One Spectacular Return To Blogging!!!!!

Since Ashley works in the computer labs all the time I have been giving her the blogging responsibility (really she just does it without me even knowing, hence the Christmas countdown in SEPTEMBER!! :) Anyways, here's some of the latest in our lives. We finally bought our tent, and put it up in our living room, only to find a hole in the roof mesh, so we took it back and got another one. It was a great two days of "camping" in the living room. After our campout we went up to Bountiful to see my dad and grandpa. It was a fun trip up and let me say that Ash and I know how to Barbeque! Ash has been feeding me well and as a result I have gained about 10 pounds since we've been married. Most people say I needed to gain at least that much, but I'm not so sure it's a healthy time frame for weight gain! Oh well, I love the food!! We made strawberry jam this weekend after a killer deal at Ream's. It reminded me of making jam 5 years ago at the Murphey's and thinking my arm would fall off. At least Ash let me rest my arm once in a while :) Of course any project we undertake has to get messy and so I had to splash the red goodness onto my white Texas shorts...ugh! Not wanting to get any more of my own clothes dirty and in an effort to make Ashley laugh I squeezed into a pair of her scrubs! While definitely not my fit I got her to laugh and that's what I wanted! We ended the night having some delicious strawberry smoothies!! What a great month September has been. We have been very blessed and I am so grateful to have such an incredible wife! Ashley is the life of our home and always brings life to the party!! Enjoy the pictures from September!

Time to Move on...

As hard as I tried to convince myself that summer would never end, here I am at the end of the first week of school, and thankfully, I can say I survived!..One week down, only 13 or so left of the semester. Maybe I shouldn't begin the end of semester countdown for a while...Curt is taking some tough classes (chemistry and anatomy), and supposedly this is the hardest semester of the nursing program (ICU), so needless to say we should both stay busy! Tyler went into the MTC on Wednesday...not my most favorite experience to say the least, but we're proud of him and know that he will be a great missionary! We live less than a 2 minute walk to the MTC..a bit too close for comfort! But I'll behave and do the good ol' letter writing, package sending stuff. It's nice to be in Provo so we can send packages to him often because they are cheap to send. It was fun to have my family here for a few days. With a 1 Bedroom apartment and 8 people in it, there is never a dull moment! But we wouldn’t have it any other way! We went out to eat at Zupas (delicious!), Olive Garden, and Jason’s Deli, a few of Tyler’s many last requests. With the family gone and school started and Tyler on his mission, I am trying to come to terms with the fact that homework, tests, and stress will now be a part of life everyday...but only for 8 more months!! Let the graduation countdown begin. There is finally an end in sight (at least for me...just don’t ask Curt about when he graduates J)!

Our exciting lives...

We celebrated our 1 month anniversary on August 19th by eating our wedding cake top! We heard from a bunch of people that it's nasty and gross at a year, and we were craving the cake (since we didn't even eat any on our wedding day, so we ate it! Curt wanted Funfetti for the top layer, and it was way good! Yum yum!

Curt had never hiked the "Y" so we decided it was time. It was my 3rd time hiking it, but for some reason, it was harder than I remembered..(must have eaten too much of that cake!) We forgot our flashlight, so we came down in the dark (there wasn't even a moon!). It was a great FHE activity, and decided it's time to start exercising a little more than once a month :)

My best friend, Lisa, got married on August 22nd in the Manti Temple. Curt and I were able to go to the sealing and it was beautiful! The reception was also very nice. Curt may have been a BIT bored while I was standing in line, but he's a trooper and stayed the whole time with me! What an amazing husband! :) We are so happy for Lisa and Denis! It was so fun to be a part of their happy day!

We thought we would spend a couple hours on Saturday painting some shelves for our apartment....and then 6 hours later we were FINALLY finished! Curt was nice enough to smile for the camera, even though I know he didn't feel like it! Our shelves look a ton nicer, and we were glad to get it all done in one day. We had to rush at the end since our friends Holly, Jeff and their daughter Emma came over for games that night. We had lots of fun with them playing croquet and eating pizookies. Thanks for hanging out with us!

And last of all, Curt finally got his golf clubs down here from Spokane!!! Thanks Trent! Look at that smile..Priceless! He couldn't be happier :) And Trent has his clubs down here too so hopefully they will have some good "brother bonding"

Wedding Slideshow Finally!

Top 10! (Lots of Catching up!)

I've been procrastinating posting, while I spend my time admiring other blogs wishing mine was as fun and exciting..(I work a boring job where I have MANY hours with nothing to do!) I finally decided that maybe I should play with it and learn more and just maybe I'll get better at it. Plus, I suppose Curt and I do have quite a bit to update on! So here's the top ten of what we've been up to lately!

1. We were married in the Salt Lake Temple on July19th, 2008! It was a beautiful day and everything was so perfect! We are so grateful for the support of family and friends who shared our special day with us!

2. We spent a week honeymooning in Cancun, and it was completely amazing! We spent lots of time in the pool, the ocean and checking out some sites. We visited Chichen Itza and went snorkeling. The resort was fabulous and we enjoyed every minute!

3. We spent 8 hours at the airport the day we were supposed to fly back to Salt Lake as we waited for the update on our flight...finally, it was canceled due to a smoke detector that wasn't working properly in the back of the plane. We ended up with a free night in Mexico and free meals, so it wasn't all bad! We got home on a Tuesday night, did laundry, repacked and drove to Spokane the next day, so it was a bit hectic!

4. We had an amazing reception in Spokane, complete with snow cones, ice cream cones, the most spectacular cake ever and tons of friends and family! It was in my backyard, and was beautiful!! We're so grateful for the all the time that our families put into making it such a wonderful night!

5. Happy Birthday to my amazing husband! Curt turned 23 on August 8th! We celebrated his birthday by...going to Manti for my old roommate's wedding! We went to her sealing, which was really neat! We also went to her luncheon, and then to her reception that night in Orem. So basically, we celebrated Elisha and Greg's wedding more than we celebrated Curt's b-day. But..we celebrated his b-day on Sunday, so he didn't totally get ripped off! We fell asleep as 9:30 that night watching the Olympics...so I guess we are officially lame married people...haha


6. We had to say goodbye to my sister, brother-in-law and nephew last Saturday night :( Alyssa, Spencer and Cooper left Monday morning on their cross country drive to State College, Pennsylvania where they will spend 4 years while Spencer gets his doctorate at Penn State. It was really hard to say goodbye, since we have been together in Provo for almost 3 years. Curt and I now have a vacation fund, so hopefully we'll be able to go out there at least once (probably only once since our change doesn't add up very fast!) while they are out there. Even though State College is in the middle of nowhere, it is only a few hours away from so many cool places that we want to see like Washington D.C., New York City, Philadelphia, etc, so we are looking forward to that hopefully someday! I told Curtis that I'm going to give myself a trip out there as my graduation present in April..but since we're married now, I suppose we should discuss our finances together! :) Plus, it would be so much more fun if we both went together, so let the savings begin! (Saving money is not my strong point so it's gonna be a challenge!)


7. On a rainy, thunderstormy night we went to the Salt Lake County Fair for the first time ever! As sad as this is, we went only for the food. My best friend, Lisa and her family run the "Tiger Paws" booth at the fair. They sell Navajo Tacos, honey butter tiger paws, and cinnamon sugar tigerpaws. The deep fried-ness was amazing, and I prefer not to think about how many calories we ate. They were sooo delicious and we were happy to finally experience what Lisa had been telling me about for years! Thanks to the Gardner's for the delicious food...you guys are amazing!

8. We celebrated Curt's b-day on Sunday, complete with Curt's dinner request of Philly Cheese steak sandwiches (which actually turned out good..always a nice surprise!) and Turtle cake with ice cream. We turned on the WebCam and my family back home sang to Curtis with me with the candles burning. (I really didn't want to sing alone, so I was happy that my family joined in on the party!) We spent the day watching the Olympics (after church of course), which Curtis wanted to do. It was a fun day and we had lots of fun celebrating his birthday!


9. Saturday was busy, with a new sister breakfast and a USNA social we had a full plate, but we still found time to run to Target and get Curt a banana chair (it's his dream come true). Then we went to Bountiful to spend the afternoon with Grandpa Barnes yesterday! He's such a funny man and we love spending time with him. Even at age 86, he is very meticulous about his lawn and carefully waters his lawn and plants. He took us out to dinner (again, for Curt's b-day..I guess Curt is in the spotlight here!) and we went to McGrath's Fish House at the Gateway mall. He asked Curt several times if he wanted a new pair of jeans from Lucky, but Curtis (for some crazy reason!) said that he didn't need them. Instead, we went to Kohl's and grandpa bought Curt a new pair of gray pinstripe dress pants, a yellow button-up shirt, and a blue polo (none of which go together..we have a little bit of fashion sense!) We spent the night watching the Olympics with grandpa...and I must say that marathons are not that exciting to watch. But since Curt enjoys watching track and field, I suppose I must sacrifice a little and endure it! We also did a little shopping ourselves and Curt got this banana chair...he loves it, and even thought it might not fit the decor of the room, if it makes him happy then why not let him have it right?! (At least for now that's how it works..we'll see if time changes that :)

10. We had an awesome Sunday dinner with our friend Scotty and his family! The food was delicious and we were amazed to hear that most of it was home grown in their garden. After the feast we had a tour of the garden. It looks like a lot of work to me, but Ashley looked like a kid in a candy store. I'm thinking that we're going to need to buy some extra land with our home so we can have a garden!! We finished off the night with some cake and ice cream, ladder golf, and NERTS! Scotty sure knows how to put on a party!

Wedding Fun!

3 days till the big day! Time really flies!! We just got the key to our apartment yesterday and started moving out stuff in, which made it feel more real! We are very excited! Even if it is small, we are happy that it is just our space! We will be sealed Saturday morning at 9:40 a.m. in the Salt Lake Temple. It will be a busy day with the luncheon and open house, but it will be lots of fun!!
We will stay 2 nights in the Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake. The rooms are so much awesome! We're staying one night in the South Pacific Suite, and the other night in the Swiss Family Robinson. They are super expensive normally, but Costco was selling gift certificates for $160 for a night. It's still a splurge, but you only get married once, right?! Check out the rooms..they are so fun and creative!
We will fly out Monday morning and head to Cancun, Mexico! We will be staying at an all-inclusive resort called Moon Palace (Thanks mom and dad!!) It's been a while since either of us has really had a fun vacation, so we are really looking forward to it! This is probably the last update for a while! Now we just hope that everything runs smoothly! It has been a really crazy week with lots of busy busy so we're excited to finally see the final product!

A Close Call...

Driving back to Utah from Spokane on Sunday right after the 4th, we had quite the day! We left at 10 in the morning. "We" missed the exit for Missoula and although it seemed like a big deal at the time, looking back it was nothing! After a delicious lunch (thanks to Grandma Murphey and Hoagieville), we continued on. Ashley was determined to drive from Missoula to Idaho Falls without stopping...Unfortunately, that didn't happen.
A few miles outside of Lima, MT, Curt wanted to block the sun by rolling his pillowcase up in the window. Ashley was driving, and trying to help him but not roll his fingers up in the window. After looking away from the road for a bit too long, we both looked up to the car veering nearly off the road to the left. We can't remember a lot of details, but after over correcting to the right, and spinning a 360, we ended up off the right off the road in a fence post and barbed wire fence. Luckily, neither of us was injured...the car took one for the team. It was one of the scariest moments in our lives, but we are so incredibly thankful that it wasn't worse. At the next town we got a new tire and were back on the road again, a mere $113 extravaganza.
Now if that isn't enough for one day, less than an hour later we saw a policeman whip around and turn on the flashing lights behind us..a dreaded sign. Curt wasn't even speeding so we both wondered, "What is it this time?" Neither of us saw the "Do not pass" signs in the construction zone as we were still recovering from our earlier scare, and it just so happened that we were passing a car at the time. A $75 ticket to add to our lovely day.
Moral of the story: Fly home! With the cost of gas, a new tire and making the guy open his shop on Sunday and a $75 ticket, it is much more cost effective and time efficient. Curt says no more Sunday driving....(P.S. Curt got estimates on the damage done...over $6000!...So time to go car shopping yet again. It will be Curt's 3rd car in less than a year.)

Only 20 Days Left

Well, time as a single for us is running low! We only have a little over 20 days till we are married as of right now. We are both very excited and have those little butterflies going too! When we went to Tasha and Aaron's wedding last week we both got to the temple and must've started feeling those butterflies at the exact same time! We are so happy and can't wait to be sealed! Hope to see all of our friends at our Open House or Reception too :)

Father's Day

Ashley decided to surprise me for Father’s Day this year! We had a great breakfast and had church. She made kalua pork for me for dinner, delicious! After dinner she told me she got me a little present, and asked if I wanted it? So she brings out a swimsuit for me for our honeymoon. Then, she goes back and comes out with a box full of tools, which basically made my whole week! I have a new obsession with tools since beginning a new job in construction. Then she says what are you going to carry them in? So I’m thinkning well, I’ll have to buy a tool belt. Then she comes out with a tool belt for me! Wow, Ash rocks! Yes, I’m not a father yet, but we look for any excuse to give each other presents :)

For Grandma and Grandpa