Suggestions???

I'm afraid I'm going brain dead. I just had a conversation with Heather where she told me she sets her clocks in her car, kitchen, bedroom all at different times, 30, 5, 15 minutes ahead so that she can keep her mind thinking and her brain alive. WOW! Seriously, not being in school full time anymore and working at a job where I use minimal brain functions (I guess I do count money every day), I feel like my mind is going downhill. My Spanish class is the only thing keeping it alive!

First of all, I'm a tv JUNKIE. Juan is so busy with school and is currently busy an extra 3 nights a week with a tax class, I watch practically every show on tv! It's quite embarrassing, but still entertaining and addicting.

Second, which is connected to the first, I cannot read books! I am so used to 30 minute tv programs that are even cut down to 20 minutes due to tivo, that I don't have the patience for books. I also read articles on the internet all day every day, and those are half-page reading materials, how can I stick it out for 400 pages! I have completely trained myself to have the smallest attention span ever.

So my question for all of you, what do you do to keep your brain active every day? AND, any suggestions of short books that I can read to get my love for reading back? (I'm ever so slowly working through Harry Potter 6 right now).

Eagle Eye

I can't say I follow Shia LeBeouf and see all his movies, but I can say that I enjoy most of his movies, if not all. (Haven't seen Indiana yet). He is just entertaining and I'm sure like Will Smith, he picks the movies that are going to be box office gold, but the actor himself is intriguing and he makes the movie better. I like that Shia is not the typical Hollywood star. He's not Brad Pitt good-looking. He's not Russel Crowe muscley. He's just himself.

Eagle Eye is an action movie. Juan and I were in Lehi this weekend for my nephew's baptism, and didn't want to fight the BYU game traffic to get back to Provo, so we caught a movie. It was between this and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. As much as I adore Michael Cera, we decided on the action film. It was slow starting out and almost stupid, but once it explained a few things I really liked the idea and how it was so creative. It's Minority Report-esque, and I love that movie. Michelle Monaghan, who was in Made of Honor with Patrick Dempsey, was lovely. I really like her as an actress, better in Eagle Eye than in Made of Honor. Overall it was a great action movie and I recommend it.

It is movie season and Juan and I have a few trades. He really wants to see Quantum of Solace and W. I really want to see, of course, HSM3 and Twilight.

Mini Vacay

So Friday night Juan and I escaped Provo and stayed in Park City for the night! Thanks to mom and dad for being busy the last night of their timeshare and giving us the great mini vacation. We stayed at Westgate Resort and it was so fancy and nice. There was a dishwasher and full-sized fridge in the room. There was a shower/steam room and a huge jetted tub. The view was beautiful and the colors on the way to Park City through the canyon were amazing. We stopped by good ole Granny's in Heber for dinner. It is a tiny burger/shake place that Juan and I tried to go to last November and it was closed for the winter season. How fun to have a quaint place that closes for a random season. We stopped at the outlets for Juan's trip to Mrs Fields, he is obsessed with chocolate chip cookies, and I guess I don't mind them. The rest of the weekend we spent watching conference and hanging out with all the sisters during priesthood session. I love spending time with my family and with Juan and it was overall a very relaxing weekend.

The Weekend

We've had such a fun time with Julaine and Jason and will be sad to see them leave tomorrow. At the same time, I need to get back to real life! It's like I'm living a vacation while still at home and going to work every day. On Friday we went to Park City to go shopping and visit Olympic Park.

Juan and I in the bobsled.

Saturday we spent all day in Salt Lake.

This is the best picture of all time. I asked Julaine to take a picture of Juan and me. Well Jason wouldn't walk away from us, I guess he wanted to be in the picture too. So we ended up taking this crack up of a picture. I love how happy Juan is.

And this was the one of just me and not-as-happy Juan, I guess he was missing Jason...

Here we are at the Red Iguana, the best mexican restaurant in Utah. We're dressed up because we just got out of Women's Conference.

The men at the restaurant serenaded us. Juan couldn't even keep his eyes open he was so happy.

There was a Leatherby's right across the street, and since the Provo Leatherby's closed down, we couldn't pass up the opportunity. I almost threw up after all that food! (PS Jason your hand looks really big!)

It was a great weekend. I'm so glad that Julaine's new husband didn't turn out to be awkward. He's normal and hilarious and we've had so much fun getting to hang out with them.

Visitors Welcome

My dear friend Julaine and her new husband Jason are coming to visit today! Julaine and I have been closest friends since we were 14 years old. She was a bridesmaid at my wedding, and I have only seen her a glimpse of a day since my wedding almost 3 years ago. I am so excited to meet Jason and to just hang out and have fun.

I have a little bit of my mom in me, where if a guest is coming, I stress and clean and clean and stress. This was even worse because they're staying with us for a whole week, so I can't just throw everything in a random closet or hope they won't need to go to the bathroom for the whole visit. It all started Saturday. Juan took Darren to the game, so Crystal came down to hang out with me in Provo. We went to Target and just browsed at the curtains because Crystal made fun of me for not having curtains (I taped a TGIFriday's birthday card to my wall that was used to cover the huge gap in our broken blinds). I said these words at Target, "I'm just not committed to making a decision on the curtains" and we moved on. Then Crystal in her manipulative ways (ha ha) said, don't you want Juan to come home from the game and see new curtains. So we ended up getting curtains, and while we were in the section, I got a new doormat and a new area rug AND a picture frame to put above my tv (there was a big blank space). I deserve it, it's been almost 3 years in this apartment and this was the first bit of money I spent on decorating, all the rest wwere wedding gifts.

Then the cleaning started. We packed up 9 boxes to take down to storage, threw out 6 trash bags, and donated 3 bags to DI. I de-cluttered the whole apartment, it felt so good. Then I had to finished what I started and had to de-germ. I cleaned the whole place, Juan thinks I'm crazy and losing my mind, but I just kept working and working over the past few days, giving Juan assignments too all along the way of course (he gets some of the credit). I had to finish what I started! So here is the finished product:

I just love the area rug, it adds so much color and character to our cute little apartment.


All I can say is Julaine, you better be grateful.

Me Gusta Hablar en Espanol

I work for BYU, so I can take up to 6 credits per semester for free, so why not take advantage, right? Well since I am a full timer, I decided to take the Spanish class that meets Monday thru Friday at 7 am! Yikes, not even one day off! It has been three weeks and I still haven't gotten used to the early morning, but I love the class. My teacher is really great and focuses on us speaking, which is my weakest point. We were required to speak a few hours this week outside of class, and so I met a fellow classmate for one of the hours, and then chose to speak with Juan for the other hour. Let me rephrase that, chose to speak TO Juan, and have him speak back to me in complete Spanglish, like english word after english word with o on the end. It was actually very cute that he made the effort and took the time. I know he doesn't speak spanish and hasn't since he was like 4 years old, but how I wish it would just magically return to him! I love to just be learning, but I particularly love the language and wish there was really some way I could learn it and keep that skill and not lose it for lack of using it. I did learn a lot though, as he would speak I would translate back in Spanish what he was saying and have him repeat it. They say you learn the most when you're the one teaching. My test is tomorrow, we'll see how much I still love Spanish after I get those results back.

Juan Is Switching Over!

After numerous times of applying to BYU, Juan randomly decided to apply one last time before getting into too many accounting classes at the U and they said YES! We are so excited not only because I am BYU alum, but also because BYU has an excellent accounting program. Juan is finishing his generals and prereq's this year and will enter the accounting program next year. Our plan is to go for the Masters in Accounting. It is an extremely competitive program, but no harm in trying! It looks like we'll be sticking around Provo for another few years.

On an unrelated note, today is monday and I am sick! I have a pretty nasty cough and am hoping it is a short cold rather than a month long one. We had a great weekend with friends. Hung out and watched 24 and played Rock Band on Friday night, and went to Stake Conference and ice cream/pizza with a big group of friends on Saturday night. It was so much fun and I love our new group of friends we've come into hanging out with. I hope everyone else had great weekends and hope all are making it through your Mondays.