the past week

break

I’m back form my un-planned blogging break.  I was feeling a bit over-whelmed and needed to escape. Escape from technology, glaring computer screens, and the creative process.

It feels like our life has been hectic. Our schedule’s are all over the place and we’re never together in the same place very long.  You see, since Bear started research about a year ago, his nights have been filled with gatherings, interviews, and activities. This leaves my nighttime’s peaceful and quite.

I mostly entertain myself with my photography and this blog. I’ve gotten really use to the quietness that surrounds our house in the evenings, but it has never felt completely content. 

Being along was wearing on me.  I was consuming more TV than I ever have, I had stopped making dinner, and forget about picking up and organizing the house.  I was getting to a point where I needed a break. And lucky for me, Bear felt the same way.  So together we put our life on hold. Bear cancelled all of his ‘research’ meetings and I got to have him all to myself.  We took a break from life, our everyday routine was put on hold so that we could re-connect and re-evaluate our life.

It was a well-needed life interruption, and we made the most of it. We took long walks by the river, enjoyed the evening sky cuddled up in the hammock, caught up on our favorite TV shows, and lounged around with each other. It was perfect being able to spend that much time with my Bear. 

And now, I am happy to say that I am feeling recharged and ready to get back into the swing of everyday life.  Bear has started to slow down on research and I have gathered my yummy recipes and went grocery shopping today (I have even started organizing the house). I am looking forward to enjoying nights with Bear, sitting at our dinner table, together, talking about our day.  

shento and fireworks

july is shento's least favorite month.

any loud un-familiar sound make him go into a frenzy. 

so you can only imagine what fireworks do to him. 

the poor pup shakes and frantically tries to find a hiding spot. 

one that is away from windows, and preferably the outside world. 

currently, he has taken up residency in the bathtub.

he jumps in, curls up into a little ball and hangs out until the noises stop. 

its become so frequently that I put a pillow in tub in the evenings. 

he at least needs to be comfortable. 

anyways, last week (who am i kidding, every single night since july 1st) 

people do fireworks in our neighborhood. 

this particular night, bear and i really wanted to comfort shento. 

so we started singing the star spangle banner...  loudly. 

as you can see, it did not help.

he ran directly to the bathtub to spend his evening. 

bear and i however, really enjoyed dancing around our house 

singing the lyrics to any patriotic song we could think of. 

Rooftop

on Friday evening, bear and i went out on a date. an actual hand holding, he pays for my dinner, fireworks at the end of the night (literally) kind of a date.... and it was terrific. 

i had been hearing so many good things about this new restaurant, cubbys. So for our dinner date we tried it, and it was amazingly delicious. i had a chicken sandwich and bear had the famous tri-trip. a highly recommended place if you are ever in the provo area. 

after dinner, we headed to the rooftop concert. it was perfect weather, we got a semi good seat, and the line up of singers for the tom petty tribute concert looked great. we (bear) are huge fans of tom petty so we were pretty excited about the concert. we rocked out under the stars, sang our heart out, and enjoyed the evening. 

plus, the night ended with a firework show and a kiss from the one i love. oh, and a refreshing ice cream shake.

how much more romantic can you get? 

July 4th

We celebrated the 4th of July in Provo, Utah. 

We enjoyed the famous parade with some of our wonderful neighbors. 

Bear made a delicious red, white and blue breakfast.

We went to the river to let Shento chase sticks in the water.

We walked to freedom days and listened to music and got a snowy. 

And lastly, we packed a picnic dinner and headed to the park to watch the fireworks. 

Happy 4th of July

Today is...

my 26th birthday. 

remember this post about how i'm making this year awesome?

well, it's going to be spectacular. i can't wait. 

hooray! 

change

It’s my birthday week. I was planning on doing something exciting everyday.  But besides conquering my humongous fear of getting my blood drawn, you can call that exciting, right? I have done nothing… I have actually been feeling a little down in the dumps.  This is not how I envisioned this week going. So I am going to postpone my week full of fun until next week. I will ring in the first week of my 26^th year in style. 

For the past little while I have been reflecting about my life. Things that I hope for, things that I want to change, and a list of things I want to do in my upcoming year.  My 25^th year was always one that I looked forward to. I thought it was going to be the year that all my amazing plans, that I wrote down on a piece of lined school paper when I was 16, were going to happen. But guess what, they didn’t… and my  25^th year has not been tremendously exciting. In all honestly, it has drained me of my energy and creativity. Something needs to change. But most of the time I can’t pin point what changes need to be made.

Recently I have been listening to Oprah’s life lessons while I work. It’s an incredibly humbling and rewarding talk show.  One thing she said that stuck out to me is if you don’t know where to start, in whatever you are doing, begin with the simple question, who am I?

Don’t think about it, just write the first things that come to your mind. So today, that is where I’m starting.

Here. i. go.

I am a woman, a lover, a friend, a photographer. I love the color kelly green and fresh flowers on my dinner table. I am a wife to a student who is always busy. And I often forget that he is busy creating our life, a life that will soon bring stability (hopefully).  I love to be daring and trying new things is exciting to me. One of my favorite things in the entire world is sitting and talking with my best friends. It always makes me feel better, and some of my best memories have been created that way. I love ice cream, cup cakes, and Swedish fish. I am creative, and I know what I’m talking about when it comes to marketing. One of my happy places is the ocean. Listening to the waves crash against the rocks and the smell of salt air… to me that is happiness. I love Washington, D.C and learning about all the history. I secretively love politics. I am a hopeless romantic. I am sensitive. At times I wish I would of gone into a career that involved counseling/people.  I am over the moon exciting to be a Mom and share that adventure with Bear. Coming home to a puppy that is super excited to see me makes my heart tremendously happy.  I am a lover of nature.  I am strong but not fearless.  I am scared of tragedy and the unknown. I get obsessive over certain TV shows. I am blessed. I am me, a person that is constantly learning, changing, and growing. So for now, this is who I am.  

Digging deep into your soul and finding out who you are, what you stand for, and how you want to be living your life can open up a whole new perspective to your life. Except it, learn from it, and change what is necessary.

This experiment has made me realize small things that I could easily change to make my life happier. To make me feel more content in the life that I am living. This was the first step to my changing process. 

4 years

We celebrated our four year anniversary in Park City, Utah. We were up visiting all of my family for a long weekend. However, Thursday afternoon/evening we snuck away for a little 'us' time.  We first ventured out on a long walk down to the lake, Shento's all time favorite swimming area. 

After our walk we headed to dinner. We decided that we wanted to keep up our anniversary tradition, which has been grabbing a pie at our favorite New Jersey pizza shop. But since we are in Utah, the closest thing we could find was Maxwells. However, they are an east coast pizza shop and the owner happens to be from New Jersey. It was perfect. 

We sat outside and listened to the live band perform. We ate our jersey pizza and talked a lot about how the love that we have for one another has grown tremendously over the four years. And all of the exciting things that we are looking forward to in this coming year... and for the rest of our lives. 

hello, weekend

it's friday and that makes me one happy girl. 

yesterday, bear and i celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary.

four incredible, emotional, amazing, exciting, scary, and wonderful years. 

i can't wait to see what the next four years have in store for us. 

this weekend we are in park city spending as much time as possible with my family. 

they are in town from california and it's a joy being around everyone. 

it reminds me of when i was younger and the entire bunch got together all of the time. 

it felt like every 'little' event called for a family celebration, and i LOVE that. 

i love that bear has built a relationship with my family, 

and that they have welcomed him with such ease.

and i adore that my grandparents find him so amusing. 

i hope you all have a wonderful weekend. 

fill it with love, laughter, and family.