Living the good life...

Life is good!!! I've been so busy lately with work and what not that I haven't really had time to think, breathe, or clean the apartment :\ But the other day I all of the sudden had the thought, "I am so happy right now!" Let me list a few reasons why while catching up on our life at the same time.

1. We are debt free and financially stable!!! We finally got our federal grant money and used it to get me health insurance, pay our rent, phone bill and electric bill, pay off our credit card, and a hefty chunk of money we owed Robert's dad (THANKS DAD!!!!) We still have a little left over and with my job and Robert's research we will finally be able to stay ahead of the bills instead of being behind and actually start saving money too!! It's the first time in a very VERY long time that I haven't had to worry about money and it is a liberating feeling. Once kids, buying a new house and/or car happens in the future we will go into debt again, but I think if we play it smart right now while we do have extra, we will be okay when that time comes.

2. I love my job!! My coworkers are great. It's a fun store. And I just love being busy again. I THRIVE on being busy. It makes me feel like I have a purpose. And on top of everything I also LOVE getting paid!!! :) It helps me feel like I am really helping, or being "equally yoked" with, Robert. I got my first check this past Tuesday. It was a really small one because it was from my first 2 weeks that I was training and only working about 12 hours a week. Robert let me spend the whole thing on myself!! My wardrobe for the most part was all at least 2 years old and had seen better days. So I bought a lot of cute new stuff. Here's a picture of me doing a cheesy pose in one of my new outfits.


I've felt as cute as a button the past few days :) Oh, and I dyed my own hair too. Robert helped. Here's a picture from when we did it.


3. Provo is starting to grow on me. There are 2 different types of people in Provo, Regulars and Students. The majority of the area we live in are students. Take all the students out and you have a very small amount of people. I think because of this, Provo has a very small town feel. People that come into my store know that I am new and find out where I am from and what not, and then they will come in a few days later and remember everything I told them and ask how Robert is doing in his school work, etc. They actually care! It is so fun. On top of that the weather is beautiful! The high yesterday was 70`. Compared to the 100 or so degrees it is in Mesa right now, I choose Provo. Don't worry family, by no means am I wanting to become a permanent Utah resident, but for now I am happy and loving Provo.

4. I have an AMAZING family! All growing up while I would watch my older siblings get married and the in-laws they would end up with, I always wondered what my in-laws would be like. Not just my husband, but his family too. I got so lucky!! Robert is more than I could ever ask for, and he has an awesome family too. At the end of July we went down to Mesa for Robert's youngest sister, Kylee's baptism. Robert baptized her, and his Dad confirmed her.


While we were at the baptism surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, and parents, I had kind of a funny thought. I thought, "We are going to have SOOOOO many people at our babies' blessings!!" All of my huge family is close with one another and firm in the church, and all of Robert's family is close with one another and firm in the church including most of both of our extended families. And then I thought more of how much of a blessing that is. I never have to worry about what influence either family will have on my kids. If something were to happen to Robert or me physically or financially, we have a HUGE eternal support system. I LOVE my in-laws!!! Our biggest worry is how in the world we will spend as much time as we want to with both of the families on holidays ;)

So, yeah. That's our life right now. I still have a voice in my head saying "I can't wait until we have a baby, or I can't wait until Robert graduates, or I can't wait until we live in Mesa again, or I can't wait until we have a house" But every time I do I think of something my Uncle Paul would say over and over when he was my Sunday School teacher years ago. "Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Don't wish your life away!" So right now I am enjoying the journey.

I am happy!!!

Pioneer Day FHE

I'm a little late on these, but I still wanted to post them, so I am :)
We have a bunch of friends from high school that are now married that we get together with once a month or so and have family home evening together. In July I volunteered to host it and since it was so close to Pioneer Day, I made it pioneer themed. I gave a short lesson on the handcart pioneers and then we built handcarts... sort of.

This is the handcart Robert made by himself the night before to test our supplies...


And this is the one we made together on the night of FHE. I think it looks much less... sad. We're better as a team :)


And this is Ryan and Tricia's. They even made a cute little ma, pa, and baby.


And here is Steve and Andelyn's... chariot??


What can I say, Steve likes to be creative. Anyway, it was a fun night, and Robert and I have been snacking on the leftover building supplies ever since :)

What Robert does for work

So I figured I'd take a small post to tell people about my work right now because I think it's lots of fun. Well I'm in a research group right now called IMPACT and we are funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. For the past month or so we have been getting training from the university professors and getting experience in different fields of research. So we have been working on different research assignments of problems that have already been solved in order to learn how to solve other problems. Let me tell you what I've done.

I've helped save the whales by discovering that there is a 95% probability that a bowhead whale gestation period is between 441 and 464 days. I've discovered that the policies implemented in a Philadelphia coal mine in 1899 decreased the yearly rate of deaths in order to use those policies in other coal mines. I've found that decreasing the amount of prey by 30% in a city with a predator-prey crisis will decrease both the amount of predators and prey to a manageable amount. We've also worked with DNA sequence analysis to be able to identify matching DNA strands and similar stuff for matching fingerprints. For a TV station I've created a model for predicting the amount of shares a viewing of a movie will generate based on the amount of shares it's premier viewing will get. I have disproven the hot hands theory of basketball (though I still believe it). And most importantly I have found the optimal wing and body length of these paper helicopters in order to maximize hang time.



If these projects don't sound like fun I don't know what does. So basically I'm enjoying it a lot and enjoy being paid to learn. In a week I'll be assigned to a specific professor and a specific unsolved research project which I will be working on for the next year. Then it will be the real deal. If the research turns out to be interesting or new then I can publish it and present at conferences and stuff. It's lots of fun.

Thanks for letting me talk about my job. I love it.

A NEW ADDITION TO THE FAMILY!!!

Yes, we got a new entertainment center. Well, at least it's new to us. We bought it from our land lord, and we are very excited about it. Now our house is a lot more organized. That's a steal for forty dollars!!

A Red Letter Week!!

This week has been one GREAT week. Starting with the 4th of July. Provo goes all out for the 4th. The main part of Center Street in downtown was closed off for 3 days and lined with booths and carnival rides and what not. There was a big parade on the 4th and people setup camp the day before on the side of the street and camped out all night so that they would have a good seat to watch it. It was fun to watch all of the chaos. For the 4th I made red, white, and blue pancakes and we watched the parade in the morning.


That night we watched Independence Day then walked outside and watched the fireworks that were going off at BYU. I missed my family and the normal celebration I have with them, but we had a good day nonetheless.

Monday, we found out that Robert got a 10 out of 10 on his second actuarial exam. I would go into a long explanation, but to save time I will just say that that is a BIG deal, and will make his chances of him getting a job when we are back in Arizona that much easier. He takes his next exam in November, and I am sure he will do amazing on that one too.

Thursday, I GOT A JOB!!!!!


I'll be working at Taylor Maid. We sell costumes and theatrical make up, salon products, and have a small full service salon. I will be working as a sales associate, but they want me trained and working as a manager by mid-August. I am SOOOOO excited to be working again!!! I try not to think about it too much because then I start to worry that I won't be good enough and I start to freak myself out.

Friday was Robert's birthday. We had planned on going camping but decided that we didn't have the money for it right now. So instead we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over our stove at home.



And for Robert's birthday I got him Nerf Guns. We have had a few battles with them and I think that I am the better shot :) His favorite thing to do with them is shoot them at the people on the T.V. I think he will always have a little boy in him :)



And on Saturday we got tickets from a friend for the Harry Potter midnight showing!!! I was bummed because we weren't going to be able to go because we didn't have the extra money, but now we are and our friend said we could pay him back later! YIPPEE!!!

Overall it was a great week! This Friday, after Robert gets paid, we have decided that we are going to go someplace nice to celebrate everything :) I can't wait!

My Tribute to President Hinckley

So this is a project that I started a year and a half ago and just now FINALLY finished. After President Hinckley passed and I had watched several tributes people had made to him on YouTube, I decided to make one of my own. I decided what better than the memories of kids. So these are all my nieces and nephews (at least all of the ones that can talk and would get in front of the camera) saying what they remember about President Hinckley.

Happy Birthday Robert!!!

Who knew that this...


would turn into this...


Happy 22nd birthday Robert!!!

This is the title for this post

This post was made by Robert by the way.

Finals week for the summer semester was June 15-19. When I realized I could finish them all by the 17th leaving a four day weekend, we decided to go to Arizona. We made arrangements with our Richardson family (there's no his, her, or mine, just ours) to crash the party they were having. They had access to a resort in Scottsdale that needed to be used up soon so we tagged along with them. We made AWESOME tie-dye t-shirts that we'll have to post pictures of later. We had a western barbecue where I won a cactus buddy and we got put in jail.




And on Friday we all went to Out Of Africa and saw a ton of cool animals.



This camel gave our guide a big slobbery kiss.




These guys kill lions!!




The legend of the unicorn is said to come from these antelopish things.




Turns out zebras really aren't as friendly as some of the other animals. And the truth about their stripes is that they are black with black and white stripes.




This 'eland' ate from Heidi's hand. It's large snout came right into the bus.




But definitely the highlight of the animals was the snake. It is a 18-foot 100-lb python and it scared the heebie-jeebies out of some people. We weren't scared so we hung around with it for a while and let it slither all over us. Then they needed to put it back in its pen, so the guide told all the kids to help lift. I was right near the tail end, but there was a smaller kid there who looked excited to help, so I let him pick it up. Good thing too. The snake started to poo. Yes he poos once every other week and we were lucky enough to see. I won't give any details, but it was awesome!!




When we decided to go down we also decided not to tell our Wilcken family. So we totally surprised them. That was even better than seeing the snake poop. We walked into to their house and mom was standing behind the counter in the kitchen talking with dad and Mike and Katie (Mike and Katie knew we were coming). Mom looked and started to continue her thought and then realized who it was and stopped cold with a very surprised look. It was a lot of fun. Aubrie got home and saw the car in the driveway, and I'm sure she was quite confused. She was excited to see us too. Breanna wasn't home so we decided to go to her work. Mom and Dad went with us and went in to Ocean Blue first. They distracted her and turned her back towards the door. We walked in and Dad looked up and said 'Oh no.' She turned around and screamed (for joy of course). Everyone else in the store turned their head to see what was going on.

It was a great trip!!

My Husband...

Well Sunday not only was Father's Day but it also marked 4 months since I married the most amazing man ever. So I thought it was high time I wrote a little tribute to Robert. Except now that I am doing it I don't know what to say and am hoping it doesn't come off as too corny...

When I first became friends with Robert while doing the musical our sophomore year in high school, what first impressed me the most was how girl crazy he WASN'T. All of my guy friends around that time were constantly going after girls, and more often then not it ended up being the same girl which would start all sorts of drama. But Robert was only focused on just having a good time in high school and doing the best he could with whatever he was doing. I guess that made it easier for very low self-esteem me to feel comfortable talking to and getting close to him because I didn't have to worry about being the most impressive girl around. I could just be me and the was more than good enough. Then when Robert started liking me back (I was his first crush EVER :) he could easily make me feel like the prettiest most amazing girl in the world just by the way he would treat me.

Alas, high school drama and lack of communication fouled that situation up junior year before any hand holding had even occurred. Robert spent the next 4 and a half years being very bitter towards me and I spent them regretting what had happened and wishing that I had done things differently. Long story short, and very unexpectedly, we got a second chance once Robert got home from his mission, and I thank Heavenly Father everyday for it.

Three of the millions of reasons I love Robert are...

1. He is a constant surprise. I never know what funny thing, sweet thing, or new talent he is going to pull out next. For example, I knew he was an awesome pianist, but then in high school, during the second musical we did together, he pulled out a trumpet and started to go to town on that, then after he got home from his mission we were hanging out with some friends and out of nowhere he pulled a harmonica out of his pocket and started jamming out on that. He is the same way with sports too. He can run with the best of them in ultimate frisbee, softball/baseball, and racquetball, and he was a pretty good wrestler back in high school, and no one ever sees him coming. He's not the best at basketball, although he has the best Granny Shot I've ever seen ;)

2. He LOVES the Gospel. He loves talking about his mission, in fact the only time his face lights up more than when he talks about his mission is when he talks about me :) He loves magnifying his callings, not only our Primary calling, but also in his Home Teaching assignments. He loves going to the temple with me. He loves studying the scriptures. You name it, if it has to do with the gospel, He LOVES it.

And last but not least...
3. He's a husband I can cry on, and never cry about. It's been 4 months and we are still in the honeymoon phase. We've never had a disagreement that has lasted more than a minute and we have never been even the slightest bit upset with each other, and honestly it's getting harder and harder to even picture a situation that would make us be upset at each other. The hardest part of our marriage thus far has just been being so far away from family. It really takes its toll on me sometimes. There have been several times that we'll be lying in bed and Robert will take me in his arms and just let me sob on him for hours. And eventually, I get overwhelmed by how much he loves me that I'll start crying even more. And then I'll finally stop and I'll feel a million times better because I know I will always have my Robert.

This weekend as we were driving home after hanging out with some friends, Robert said, "It's so great that we are always together. It's almost like our friends think of us as one person. It's perfect, and we have this forever." I couldn't agree more. Even now, more than five years later, Robert still makes me feel like the prettiest and most amazing girl in the world, the way he did in high school. Except now it's not only by the way he treats me, he just has to look at me and I know. Robert is my best friend, a perfect husband, and someday he will be an amazing dad.


Four months down... Forever to go... And loving every minute of it.

WE'RE LEPRECHAUNS!!!!

We found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow ;)

I Love the Mountains... Aka Date Hike

It was once again my (Heidi's) turn to choose what we were going to do for date night. I decided last week that we would go hike to the Y on Y Mountain. Then this week I got really sick, allergy sick, but when Friday came I was feeling okay so we went to hike the Y anyway. Well long story short, with a combination of me just barely feeling better and being VERY out of shape, we didn't do the whole hike. It's a switchback hike, and there are 11 switchbacks, and let's just say that I didn't make it through all 11. It's embarrassing how dead I was after the little we did and how sore I have been since. We have recommitted ourselves to getting into shape and plan on waking up early every morning to run until we are. Anyway, here's pictures from our adventure.





In other news, I still have not found a job up here, and it's gotten to the point that the job market has just died, so I can't even find hardly any places that are hiring anymore. So, Robert and I have decided that I should look into going back to school and finally finish my Associates. We've been exploring the option, and my best bet is to go to LDS Business College in Salt Lake. I'm going to meet with an advisor there this week to see if I would be able to finish my Associates within the year that we are going to be here. If not, it wouldn't be worth it to transfer the credits I have just to have to transfer them back, and if that is the case I will keep taking classes online through Mesa Community College. But it would be fun to go back to school full time again. Here's hoping!

Operation: Date Night. Mission: Beauty and the Beast

Friday night we went and saw Beauty and the Beast at the Scera Outside Theater. It was a great show. I loved the set. It was made to look like a bunch of books and with each scene change they would pull out one of the books and open it up. Very clever and creative in my opinion. The girl who played Belle was AMAZING!!! Beast wasn't the best Beast that I've seen but he was still good. It was windy which made it really cold. Luckily, we brought blankets to sit on and cover us. So it was a fun date night all around, I give it a 10. :)

Visitor and Visiting

The past couple of weeks have been crazy busy. First of all, the week after Memorial Day, my sister Aubrie came and stayed with Robert and me. We had a ton of fun!!!

One of our many adventures is that we went to see Bridal Veil Falls. It's a beautiful spot in Provo Canyon.
Ain't we precious!?!




Aubrie is such a model.




They are beautiful!!!

That night we went to Chuck-A-Rama. We might have had a little too much fun :) I'm not going to lie, I'm so proud of this face. It doesn't even look like me ;)


And Aubrie and I were as cute as ever.


And honestly, what trip is complete without without making a blanket fort?


Sung as a bug :)


That weekend we went to Mesa for our friends', Natalie and Hunter's wedding. It was so great to see all of our friends and family. I miss them all SOOOOOOO much!!! Robert's accomplishment of the weekend is that he was able to hold each of our twin nephews without them crying. It made him so happy. One thing that's hard about having so many people that love you and you love back is that it's a lot of people that you have to miss. We'll be back in Arizona in a year and I cannot wait!




We rarely can take pictures that both of us are serious in. Oh well :)

"If we don't all hang together...

We'll most assuredly hang separately." (Benjamin Franklin)

Well this weekend Robert and I went to Oak City for my family's annual Memorial Day Breakfast. It's basically a family reunion that happens every year, but we only consider it an actual reunion every other year and this was an off year. So there wasn't quite as many people as there would have been if it had been a reunion year, but there was still a bunch to say the least. Anyway, it was the first time I had been in 7 years. I was very nervous to say the least. Back in the day at this reunion I was always just super shy. So, here I was, taking my husband to meet a ton of family that he had never met before and that I hadn't seen in 7 years, so I didn't even know how many of them would remember me.

Well... I had a GRRRRRRRRREAT time!!! I finally got to know a bunch of my cousins that I never had really taken the time to talk to and get to know before. I got to spend time with some of my sisters and their families that I hadn't seen in so long. Robert got to show off his wicked awesome softball skills. We had such a great time. It's gotten to the point that some of my generation is taking over traditions that have usually been taken care by the older generation. It was so great to see that even though our family is getting older and changing, the traditions are still being carried on. TRADITION!!! The best part about this reunion is that I realized/was reminded that I have a bunch of extended family that lives here in Provo or really close to it. I don't have to feel so alone any more!! The whole weekend just made me very happy!!

On the way back to Provo we saw something AMAZING that just put the cherry on top for the weekend. We were driving on the I-15 when I look out the window and what to my wondering eyes should appear...





Yep!! It's Taylor Swift's tour bus!!! She's doing a bunch of concerts here in Utah this week. We all got very excited (Aubrie, my sister, was with us. She is staying with us this week.) Aubrie ordered Robert to catch up to the bus so that I could snap a picture with my cell phone. So, we can basically say that we saw Taylor Swift. There might have been, you know, the wall of a bus blocking our sight, but we saw her. And she was only like 10 feet away from us.

Anyway, that was our Memorial Day Weekend. Hope everyone else's was at least half as exciting ;)