play my violin and the piano more, maybe even start teaching some

I could keep going but won't--it does feel good to set new goals though! Hope everyone started off to a good year and hope to also stay on top of this blog! Love to everyone!

Happy Holidays

So, it's been a while and I just thought I'd write to say that we're still here! It is next to impossible to find the time to post new entries and update our blog when I'm busy at work most of the time and Manuel is busy with work & school. Anyways, I promise to be better because I hate coming back to my blog and see that it's been months since I last posted! So, look forward to my next post with updated pictures etc. from my birthday in Vegas, Thanksgiving, and my Christmas decorating! I love this time of year when it gets a little colder, and I can cook all the warm foods I love and decorate the house. I am always sure to remind myself of the true meaning of Christmas but I absolutely love every part of Christmas and the feeling it brings. It's also nice to give a little more thought to the people in your life and take time to remember those that you don't always get to see. I'm so excited to spend our second Christmas together with my husband. He really has worked so hard this semester in school and I'm so proud of him. I'm so glad that we'll have some extra time to spend together over the holidays. Our plans include driving through the Christmas light display in Spanish Fork, building a gingerbread house, cooking lots of warm and delicious food, and watching a ton of Christmas movies--I'm so excited! Until our next post, lots of love to all of our family and friends.

BYU Homecoming Spectacular 2008

For those who don't already know, BYU's Homecoming Spectacular was our first date we ever had. Every year since that first date, we have returned to see the program and it is a big hit each time. This year, we got a little dressier and although we looked a little funny next to all the students in their sweatshirts and jeans, carrying their backpacks and the awkward couples on what seemed to be their first dates, we had a lot of fun. It was special for us and it is sometimes fun to get dressed up and go somewhere. The show was amazing as always and I was personally excited about Jenny Oaks Baker being one of the feature performers. She makes me want to play my violin! We definitely enjoyed being together reliving our first date since we may not have that opportunity again in a very long time. We're also getting ready and excited for pumpkin carving again this year! We'll keep you updated on all of the Halloween festivities.

1st Year Anniversary / Camping Trip

4th of July Weekend

The last week has been a lot of fun for us. My parents came into town for the blessings of my niece and nephew and were also here for the 4th of July and my sister's birthday. It was a lot of fun going to the parade and seeing my niece and nephew watch it for the first time. Well, it was really just fun to hang out with everybody in general and play with the babies. The weekend was nice and relaxing (although super hot) and Manuel and I have been taking advantage of the warm weather and the last few weeks have gone on Saturday picnics at different parks in the canyon. Even though we are super busy during the week at work and everything else that needs to get done, it's been really fun to get outside on the weekends and enjoy the nature while we can. We're also coming up pretty soon on our 1-year anniversary. We are planning a trip to Vegas but we found out that the PCAT Manuel has to take for pharmacy school is the day of our anniversary. We still want to maybe just spend a night in Salt Lake to get away even if it's not that far. It will be nice anyways to be back in Salt Lake where we were married and take a break before school starts back again. We hope that we can also get some more camping in before the summer ends since our first camping experience together was a little crazy and too cold for comfort. (What can we say, we got a little anxious about camping once we bought our tent and stuff.) We'll update again soon and post some recent pictures.

Springtime

I am so excited for this new weather we're having! I never realized how depressing the winters can be here. I love seeing the snow-covered mountains in the winter but this year it seemed to be a never-ending sequence of gloomy days. The sun is finally out and I hope it stays out! I am really looking forward to spring and getting out in nature. I also can't wait for us to start going camping this spring and summer--all we need is a tent! Although I don't think I want to stay in Utah long-term, I'm starting to appreciate all that it has to offer and love experiencing the distinction of the seasons (although the extreme winters and summers are hard). I plan on getting out more and taking more pictures too which I'm also excited about. On another note, I wanted to mention something new that has peaked my interest. The other day, I was reading an article in the school newspaper about sharing the gospel via blogging. I have been thinking about what a great idea that is for more members of the Church to share their thoughts, feelings, and testimonies about the gospel with others. Since there is so much negative material out there about the Church, I thought what a great idea it would be for more members to take advantage of the opportunity to simply share their own beliefs with others. So, Manuel and I will soon be starting a blog where we can do just that. Thank goodness for springtime and the gospel!

Have I Told You Lately...

I thought I'd give an update on our life since I realized it has certainly been a while since we last posted anything. Life has been busy as always but we've been having some fun too. School started again in January and I'm already looking forward to the end. Who doesn't already know that I'm ready to graduate?! Luckily, I only have one semester after this which I will be taking next winter semester after deferring this fall. Because there are certain classes that I have to take which are only offered during certain semesters, I thought it would be better to take all of what I have left at once rather than taking a few credits one semester and a bunch the next. For the time I won't be in school, I will be working full-time at my new job. I recently started working at a dental office in Orem and am loving it. I work mostly at the front desk, filing charts, greeting patients, scheduling appointments, etc. occasionally working in the back charting perio, but the best thing is that I get to use my Spanish-speaking skills a lot. The job, along with my calling in our Spanish-speaking ward, has helped me to get a lot more experience and I've definitely seen myself improve. I love being able to work with people from all over Latin America. I've finally come to terms with the fact that I can actually say I'm bilingual. It's pretty cool to know that I can communicate well in two different languages and it's a great feeling of satisfaction. Manuel is currently working on his paperwork to become eligible for a work permit and to get his residency. I have a feeling that it's not going to be that easy but it will be nice when he can finally have more opportunities once he's able to work off-campus. As of lately, Manuel has decided that Chiropractics isn't exactly what he wants to do after some careful investigation and shadowing with a chiropractor here in Provo. Now he is leaning more towards pharmacy or optometry. Either way, I know he'll do great at whatever he wants to do and I'm proud of him for having the ambition and determination to continue studying and working towards a successful career. After all, we know that's not me! Manuel and I also recently celebrated 6 months of marriage. Some days it feels like we've known each other for forever and other days, I can't believe how fast these 6 months have gone by. I am truly grateful for Manuel--he is such a wonderful husband and I honestly couldn't imagine a day without him. I'm grateful that we help each other and balance each other with our different strengths and we're able to get through our challenges by making sure we put each other first. One of my new favorite activities has been cooking. I absolutely love it! I don't know what happened to me but when I first moved to college, I hated cooking. I wasn't used to it and I didn't know how to do it so I usually ate out or made whatever was easy. Thanks to my all-day Saturday marathons of Food Network, I've picked up a lot of great tips, and love experimenting with several new recipes. Manuel's dad made a comment, however, that he really enjoyed a meal I made but too bad he wouldn't be eating that again...that's because I almost never make the same thing more than once! Aside from school and work, Manuel and I are really big movie buffs. We mostly rent them because by the time Friday night comes after we're done with school, we're so tired that we end up losing any motivation to actually go out and do something. It's also been hard with all the snow and cold weather. We've been wanting to go bowling for a while so hopefully we will go one of these days. I can't wait until it gets warmer in the spring and we can have picnics and do more things outdoors. We also hope to be getting an additional car someday soon which will likely allow us more opportunities to get out of Provo once in a while. I especially can't wait until we can visit our niece and nephew more often because I miss them like crazy!

Thanksgiving Weekend

This last week was a lot of fun. Manuel and I were both weighed down with tests the week before so it was nice to have a good break from school and work. Wednesday was my birthday and I was so happy I didn't have any obligations with homework, etc. Manuel worked a few hours that morning and then came home and took me to Kneader's for my favorite French toast. We were a little lazy after we got home and fell asleep for like 3 hours! When we finally woke up, we decided to do a little shopping which is always fun for me. (Manuel is so patient.) So we went to the mall and managed to spend a little money, (I mean how hard is that really), and then got a movie rental on our way home. Although we didn't end up doing anything too exciting, it was so nice to just have a break from it all. The next day was Thanksgiving and was pretty busy. Manuel's mom made the turkey and I wanted to make the rest. I ended up preparing two batches of funeral potatoes, creamed spinach, basil cloverleaf rolls, pecan pie, apple pie, cranberry sauce, and everything was served with a cran-raspberry lemon-lime punch and some olives. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun for me. Since we finished earlier than planned, Manuel and I decided we'd go see Fred Claus but once we got to the theater, we realized we should have gone earlier since it was sold out. So we drove to the dollar theater which we found out wasn't supposed to open for another hour or two. So back home it was. We had a great time that night, Manuel's aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandma came from Springville to enjoy the big feast. Friday, we celebrated our 3-month anniversary by yet again, shopping. We found some great deals on some things and even managed to get a Christmas present or two. Then on Saturday, Manuel and I went ice skating. It was Manuel's first time ever which made it all the more fun! I must say he did pretty good for a beginner and he only fell twice! Although he was a little embarrassed, we still had a great time. Oh and get this, we tried going to the library twice this week to check out some movies and both times it was closed. Just my luck--I thought it was quite fitting that the library would be closed just when, of all people, I would want to go. (Okay, I know it's not like I read or anything, I mean we were planning on checking out movies!)

Getting Settled

The last few weeks have been absolutely crazy for us with both school and our jobs keeping us very busy. In the middle of it all, we still try to find time to get more situated at home and I've been getting pretty excited about decorating in our first place together. Although money's tight and space is small, my new little obsession with decorating has made me more creative than ever with ideas. I decided since we have such limited space, we could put a little table in the hallway downstairs, just outside our bedroom, where I can display our decorative items and holiday pieces. When it comes to me and crafts, things don't usually turn out well, in fact don't usually turn out at all. I can be too much of a perfectionist which will frustrate me to the point where I give up. There have been far too many projects that have been left uncompleted than I could even count. However lately, I’ve come up with ways where I can create something and feel satisfied. (These projects usually don’t take too much time or effort which is probably why I finish them.) Another exciting piece of news is that just the other day as I was looking over my map to graduation, I realized I don’t have too many credits remaining. For some reason, I thought that if I condensed my classes as much as possible, I might be able to graduate by April 2009. I began to divide up the number of credits I have left and discovered that if I only took 12 credits winter semester, 3 during the summer, and the last 12 next fall, I would be able to graduate by December 2008. Manuel recently started working part-time with a study abroad program in Mérida, México which is scheduled for this coming spring. If everything works out the way we hope, there is a good chance we will be able to go as facilitators at no cost. This would be a great opportunity for me to obtain the foreign residency requirement for my major and it would be a fun vacation for us to take as newlyweds. Then, after I graduate in December, Manuel will most likely do the same just 1 semester later. This means that he could likely start his first semester of chiropractic school in the fall of 2009. The two of us were getting pretty excited about the future--so much that yesterday morning, instead of working on my homework, I spent my time online looking at all of the chiropractic schools in the country and thinking about how fun it would be to live in a new place. The feeling sort of hit me that once we graduate from BYU and leave Utah, we will really be on our own, and that wherever we go may be where we end up building our life together and raising our children. It’s an exciting yet nervous feeling. I just have to remember that we still need to focus on the here-and-now and not lose motivation in our studies. Over the past couple of weeks, Manuel and I have been watching all of the Harry Potter movies starting with the first. We are in the middle of the 4th which we hope to finish tonight so we can go see the newest edition in the dollar theater tomorrow. It’s getting us into the Halloween spirit! In the next couple of weeks, we want to go to a haunted house and a corn maze. We’re also getting excited about pumpkin carving since last year it was one of our first dates together, as well as Manuel’s first time experiencing the American tradition. With everything going on, we’re having fun, but I have to admit that I’m already looking forward to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday breaks!