June 25th

Today anniversary of many things I'm sure, including the death of MJ. 

As cool as MJ was, I am going focus on one of the events that actually impacted my life.

Brady returned from him Mexican mission on June 25, 2010.

He served in the Mexico City East mission from 2008-2010.

It is so weird to think he has finally been home as long as he was gone.

I must say that these last two years went by WAY faster compared to the two years he was gone. 

Thank goodness for that. 

It really seems like just yesterday I was standing in the St. George airport waiting for him to come home {getting harassed by everyone that was there}, and forcing Brady to take the extremely awkward picture shown below.

{I have chosen to not be offended that I was clearly more excited to be reunited- even my dad and brother look more excited then Brady in this picture}

On a more serious note, I am so glad that I am married to a man that made the decision to serve a faithful, two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

He rocks.

"King Me"

Congrats to my number one favorite pro athlete LeBron James and the Miami Heat.

It was an awesome series and ended in the best way possible {with LeBron getting a ring and proving that he is the best player in the NBA}.

Congrats to OKC for making it to the finals and giving the Heat a good fight. It was hard to root against the Thunder, but my love for LeBron won out.

This is the first time the team I wanted the entire season to win it all actually did.. in any sport {The Jazz and BYU ALWAYS let me down}, making this finals even better.

Now that basketball is over it is a good thing the Olympics are right around the corner.... Looking forward to the Summer Games will make suffering through baseball season just a little bit more bearable. 

The Windy City

My mom and I went to Milwaukee to see my sister's brand new baby and help her pack for the big move to California.

To break up the packing madness we took a day trip to Chicago.

It rocked.

We walked all over the city and found out people in Chicago are just the nicest. On the street {and everywhere we went} we got wished Happy Mothers Day about a billion times, one lady going so far as to bless both my sister and her new baby. We also got a ton of free doughnuts. I love doughnuts. 

We visited Cloud Gate in Millenium Park.

We got an extremely nice, old lady that worked at the museum to give us her membership so we could all three get into the Art Institute of Chicago Museum for free {we (my mom) will do anything not the pay the $18 admission price}. 

It was hilarious.

We LOVED the art museum. 

Mostly because a lot of the paintings we recognized from one of our family's all time favorite games, Masterpiece. 

And  we did A LOT of shopping {I didn't get any pictures of all of our awesome stuff, sorry}.

It was the best day.

Cruisin'

To celebrate my college graduation {finally!} and one year of marriage we decided to kick off the summer by cruising down to Mexico. 

During the semester I would be at school from like one in the afternoon {sue me, I'm not a morning person} to nine at night and Brady would go to school before I woke up and come home around five. Basically, we never got to see each other. 

 It was so nice to get out of Provo and spend some quality time together, just the two of us.

Our activities consisted of...

hanging by the pool

playing mini-golf on the ship

jet skiing and snorkeling in Cabo

looking at pretty views

taking walks around the ports...

...and on the beach

zip lining through the jungle in Puerto Vallarta 

 and lastly, eating MASS AMOUNTS of food, especially chocolate frozen yogurt {for me} and chocolate/vanilla twist frozen yogurt {for Brady}.

Some of our interesting experiences consisted of::

-our dinner table teaching us how to take a water bottle lid off without breaking the seal so we would know how to sneak alcohol onto the ship 

-seeing these signs around every corner {I decided to leave this picture off facebook, but since this is a journal I just had to include it here because it was the cause of at least 50% of our laughter during the vacation}:

-watching the hairy chest contest {sorry, I know everyone is DYING to see a picture, but the only one I took was even more inappropriate than the sign above}

-and getting asked if we wanted to get high in a super creepy voice from at least fifteen Mexican men after we said no to all of the other activities they offered us.

It really was a magical vacation.

One Year

One year ago today....

I married this guy

In this place

and it was the best decision I ever made.

I can't wait to celebrate many, many more anniversaries together!

I love you Brady Reid! 

A BYU Grad, Finally

University:: Brigham Young University

Degree:: Bachelor of Art

{side note:: I had no idea I was getting a Bachelors of Art until I picked up my tassel. I mean my major was Political SCIENCE so I just assumed I was getting a Bachelors of Science. Whatev.}

Major:: Political Science

Minor:: Middle Eastern Studies

Date:: April 19-20, 2012

Here are some pictures for your viewing enjoyment::

{my awesome diploma holder}

{getting my awesome diploma holder}

{my lovely parents}

{my great in-laws}

{mother}

{father}

{husband}

{ashlyn and I at commencement} 

{my mom loves door signs, I love Dr. Pepper}

Thanks to::

-Brady, for putting up with my school  related breakdowns (well actually all breakdowns, but this is a graduation post so we will keep it about school}, and helping me combine millions of excel documents. I  know you loved every second of it :).

-The in-laws, for coming up to support me and letting me drag you guys around City Creek.

-Ashlyn, for helping me graduate with a decent GPA and for suffering through 328 with me. 

-My professors, for teaching me really cool stuff, and not failing me. 

-Subway, for making Turkey the "sub of the day" on Wednesdays, my longest day on campus.

-My dad, for putting up with years of school related breakdowns, helping me with my econometrics homework, giving me directions to buildings on campus {even my senior year}, and for always making sure I knew that whatever grade I got  was good enough as long as I tried my best.

-My mom, for creating the best house in the world to come home to when I needed a break from school, for always letting me talk to her about anything, for editing my papers, for helping me decorate my apartment, and giving me groceries every time I came home, which definitely made my life less stressful.

-And to everyone else for making my BYU experience great! 

The Rundown

Now that my life is not taken over by papers/presentations/tests I can stop neglecting my blog. 

Cool. 

So this is what we have been up to the past month or so...

1:: City Creek!

I don't know why, but I had been dying to go to this mall for quite some time.

Opening weekend I dragged my friend Ashlyn with me.

It was awesome. Well, I thought so at least. 

{purchases}

{no purchases}

2:: School Mishaps

Let's just say I failed miserably on my capstone presentation. 

I emailed myself an unfinished version of my powerpoint.

The powerpoint I emailed my self included the word "billionssssss" {yes, with every single "s"} in the space where the total cost of the Iraq War was supposed to go.

AND

I talked about the Obama REGIME instead of the Obama Administration.

Oops. 

On a happy note, I am done with school forever!

{graduation post coming soon, because it is too cool to be included in this catch up}

3:: Easter

We went down to St. George for Easter and it rocked.

We went to some awesome family parties.

Participated in the First Annual McArthur Pickleball tournament.

{we lost in the second round, chance and konner took home the trophy}

I got to see my favorite pregnant person {erin}.

We played some games, and went on an extreme Easter egg hunt. 

We got to see some of my favorite children.

We dyed some easter eggs {all ten of Anna's were straight pink}

{max looks terrified, but he love us all, I promise}

{Easter Sunday}

4:: The Nursing Learning Center

After four years, I am done working at the NLC.

Even though the manikins were creepy, 

I will miss it. 

"That's all folks!"

Barbara Jean

Today marks three years since the passing of this perfect lady.

Barbara Jean Stephens Hamm

She was honestly the best grandma anyone could ask for and I miss her dearly everyday. 

To give you a taste of how wonderful she really was here is a list of a few of the things I loved most about her::

-She was so selfless. Seriously, she would do ANYTHING that she could for anyone in her family. Including making me plain pie crust with sugar and butter at the bottom whenever I wanted because pie crust was my favorite.

-She was hilarious, even without meaning to be. One of my favorite memories is when we were sitting around the table one night after she got a cell phone and she asked if people could see her when they called because there are cameras on phones now {she was really nervous about this because sometimes she takes her phone with her when she goes to the bathroom}. We all started crying we were laughing so hard, including grandma.

-She was a MASTER cook and seamstress. She could make, sew, cook, or bake anything. 

-She let me (an annoying teenager) live with her for six months when my parents were overseas. Only a saint would do that. 

-She made everyone around her feel like they were her favorite person in the world {even though I was actually her favorite :) }

-She was the only person that believed I would actually wait for and marry Brady. One of the last things I remember her talking to me about was how she just knew that I was going to marry Brady despite everyones doubts. It meant so much that someone believed in us at that time and I am grateful to her for that. 

To sum it up:: She was just amazing.

I recently came across this picture. 

And while it isn't a great picture of any of us,

it is one of the most recent pictures I have.

And it makes me smile.

Procrastination

Due to the MASSIVE procrastination problem I have...

-three presentations

-one 4-6 page paper

-one 8-10 page policy memo (in a group... thank goodness)

-two 12-15 page papers

-one 20-25 page paper

-four finals

All of which needs to be completed in the next three weeks.

Why did I think it would be a good idea to major in Political Science again???

Weirdly enough, I am most stressed out about the 4-6 page paper... because it is a philosophy paper and I am the world's WORST philosopher. 

The daunting list above makes a blogging hiatus necessary.

Goodbye till after graduation!

Wish me luck...

Date Morning

Since Brady is on Spring Break and I don't believe in taking classes before noon we started our morning off right.

With breakfast and the season finale of The Bachelor {sorry mom}.

I have the best husband.

{and a really cute niece}

The end. 

Stressed

This is about the time of year where all of procrastination catches up with me.

School is stressful.

I have four fifteen page papers due in the next couple of weeks. Gross.

The job hunt is stressful.

Well mostly thinking about starting the job hunt because that is about as far as I have gone.

On a happier note::

-I have officially started two out of four of my fifteen page papers.

-It is finally warm outside.

-AND GRADUATION IS IN FIVE WEEKS! {I don't normally condone caps, but I thought it was appropriate for that bullet}

GRADUATION! YEAHH! {and that}

KONY 2012

Since the KONY 2012 campaign has been flooding my facebook newsfeed I decided I should probably learn more about it. 

Pro KONY 2012

HERE is an article that is more critical of KONY 2012. 

After looking at both, I tend to agree with the article. I am by no means saying that Joseph Kony is not an evil man doing horrible things, but this article does make some very good points.

{disclaimer: I have not done tons of research on the topic}

I think that this movement is more about curing the symptom than fixing the cause.

I think that eliminating one man will not solve the problem, the problem is much deeper and more complex than that. 

Lastly, I think that terrible things are happening to children in Uganda. I just don't know that this is the answer.

The Big Two-Two

This year my birthday fell on a good day.

Friday.

No school, no work... just shopping, eating, and Lebron.

My lovely parents drove up from St. George to spend the day with me. 

Since Friday is not such a good day for Brady (he has school AND work.. lame), my parents and I drove up to Salty City to shop before the Jazz game. 

We went to Ikea, Forever 21, and H&M. 

{Clarification:: My mom and I shopped, and my dad waited in the car (what a gem).}

We then met up with Brady at Crown Burger to grab a bite to eat in preparation to see The King {Lebron James}.

I just love him.

{As if you couldn't tell by the millions of pictures I took}

Other pictures for your viewing enjoyment::

Brady & I watching warm-ups

The Parents

The best part of the game? The Jazz actually WON! 

This is us excited that the Jazz finally won.

I got spoiled this year.

I received::

-Breakfast in bed, a decorated house, my favorite candy, a cute letter, AND coupons made by my amazing husband

-Many, many clothes purchased by my parents

-Tickets to the Jazz vs. Lebron game

-A package from my sister including earrings, a headband, and pictures drawn by Natalie and Becca

-A devine cupcake from Ashlyn
-A crown pillow handsewn from my perfect nephew, Josh

-A darling purse with new wallet inside, and lots of the easter resses {aka the best candy- perfect chocolate to peanut butter ratio} from the in-laws

-Birthday cards from grandparents

-And many, many birthday wishes via calls, texts, in person, and of couse facebook!

Thank you so much to everyone who made my day so amazing!! 

I really do have the best friends and family ever {I am not biased at all}!

I have a feeling my twenty second year of life is going to be a great one.

Happy Leap Day

I love leap day. 

To commemorate I thought I would share some LKLDFs (little known leap day facts).

Fact one:: Leap day is every four years unless the number is divisible by 100. In that case there is no leap day unless the year is also perfectly divisible by 400.

Fact two:: The great rapper Ja Rule was born on leap day.

Fact three:: It is normal for women to propose to men on this great day. {for the whole story click HERE}

Fact four:: You have a 1-in-1461 chance of being born on a leap day.

Fact five:: This year leap day was also free cookie day at Subway- I chose to sample the white chocolate macadamia nut cookie and it was so good it got me thorough my Chinese Politics test {sidenote: Chinese names are VERY hard to learn how to spell}

Fact six {my most favorite fact}:: Leap day in Utah has officially been declared Jeremy Evans day due his great ability to "leap" and win the 2012 Slam Dunk Contest. {for the formal press release click HERE}

Happy Jeremy Evans/ Leap Day to everyone!

p.s. you can find all the leap day facts I posted and many more here and here

Holiday Weekend

St. George, as always, did not disappoint. 

It was sunny, warm, and just beautiful.

We filled the weekend by::

-playing our favorite game, Catan

-cleaning up the family corral {aka tumbleweed removal}

-playing lots of card games

-going to breakfast with the McArthurs at Kneaders

-watching the Thunder basketball game

-having my family birthday party {complete with homemade eggrolls and layered dessert}

-playing with my favorite children

-going to lots of the parade of homes houses

House #14 was, by far, decorated the cutest. 

Here are some pictures of my favorite rooms::

{if you couldn't already tell by the colors of my blog, apartment, wedding colors, or the pictures above, I am obsessed with the yellow-grey combo}

It was the best and I can't wait to go back!