Mothers

I've always loved this quote by Abraham Lincoln....

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother." 

Both P and I have been blessed with amazing moms.  I look up to both of them in so many different ways and I hope to one day be as good of a mother as they have been to me.

We love you both! 

Happy Mother's Day!!

Picture from 2009 at a bridal shower that Momma Phyllis threw for me. 


And Happy Mother's Day to all the women out there.  I think every girl or woman has mothered a child at one  point in their life.  I know from personal experience and examples of grandmas, aunts, and teachers that you don't  need to have a child to be a mother.

And I heard this song recently, and thought I would include it on my blog because I loved it so much.  It reminded me of my own mother and the special relationship we share as mother and daughter.
It's a beautiful song written by Calee Reed.  She wrote it for her mother who passed away from cancer. Take a listen.

Yellow Pants

Color jeans are all the rage this season and I happen to be a fan.  I bought some purple ones for cheap at JCPenney last summer and I have enjoyed them. I've actually worn them a lot more than I thought I would.

So I wanted to buy a few more pairs, but I didn't want to invest too much money on them.

After seeing a few DIY's on Pinterest I decided to make my own.  After searching the D.I. for a pair of white jeans I finally settled on the following pair

They aren't necessarily a perfect fit and if I was more skilled with a sewing machine I'd probably tailor them a bit, but for $4 I couldn't go wrong.

Then I bought some RIT dye at JoAnn's Fabric and dyed them yellow!  FYI, dying clothing is a lot easier than I thought, simply throw the clothes, dye, salt, and water in a large bucket and stir it up!  Watch and wait until the clothing turns the color you're wanting and then pull them out, rinse and wash in the washing machine.

They are a little brighter than I was initially thinking I would dye them, but I still love them!
If anyone wants to use the rest of my dye and make your own, PLEASE let me know! I'd love to give it away rather than end up throwing it away.

Arizona

I took a road trip to Arizona last weekend with my brother Matt and cousin Ty.  P had to work so he wasn't able to come along :(  But it was good to spend some time with family and I think they enjoyed my undivided attention since I didn't have a husband to tend to :)

Here's what we did.....

• Shopping: lots of it.
• The Chandler Mall-spent a whole day there.  Finally found the perfect V-neck tee! I've been searching high and low for a good one.  I found it at a store called Madewell.  I was so excited I bought it in 4 different colors and now I wish I would have bought it in all the available colors!  
• Decided to make a trip to Last Chance.  This place is madness. But we all found a lot of shoes so it was a success.  And yes I did have to tell a lady to get her hands off my shoes, she totally reached in my basket and grabbed for them!   
• SanTan Mall, where Matt, Ty and their friend (can't remember his name) got asked to be models for a fashion show in Dillards! See pics below. 
• Eating: lots of it.  AZ has some killer food.
• Pita Jungle
• Grimaldi's Brick Oven Pizza- ate the best pizza I've had since I can remember.  
• Frost Gelato- this place is to die for, seriously I had it two nights in a row and even snuck it  into the movie theatre because it was sooooo good. 
• Joe's Farm Grill- had a hard time choosing what to get, the whole menu sounded yummy and it was featured on Dinners and Drive Inns.  See pic below.
• Bagel Nosh- this place just brings back a lot of memories, we eat here every time we're in AZ for breakfast. 
• Tia Rosa- went here with Audrey and she suggested the shrimp tacos, they were delicious.  And their chips and salsa were so yum!
• T.C. Eggington's- went here for breakfast one morning.  It was scrumptious.  Thanks for introducing us to it Melis.

Melis trying on some silly shoes at Last Chance,  Ty and Livi, love the way she wears those sunglasses!

My food at Joe's Farm Grill, can't go wrong with a burger and garlic fries.

I was able to meet up with our good friends, Audrey and Tim.  Audrey was nice enough to spend part of her Saturday with me.  We ate lunch together and I was able to see their cute apartment.  It was great to catch up!  

And here are some awesome pics from the fashion show at Dillard's.  It was hilarious.  They rolled out a red carpet down the aisle between the women's and junior's section. And it was just me and some other paparazzi family members there to support and snap pics.  I know these pics are horrible, I'll just blame the lighting in Dillard's for that one, I'm sure it had nothing to do with the photographer.

We also spent some time relaxing at the pool.  And caught a movie (The Lucky One, it was cute) while we were there. It was a perfect little getaway and just what I needed!  Thanks Melis, Nicole, and Jared for showing us a good time.  And Annette for letting us crash at your place!

Birthdays and Easter

We celebrated Cris's birthday a couple of weeks ago.  We love you Cris and we are so happy and blessed to have you as our sister. 

We also celebrated Zach's birthday at Texas Roadhouse, where he sat on the saddle and everyone got to sing to him, unfortunately I didn't get a picture. 

We celebrated Mom's birthday by going out to dinner and eating the strawberry rhubarb pie, she made the night before.  I am so thankful to have such a supporting, and loving mom.  She is an angel and I don't know how I got so lucky to have her as my mom, but I'm so glad!  We love you Mom and thanks for all you do for us. 

Still looking young and beautiful as ever, Mom!

Easter weekend Melis came up and it was so fun to spend time with her.  We went to City Creek, saw the movie Mirror, Mirror, and decorated eggs.  My Mom and I made homemade Easter candy this year.  She did most of the work but I helped her with the chocolate peanut butter eggs, an Easter tradition.  They are so yummy.  She also made peanut butter and pretzel truffles, our family loves anything with peanut butter :)

I love those egg malt balls during Easter time, I had to show P how to properly eat them, (paint your lips first and then stuff them into your moth) as seen in the first picture.  

I love Easter and Spring colors, they make me happy!

 We spent Easter dinner/day with Momma Phyllis.  She made quite the Easter feast (as always!), it included turkey, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs (which jen made), corn, green beans, rolls (which I made), stuffing, rice....so delicious. 

And a few random photos we had fun taking late Sunday night.  

On a more serious note, I am thankful for the knowledge I have of my Savior and His resurrection.   I know we will live again and be reunited with our loved ones.   This quote by President Monson sums it up so beautifully...

“Our Savior lived again. The most glorious, comforting, and reassuring of all events of human history had taken place—the victory over death. The pain and agony of Gethsemane and Calvary had been wiped away. The salvation of mankind had been secured. The Fall of Adam had been reclaimed.

“The empty tomb that first Easter morning was the answer to Job’s question, ‘If a man die, shall he live again?’ To all within the sound of my voice, I declare, If a man die, he shall live again. We know, for we have the light of revealed truth. …

“My beloved brothers and sisters, in our hour of deepest sorrow, we can receive profound peace from the words of the angel that first Easter morning: ‘He is not here: for he is risen.

Our life as of late...

I haven't blogged for a long time and I'm not sure why.  I guess it's because I've felt like I don't have anything too exciting to blog about, or maybe I don't have the motivation to blog when I feel as though we're simply living our daily life which consists of working, studying, eating, watching t.v., and sleeping....nothing super exciting going on.

Most of the time I enjoy blogging, but sometimes I feel that if I don't have anything funny, cool, special, or picture worthy to blog about then I shouldn't blog.  I'm starting to realize how silly it is to think this way--especially since I use this blog as our journal.  I've decided that I'm going to start posting some "flash back posts" as I think they're called in the blogging world.  Basically just stories and experiences that I haven't documented because they happened before we had a blog.

On a similar note, because I use this blog as a journal for us, I've contemplated going private so that I can more freely write feelings and more personal stories without feeling exposed to the world.  I realize that my readers are few and most likely anyone who comes here knows me in real life, but still it's kind of scary to know that any stranger could stumble upon your blog and learn a lot about you and your life.

I don't think I will go private (maybe I just need to start another blog that is private? or maybe I should just write in a journal like I used to!) but does anyone else ever think/feel this way?

In other news, here's a little recap of what's going on in our life...

J
-still working for Dad, which means I clean teeth on small children, with the occasional teenager. You sure can learn a lot about parenting by working at a kids dental office. Can someone who has kids teach me how to raise a brave child?!!  I need the secret, please!

-still doing Zumba, I joined a gym up here and found my fav. Zumba teacher who has a fun style and I love her music.  I recently started doing Pilates Reformer with my aunt Jodi, I love Pilates and I've always wanted to try the Reformer machines. You can get a killer workout, I'm using muscles I never knew I had!  I've also enjoyed trying out a yoga studio with Jodi.  It's a little more intense yoga then I've been doing but it's fun to push yourself and see results. Yoga produces some awesome body results faster than any other workout I've done. It's also been fun to spend time with my aunt jo and have a workout buddy.

-love to visit Target and catch up on my blog reading on my days off--both are relaxing but one is really putting a hole in the banking account so I'm trying spend less time there. Those target markdowns really get me, they make me think I need it just because it's on sale!  P always jokes with me cause every time he notices something new I've bought he'll comment on it and I always say "but it was on sale!" I'm just like my mother (and possibly all women),  we can't pass up a good sale when we see it!

P
-still studying full-time for the GMAT.  This week is a big one for him, he takes the GMAT tomorrow! Keep him in your prayers.  He has been so diligent with studying, he started back in January and he studies everyday, Mon-Sat, all day while I'm at work and sometimes into the evening.  I just hope that he can be happy with whatever score he gets!

-still works out each morning, hates to miss a day.  He recently informed me he's switching up his work-out schedule, weights in the morning and running on the treadmill around 4pm to help break up his days.

-when he does have some down time he likes to look at job postings and apply for fun.  He recently received a temporary job offer from Goldman Sachs and will start in a couple of weeks.  He'll work there until he starts with Dow Chemical in June.

Together we are trying to enjoy the the time we get to spend together, usually going out to dinner and watching a movie or catching up on our recorded shows for the week (we love Modern Family, New Girl, Happy Endings and the Office).  I feel really blessed to see my husband so much, I  get to come home to him everyday and even though he's always studying on the dining room table, at least we get to be together.  I know once he starts a full time job I will see him a lot less, which makes me sad.  But at the same time, I'm also getting ready for a our "real life" to start, the one where husband starts his career and we're living in a place for longer than a few months.  Not that we haven't loved living with my parents, cause we have. We are so lucky to be close to family during this waiting time, but it will be nice to have some stability for a while (and a real paycheck).

A few pics for your viewing pleasure

                 New shoes!                                   New hair color,                 Newest member to our family,
     Haven't had new tennis shoes           still loving being a brunette!        he comes from the land of
              in over 4 years!                                                                             Alaska and his new home
                                                                                                                    is now our living room.

BFF Get Together

We were lucky to be able to get together with my high school best friends during Christmas time.  It was wonderful to be able to see everyone.  We enjoyed homemade cafe rio, exchanging white elephant gifts and catching up with each other.  We missed Candace and Stacey and their husbands :(

I love all of you girls!

We're all married now, so crazy!  But I guess we've now been out of high school for over six years..hard to believe it's been that long.
Unfortunately these pics are a bit blurry, but I had to post them anyway!

New Year's Day Tradition

Every year on New Year's Day we head to Momma Phyllis' house to eat delicious food.  She prepares it all and it is quite the feast.  It's a tradition in her Korean culture to celebrate New Year's Day with yummy food and family.  She spends forever preparing and the outcome is fabulous Korean food and wonderful company.  She's always so kind to invite my family over, along with some of her friends who come each year.

I'm grateful to be part of a family who celebrates their culture.  I love learning and experiencing new cultures so I have enjoyed marrying into the family that I did.

THANK YOU MOM for keeping up this Korean tradition that we all get to enjoy because of your hard work.  We love you!

And I didn't even get a picture of her!  How terrible...next year, next year!