Roland

Like I had mentioned earlier, Marcus was having a rough time with some work assignments.  It seemed like the only thing that would cheer him up was...

Yeah, seriously.  Yoo-hoo.

Anyway, since he had been given some money with his award from BYU, we decided to put it to good use: a stress outlet for Marcus.

I think this is the first time I've seen him smile WHILE putting together something that arrived in tiny pieces in the Amazon box.

Check it out, he's still happy :)

You can almost tell what it is there.

Ah, his finished product.  (I thought it was funny how his big cheesy smile vanished when he was playing since he said he was happier.  LOL.)

No worries, the cat was ALWAYS close.

Jamming away.

Yes, he is playing in our living room in these pictures.
No, it did not stay there.  But we're still working on its final home in the bedroom somewhere.  (Organizing that room is a project for another month.)
It actually packs up pretty small.  A ton smaller than his actual kit, which is still in Utah.
Surprisingly enough it is so quiet.  I'm sure neighbors will like this tons better than when he had his set up in our other apartments.
But he likes it.  And he's super excited for when his bass pedal comes in the mail, if you even noticed he doesn't have one yet.
And I'm hoping it does its job.  Relieve stress.  Marcus' and mine! Haha.
New rule-- Little Critter is allowed to play any instrument, as long as it is small...  :)

My Stud Hubby

So I married a stud. Seriously. I'm sure many of you realize that, but we were reminded recently. :) A couple weeks ago, Marcus was having a tough time with some work assignments and was feeling really low. Out of nowhere, he received an email from the PR department at BYU saying that he had won an award from the Rulon R. Bradley foundation. Honestly, we didn't really know what that meant, but we made assumptions based on Marcus' hard work for many semesters in the BYU Bradley Lab. And he was shocked to have been awarded anything. The email invited Marcus to a luncheon, which sadly he obviously couldn't attend, and it said they would be sending him a cash award. Sweet deal. He really deserved that!

Anyway, today in the mail, the delivery guy dropped off a good sized manilla envelope. I was a little confused since I didn't remember ordering anything recently, but Marcus sometimes randomly does... However it was addressed from the BYU Communications department.

Assuming it was a letter with the award money, he let me open it while he was at work.

Nope, it was a box. I was getting pretty excited for him since obviously it was something cool, which it was. :)

Here's a better shot of HIS PLAQUE(!) outside the plastic. (Sorry about the flash in the corner.)

Apparently this award was a bigger deal that we realized. Marcus was named the Outstanding Senior in Public Relations for 2012! I'm so excited for him! I'm sure it means a lot to him to have been recognized for all his hard work finishing up his degree, and I wish he would've been able to attend the luncheon and award ceremony. I hope we will be able to hang it up somewhere close to his diploma, once we get that too :)

YAY MARCUS!

Home Improvements Cont.

I've been continuing to work on our little home improvement projects. I figured the easiest place to start was hanging up some pictures. Finally. I've been putting up a collage of the black frames in our hallway. We don't have tons of space, obviously, and I figured using the hall space was a smart place to start.

I still need to put up pictures in the bedroom, but that project will be another day. Or another month. I had started cleaning up and organizing the living room first, and eventually I'll move on to re-"decorating" the bedroom too. Once I figure out how we'll arrange the furniture to fit Critter, then I'll put pictures up and clean up the messes hiding in every corner.

So like I posted before, this corner in our kitchen had quickly gotten out of control. So this was first on the list. I knew I couldn't actually get rid of the mess, so instead, I wanted to just hide it.

I bought a tablecloth that matched the colors in the room. I figured it would be best to use a tablecloth since it was a thicker material, machine-washable, and on sale. :)

Chicago kept it safe until I was ready to work on the project.

So here's stage one:

I connected the material to the shelving until with curtain ring hooks. It worked better than I thought it would. Plus it was easier than than trying to attach velcro or sew onto metal. :)

Sadly, in the process, I knocked the speaker off the tv stand, and I broke Chicago's food bowl. So I had to take a break to go out and buy another one. Luckily there are several pet shops close to our apartment. The one I went to didn't have many options, but it was a cute little store.

And here's the end of stage one. I definitely helped clean up the area. And once I move the cereal boxes, old notes on the fridge, and the extra bag of food we bought Chicago, I'm sure it will look even better.

Then I needed to figure out how to finish up the material and find a way to actually get into the shelves when we need the bakeware hiding behind it. Let me know if you have suggestions :)

Easter

I was all excited to post some pictures of the fun Easter presents I got for Marcus, but my pictures disappeared. Sad day. But don't worry, I fixed it the problem all by myself(!), so it shouldn't do that anymore. Anyway, I love excuses to spoil Marcus. :) And I was so proud of myself for finding some good deals. I didn't have a basket again this year, so I made a pile on our chair before church. It wasn't anything big, but a few fun things. I got him a new tie, socks, two movies, and some candy. I know it sounds like a lot, but I was proud of myself for not spending as much as it seems.

We had a nice time at church, and Marcus gave a great lesson in Sunday School about the olive tree allegory. It was a beautiful day, so we walked home. Usually it's really cold and windy on our way home, but today we got to enjoy the sunshine. And I decided I really wanted a burrito, which Marcus was happy to help with as long as we watched one of his new movies That Thing You Do. We enjoyed a calm afternoon watching the movie and preparing our contributions for a potluck Easter dinner.

We had dinner with two other couples who live near us in Sunnyside, and we had a really nice time. Since we couldn't visit family for the day, it was great being able to spend the holiday with some good friends from the ward.

Our families were sweet to do little things for us for Easter. Marcus' family sent us some yummy Cadbury chocolate, which is already just about gone. It was great! I have a love hate relationship with those great candies. And when my mom was in town, we went in F.A.O. Schwartz, and she bought Critter his/her first present.

Since Critter (so named from the Little Critter books) won't be arriving until late September, we'll have to hang on to the book and bunny until then. :) But we're really excited! And it gets better... Today, at my doctor's appointment, we were informed that our Critter is most likely a little BOY! We'll know for sure in a month, but the doctor seemed fairly confident. :) Marcus claims he's known all along Critter is a little guy... and I'd post pictures, but I just couldn't start embarrassing him too early in his life. Haha.

Oh, and p.s. Marcus had ordered me an Easter/end of first trimester gift which he gave me last night when I got home from work. I was really excited. Hopefully our little munchkin will appreciate it too! I'm sure we'll consider the series very educational and start his Potter education young. :)