my apologies...

Note, this post was written July 10th, but never got posted. Here it is though!

It has been brought to my attention (mmm by Sam) that I don't proof read my posts before uploading them. We actually had a really good laugh reading them out loud together and coming across so many errors. I assure you I can write without error and will try to do better!

Sam came home Sunday and it feels as if he was never gone! So happy to have him back :) Nothing too exciting to blog about this week... however I do have a funny story from work!

One night this week I was working, and the hostess told me that Matt Carlino was at a nearby table (for those of you who don't know, he is BYU's starting point guard). Anyway, in the Tillman house we loved Carlino last season, so I was kind of excited to see this guy. Anyway... me looking at Carlino... turned into Carlino checking me out (and not in that, 'you're kind of a local celebrity' type way). Anyway I caught that boy's glance my way every so often. No biggie though, the kid is younger than Rodger (my little brother)! However, it doesn't end there... as he and his friends were heading out, he stopped in front of me and asked me if he could get some chocolate mints. As I handed them the basket to take them from he quickly goes, "are you married?" My reply, "yes... but I enjoy watching you play." (Don't worry, Sam has approved of that comment). He didn't even say anything but smiled/blushed and walked away haha! Sam came in later that night to visit me and almost DIED when I told him that story. He texted the tale to a number of his friends, with pride (I assume) that BYU's point guard was interested in his wife's marital status. We decided we are still Carlino fans :)

So one last story... Sam knew how badly I wanted to go to the Gavin Degraw/Colbie Caillat concert here in Salt Lake. But sadly, they are coming while we will be at Yellowstone for our family reunion. Well on a whim Sam checked if they were playing anywhere near where we'll be. It just so happens they will be performing in Billings, MT the day we're leaving from the reunion. I don't know what came over me, but when Sam told me I started jumping up and down and was so excited to turn the concert into a road trip for us. Billings is only 4 hours from where we will be in Yellowstone, BUT its a 9 hour drive home. The adventurer in me did not care about that minor detail and so Sam bought his thrilled wife the tickets. The concert is August 11th and I think it will be the highlight of the summer :)

while hubby is away wife will play

I'm happy to say that its Friday now, and only two days until Sam will be home. I have definitely survived this week thanks to lots of shopping and girl time. Tuesday I went shopping with my cousin's wives, Mary and Abbie. Its been a long time since I've shopped til I've dropped. Tuesday we did just that. We started with the brand new Marshalls (it was a bust). By the time we had searched that store up and down we were starving and went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Mary and I shared the Crispy Chicken Costoletta, delicious! Tuesday was the first time in all of my Cheesecake Factory history that I did not order dessert. I've noticed that my love of sweets has been drastically declined since being married, this just proves it. We spent the rest of our evening mostly at H&M. They had fantastic sales going on and I purchased only items on clearance. Our last stop was a quick run into Nordstrom Rack, after years of shopping sales at TJMaxx its hard to spend more than $20 on... anything, so nothing there for me. I literally passed out when we got home at 9:30pm. We'd been out together since 3:30pm, a true girls day. Many thanks to my cousins Ryan and Jason for sharing their wives with me all evening :)




I've posted pictures about this on facebook, but when we were heading up to go shopping we passed the Alpine fires burning. I've never seen anything like that in my life. I've been blessed to have never encountered natural disaster or destruction where I have lived, but this was very close to home. I took pictures with Mary's Iphone to send Sam, the smoke was so thick it looked to me like the pictures you see after the atomic bomb was dropped in Japan. Here is a picture my sister in law Christi took from their backyard to give you an idea of what I mean. Just crazy. Below is a picture of the fires at night. A friend (Aimee Stephens) took this picture and I took it from her FB page. That is an LDS temple in the front of the burning fires. Its the Mount Timpangogas temple, which is near Sam's parents and his two sister's homes. I find the picture beautiful, yet frightening.

Many of my feelings about the fires from Tuesday carried over to the fourth of July. It felt a little inappropriate to be watching fireworks (in Pleasant Grove) while if you looked to your left, you could see the glow of the fires still burning on the mountains. However, prayers were answered yesterday and after almost 2 months without rain (http://m.news.hjnews.com/news/article_4d55548e-ba78-11e1-b879-001a4bcf887a.html?mode=jqm) the heavens were opened and rained poured. I truly believe it was an act from God to answer all of his children's prayers. Sam told me, from a well connected source that every missionary in the MTC fasted and prayed for rain. I have no doubt that it is true. (The MTC stands for Missionary Training Center, which is where LDS missionaries go prior to leaving for the areas they will serve. For more on what fasting is, http://www.lds.org/study/topics/fasting-and-fast-offerings?lang=eng).

Other than that, I enjoyed the 4th of July very much. I worked a very busy lunch shift, but then headed to Sam's parents for a BBQ with his sister's families. And then went to see the fireworks.

Yesterday I had a great morning with my girlfriend Allie. We are in the same Ward (congregation) and are pretty close neighbors. We grabbed lunch at Noodles and Co and finished our day date with a matinee viewing of the new Pixar movie Brave. It was a lot of fun! Like I said, I think I'd be going stir crazy if it wasn't for so many fun plans. While I'm home I watch a lot of reruns of the Wonder Years. I'm absolutely in love with that show right now :) as well as clean the house (or just keep it clean at least) and finishing up some projects around the house! Only two more days, then Sam will be home and will have the entire week off :)

What a weekend!

We had ourselves quite the busy weekend!

Friday, we had a play date with some new friends from church. They have an adorable 2 year old that has won both of our hearts (we usually pay more attention to him during sacrament meeting, oops!) We got to know them better and of course our little buddy. The goal is to have him comfortable enough for us to babysit him and giving his great parents a night out! 

So Saturday was Sam's family reunion for his mom's side. We went to this gorgeous park in Spanish Fork. I met a lot of his family that weren't able to attend the wedding, what wonderful people! My highlight of the day though was kayaking with my cutie nieces. They were so sweet and asked me if I wanted to go with them (someone at the reunion had 4 kayaks they brought). I instantly said yes, and told them I loved to kayak. Sam's response: What?! Yah, and I love to quilt. Lol ya, I guess my prior canoeing/kayaking experience never came up. Anyway, we hit the water together and made our way across the reservoir. My goal with the girls was to get a picture of the three of us together... in our kayaks... not easy. They are pretty bulky vessels! But we succeeded! 

how cute are they!?

So in preparation for the reunion, I made cupcakes as our contribution to the meal. I just picked up the 4th of July edition of Funfetti cake mix, but saw a really cute idea on Pintrest for a festive (yet easy) cupcake. Long story short, the recipe for the frosting (cool whip + jello pudding mix) did not mention how very few cup cakes it would actually frost. So my supplies for 4 dozen cupcakes covered 1 dozen.... Baaah! So half were frosted with normal Pilsberry frosting and the rest with this delicious frosting substitute (I actually used lite cool whip and sugar free pudding mix, it tasted AWESOME!) Because of the whipped frosting debacle I had no time at all to perfect my frosting skills, but here they are!

Sunday was the most important event yet. Sam's grandma's 90th birthday party. His sister Christi took on the party, and it turned out amazing! She also threw my bridal shower... the woman is amazing! It was a cute fiesta theme and she made so many tissue paper flowers to cover the room, and even as napkin rings. 30+ people were going to be there and it was my assignment to bring the Cafe Rio style beans. Folks, let me tell you... these beans consumed my thoughts the entire week. Especially Saturday night/Sunday morning... Sam had a great time going off (teasing me) about my bean obsession. Long story short, I refused to spend $10 on canned beans, so I bought dry beans for over half the price. Well, I was stressed out of my mind making 3 lbs of dried beans, simply because I had never even made 1 pound of dried beans. It the end they turned out wonderful, however beans are not as fun to photograph as cupcakes. Here is the recipe if you'd like to try them yourself! 

http://www.abountifulkitchen.com/2011/09/cafe-rio-style-black-beans.html

I adapted this blogger's recipe for 50 for 30, and we still had A LOT of left overs. I froze two tupperware containers, plus family took some home after the party and I have left overs in my fridge. Don't believe them when they say 1 pound serves 8-10, more like 10-15!

Finally, Sam had last week off of work (because this week he is gone to Yellowstone with the family he assists, lucky him...) So we tried to make Sam's week off as fun as possible (don't worry, this week is my turn :) So the big event for his week off was computer shopping and then getting a new computer. Yay! Other highlights: Ice cream/smoothie runs at McDonalds, movie night, being introduced to Angry Birds (then becoming obsessed with Angry Birds) and getting his Ipod Touch. We also had crepes one morning using our crepe maker (a random, yet fun wedding gift). I wasn't getting the hang of our little contraption, but Sam did and became the crepe master :) We also finished ALL of our thank you's from the wedding (I set a six month deadline... Sam only wrote 3 thank you's in 5 months and 3 weeks, and finished his (ever growing stack) this week. I cannot tell you what a relief that is to be done with!

So now Sam is gone, and I am here, alone. But I have planned a fun week for myself. Yesterday I started it off by dropping Sam off at the airport and hitting up some shopping in the South Jordan area (there are some good shops and a fantastic TJMaxx!) Then I treated myself to a nice time at IKEA, including a delicious lunch, completed with a $1 frozen yogurt. I need an IKEA visit every once in awhile to take me back to my time in Sweden. I have nothing but the best of memories from my time there and enjoy thinking of those happy times! Back home I did a little redecorating before heading to my friend Whitney's to watch the Bachelorette! I was over at her house until 11pm (her husband is out of town too!) I have nothing but the best time with her! Today has been a little slower of a 'fun' day, but I'm going shopping with my cousins (in law) Mary and Abbie to the H&M and brand new Marshalls (we don't have those here!) We will literally be next door to the Cheesecake Factory... I don't know if I'll be able to resist picking a slice up! I have lots more fun planned for the rest of the week, but I'll write more on that as it happens, and yes I'll be working a lot too to make up for all this fun!

This was one clearance for $5, its really beautiful in person. Can you believe it! Also, I think our light switch cover is crooked.... 

Rearranged the shelves above our computer desk. Simple but I like it :)