Monday, October 24, 2011

Kiss Me I'm So Not Irish

[Image: 1000recordings.com]

So basically every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Monday morning I am graced with Irish drinking songs.
There is a certain individual who genuinely enjoys singing them loudly, almost as if he is performing then.
I can hear him literally making his waking up from the bottom to the top floor of the Hinckley.
At first it was annoying, sometimes it still is; however, I'm learning to appreciate it and learn to laugh at his interesting songs.
It seems like he adds a new song to his lil Irish repetoire weekly.
The first song he sang sounded like he was saying, "a lively live ho, and toe and a pushel. A lively live ho."
He is totally American. He didn't have an Irish accent at the beginning of the semester. Now, the man has an Irish accent. What a character!
So here's to you Mr. Non-Drunken-Mormon-American-Irish-Man, thanks for laugh and the morning entertainment. Keep working on that accent!
Love,
Evi

Saturday, October 22, 2011

One Year Ago Today

Adam Figgat got down on one knee and proposed to me.
He asked me the question that I had so badly wanted to hear.
Thinking back it was the most perfect proposal.
13 months after we began dating he took me out on a super nice date.
We went to Olive Garden then to the Cocoa Bean Cafe, the place where we had our first date.
As we entered, I already knew that I wanted the pumpkin cupcake. No questions asked.
Adam continually kept requesting that I look in the display case and "see if there are any others that I'd like." Being the stubborn woman that I am, I said, "No. I want pumpkin." I guess some things never change. After physically pushing me towards the display case, I peered into the shiny glass case. What I saw in that case changed my life forever.
This is what I saw:


My stomach lept into my throat, quickly my heart followed. After several oh-my-gosh-like phrases, I turned around to my then sweet boyfriend who was down one knee with a shiny object in his hands. He looked into my eyes, shaking--I could hardly say it due to the nerves, but I said the phrase that would take him from boyfriend to fiancee, "Yes! Now get up." The poor kid was shaking like crazy. :)
I do not regret saying yes. I haven't for 365 days. One year later, I am even more sure that saying yes to an eternity with Adam was the best decision I have ever made. Since October 23, 2010, I have been blessed with a husband.
He asked me on our first date-- I was smitten. He asked to hold my hand while looking at fireworks, the temple, and moonlight-- he had my affection. He asked to kiss me-- I was floored. He asked me to be his wife-- he had my whole heart. And on March 18, 2011 a man asked if I'd have Adam forever-- he has my eternity.
Looking back of these last two years makes me realize how much life has changed for the better. So to my partner in crime and very best friend, I love you forever.
Thanks for making saying the big yes so easy.
Here are some more pictures from the big yes.






Thursday, October 20, 2011

Awkward and Awesome Thursday




Have you ever noticed that Apple Jacks have way more orange jacks than green? What gives?!

Oh and Hi! I'm alive... Sort of...
Life has been insane, as in SUPER INSANE.
We are doing okay. Adam's IBC business starts up soon (the business program at our school requires them to form a company, create, get approved, and then run a business for a semester). As for me, work is ehhh usual. School is crazy. I've never read so many books in my life! My health is good, which is a nice change. Adam's health last week was less than stellar. He got a crazy infection and an even crazier fever, which scared me. Luckily, he is doing much better.

ANYWAYS, now that you've read the boring stuff... Here are some awkwards and awesomes to feast your eyes upon.

Awesome
-Carving pumpkins! Our pumpkins this year are RAD.
-Watching the leaves change. There is a bright red bush near our complex that was totally green a month ago. SO cool.
-Figuring out that my boss' are okay with me not working a full fifteen hours next semester, so I don't have to find another one. :)
-That shirt in my pictures. I love me a little spark and shine.
-Naps aka the only thing getting me through this semester.
-The fact that in all of my classes right now I have 93% or higher! Mid-semester and I'm feeling good. :) Now let's just see if midterms kill my grades these next couple weeks.
-Hanging out with Emily and Conrad (aka Connie). They have been our friends since we started school here and they are super funny.
-The game Alchemy. If you have a smart phone: Download it. NOW. I totally made the Twilight Saga by mixing vampire and werewolf. Pretty funny.

Awkward
-Falling asleep in class.
-Leaving voice messages. I really need to work on that skill.
-Laughing uncontrollably during our work meeting. Eyes watering isn't my best look.
-Complaining about the 4 hour GRE Prep class and then having a random kid come up beside me and say, "Drop out. Go into the military and get sick retirement. You'll get paid for the rest of your life!" I began to life and found that he was totally serious. I'm sorry, but I'm not military material.
-Having people come over to your messy house unexpected. Embarrassing.
-Tripping up the stairs in the Smith building. Again? Really?

Anyways, that's all I have. Life right now is awesome, but not that awesome or even awkward. I'm kind of just skating right now and looking forward to graduating in two semester after this.
It straight up blows my mind that we are both seniors soon.
Hallelujah.
Love,
Evi

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The Orange Lunch and the Adventures of Vitamin C


So basically I ate an orange lunch today.
It was awesome.
At first I thought, "Hey! I would have loved this lunch as a kid."
Then the more I contemplated it, this is probably a good example of a poor college student lunch.
I ran out of lactose pills (pills that make it so I can consume dairy without getting sick).
This meant that my sweet mac n' cheese needed a substitute for the milk. As a believer in soy, I used soy milk instead of regular. Honestly, I think the soy tastes better in it. Hooray for a cooking win!
So the picture of the door/me pointing at the door...
The husband is SUPER sick, which means that he has been confined to our bedroom for two reasons:
1. The man needs to detach from the world, xbox, and computer so he can get better.
2. Anytime he gets sick, I'm in trouble. You see this is how it works: Adam gets sick. I catch the sickness. The sickness morphs into something WAY worse than he had. I become a huge nasty sick, germ-ridden, shadow of a woman. Not cool. So I confined him. I have had 2 vitamin C pills equalling to 3000% of my daily value, in addition to one Flinstone Plus Iron vitamin and two HUGE glasses of orange juice.
I REFUSE TO GET SICK.

and there you have it.
My Wednesday in a nutshell.
Love,
Evi

P.S. Dad if you're reading this... Don't worry. I didn't eat the whole bowl of mac n cheese.

Monday, October 10, 2011

REJECTED.

Hi bloggy friends.
I'd like to briefly interrupt your busy days for an important news broadcast:
I, Evi, was rejected today for the first time in a long, long, LONG time.
In high school I handled rejection as such:
a. Cut/Dye my hair.
b. Fall apart and cry, face down on the floor.
c. Go kiss a boy. (embarrassing, but true.)
d. Be reckless.
e. Gossip how I'm too good for him or it.
f. Eat my feelings.

Well this time, my friend, I'm please to announce that I did none of that.
My first form of rejection in two years came in the form of an email.
The email said that my writing had not been selected for the Pre-Professional Conference here at BYUI.
Usually, I don't have to face rejection (not to brag).
I get the grades that I desire.
I got the job that I wanted.
I married the man I wanted as my husband.
But, this time, I didn't get what I aimed for.
Being a perfections and a self-classified go-getter, I will admit this was a bit of a blow to the good ole ego. I'm a straight-A student, how could I not be selected? Alas, I was not. I submitted a mediocre critical essay that I wrote last year (on a whim) and a poem that took me two minutes to write, but I felt that it was cute and creative.
This time, I read the email. Reread the email, while cocking my head sideways. Only after rereading a third time, I called my mom. I told her I was rejected and decided to blog this important lesson.

Rejection keep us humble
and that my friends is my lesson of the day.

Time to try, try again.
Love, Evi

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Recipe Tuesday on a Wednesday: Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Cupcakes


Okay these are probably one of the best pumpkin recipes I have ever tried and probably the easiest. They are to die for. I've seen the recipe circulating around pinterest, but the frosting is something I added. Pinterest just suggests powdered sugar on top, but truly it NEEDS the cream cheese frosting. Plus the cupcakes are just TWO ingredients. You can't really mess that up...

What You Need:
Cupcake
One Box of Yellow Cake Mix
One Can of Pumpkin (the regular size can, not the jumbo one!)
Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz Unsalted Butter
4 oz Cream Cheese
2 Cups Powdered Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Directions:
Mix the two ingredients for the cupcakes together. It'll be super thick batter. Don't worry about it. Then plop into the cupcake liners (keep in mind that the shape the batter is, is the shape that they'll turn out to be). Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350.

For the cream cheese frosting, mix the ingredients all together. Wait till the cupcakes are done and cooled, then frost those suckers and be prepared to be amazed!! :)

Enjoy the world's best/easiest pumpkin cupcake/muffin thing recipe!!



Love,
Evi

Monday, October 3, 2011

A Farewell to Summer

This Summer was probably one of the best in my life. I worked five hours a day, five days a week. 8-1 everyday. Then from 1 until I couldn't keep my eyelids open I spent time adventuring and laughing with my sweet husband and wonderful friends. We had a lot of adventures.
We floated the river A LOT.
[The moose we saw a few times while floating the river.]
We went to Rigby Lake. A LOT.
We dated weekly.
We blew stuff up.
We worked on our tans.
We played games with friends.
We watched too much TV.
We went home. <3

[Angels Game Double Date with Mom and Dad]
We baked.
We became better people.
We went to Yellowstone.
We went to Lava Hot Springs.
Best of all. We fell even more in love.
Memories are only moments in time, unless you are making the with someone else.
Excited for Summer '12.
Now bring on the Fall!!

Book Review: Beowulf (Graphic Novel)

Okay, so I know I'm not really a graphic novel kind of girl, but I'm actually falling in love with them. I'm in a Young Adult Literature class that requires me to read 25 young adult lit books, one of which was required to be a graphic novel. Well, after flipping through a few, I left my teacher's classroom with a whole stack. Next on the docket, I'm going to read Maus (a book where the author recounts his father's experience with The Holocaust, while depicting the Jewish as mice and Nazis as Cats... it's fun.)
Anyways, Beowulf by Gareth Hinds was AMAZING. Adam and I read it together. It's much more to read a graphic novel with a boy, considering that they make better fight scene sound effects (Adam rocks at sound effects, me... not so much). The book is innovative in that it sticks to the storyline of the famed piece of literature, but brings the story to life and quite frankly makes it interesting with its illustrations. The artwork is very interesting and the illustrator does a wonderful job of depicting the characters and capturing the story's essence without the use of words. I found myself looking forward to each of the three battles, rather than dreading page after page. I think this book would be great for boys probably from ages 10-16. There is a lot of butt kicking in this book and when I say that this is a graphic novel, I mean it in both ways. Let's just say that the pictures don't leave much gore for the imagination. However, I feel that it is appropriate for the targeted age bracket. If you ever want to read Beowulf, save the yourself the pain and just read this graphic novel.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Catching Up and Rejuvenating

I know I've been MIA for a few weeks. If you could see the amount of schoolwork I've had, you'd forgive me in an instance. I've already read over 1200 pages in the last two weeks and have written edited an enormous amount of pages that I cannot even begin to estimate. So here I am, sitting writing on my pink laptop, finally something I want to write. I'm catching up this lil blog this weekend whenever I'm not listening to the leaders of my church.
So if you are flipping through TV this weekend and keep seeing "LDS General Conference" show up in your TV guide, it is because for the LDS or "Mormon" church we have conference. It is live from Salt Lake City, our church's headquarters and is broadcasted worldwide. It's basically church on TV but even better. This weekend is the 181st LDS General Conference. I have been looking forward to this weekend for at least a month. Twice a year these kind of weekends roll around. In our little family it means, getting comfy in front of the TV, actually eating breakfast, and a lot of snuggling. For a total of four hours, two days in a row (excluding the Priesthood session-- a session for men. The women had theirs last week), we are able to listen and appreciate the guidance of the LDS leaders. I am grateful for this weekend of rejuvenation and great guidance.

Have a great one people!
Love,
Evi