Catching Up

I'm like 5 months behind on blogging, and in the blogging world that's like 10 years, so here is a recap of the last little while.

Arkansas - Rick lived there for 9 months, I lived there for 6 months. The whole time we were there we were living in a hotel room. I can't believe we did that. It was pretty there, but I'm glad we are back in Arizona.

We were supposed to go to Lake Powell in August for the Brimhall Family Reunion. We purchased our non-refundable plane tickets from Arkansas to Arizona, and 5 minutes later we found out that the houseboat was broken and they were canceling the reunion. We decided that we would go to Arizona and spend a few days at the Ranch, and then drive to Sea World. It's only about a 6 hour drive so it wasn't bad at all, and we had so much fun. We went with Rick's older sister Christina and her family. 

The dolphin show was amazing. Definitely my favorite part of Sea World.

I felt like I was watching the olympics while these dudes in colorful bird costumes dove into the water.

While we were there we noticed a lady at a caricature stand, and Rick wanted her to draw us. Before we sat in the chair he looked her in the eye and in all seriousness said "make sure you make my beard look awesome." He was pleased with the result.

I, on the other hand, had no idea that the feature that would make this artwork look the most like me was the gigantic beak like nose that I apparently have. So that was fun to find out about myself.

We also spent a few days at the beach where I discovered that I am awesome at boogie boarding, and where Rick and I both got stung by a jellyfish for the first time.

The next month we went to Utah to celebrate Rick's 30th Birthday. We had a pizza party at a park with a bunch of Rick's friends. It was so fun to see so many people that we love. Our friend Trish is a baker/decorator at Cupcake Chic in orem and she made some awesome cakes for us! One of them was even a vegan cake. She's amazing. Rick's favorite cake was the german chocolate that had a train on it. He was so happy about it.

Rick rented an SS Camaro while we were there. I've never seen him so happy. All in all he had a great birthday and we are both so happy we were able to spend it in Utah.

My friend Sabina lives in Provo and she has a sister that lives in Little Rock, so she came out to spend a few weeks with them. We were able to meet up a few times for dinner and we also went to the Little Rock Air Force Base to watch to air show. It was really fun, and I'm now realizing we never got a picture of the 2 of us, so you'll just have to imagine us out to dinner eating delicious pizza and at the air show watching all the different planes doing tricks. And me getting nervous every time the planes almost crashed into each other but turned away at the very last second.

For Thanksgiving we wanted to go to either Rick's parent's ranch in AZ or to my parents house in UT, but Rick didn't have the time off and we didn't have the money for more traveling. So, by nothing short of a miracle, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for me, Rick, and our friend Ronnie who works with Rick, in our tiny hotel room using a crockpot for the turkey, the stove top for the mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing, and a very tiny toaster oven to cook the pie, rolls, and green bean casserole. I was sure that something would go wrong, but it all turned out delicious and was kinda fun. It was definitely a Thanksgiving to be remembered.

For Christmas this year we decided we were just going to stay in Arizona and celebrate with the 2 of us, but Rick found out that he had a weeks worth of Paid days off that he needed to use up by December 31. So we packed our bags and headed to Utah. We didn't tell anyone we were coming until we were in St. George. It was fun to be able to surprise everyone but even more fun to be able to spend time with our friends and family. We were able to see Rick's siblings and have a Christmas party with my family, plus being able to see many friends. It was a wonderful Christmas.

My parents have neighbors who breed shih-tzus, and they had 1 left that they needed to find a home for. I knew there was no way Rick would be cool with it so I didn't even bother to ask him. The next day, he knocked on the bedroom door to wake me up, then came in with the cutest little puppy with a red bow on her head and said "Merry Christmas!" I totally thought he was kidding for like 30 seconds, but when I realized he wasn't, I was so so so happy. We named her Maya because we got her on December 21, 2012 - the day of the end of the Mayan calendar. So far she has been the best little puppy. She and Rick are asleep next to each other on the floor right now. We love her. I think this year was our best Christmas so far.

On New Years Eve we stayed home, watched Saturday Night Live, drank sparkling cider, and drifted off to sleep listening to the sounds of fireworks and/or gunshots outside. My goals for 2013 are to do well in school, be happy and healthy, and never ever live in Arkansas again. So far we're off to a good start.

Birthday Boy

There are 2 things about Rick that I always make fun of. 1 - his hair and 2 - his age. I make fun of his hair because the Justin Bieber look works if you are a 15 year old white male, not a really old Native American and I want him to get a haircut. So really I'm doing him a favor by being an encouraging wife. Bullies are just helpers. I make fun of his age because when I met him I was 17 and he was 23 and that's gross. And because he talks about cartoons that I've never heard of because I wasn't born when he watched them (what the crap is Fraggle Rock?) So going along with the theme of constantly teasing Rick, I need to dedicate this blog post to the birthday boy.

On September 24th Rick turned 56. I would do one of those "56 things I love about you" lists but I did that last year and he wanted a real present instead. I also only have 55 things that I love about Rick. So instead I will tell you what we did for his birthday. Our first event was date night the week before his birthday. We went up to Salt Lake to eat at his favorite restaurant - Evergreen. I don't like Vegan food but I do like Rick.

This is the happiest he's ever been.

This is the hungriest I've ever been.

Every time we are in Salt Lake we see a huge Union Pacific sign and we always wonder what it is. We stopped by and it's the first UP train station in Utah or something. It reminded me of the ballroom in Anastasia when she's having that fantasy and she's singing "Once Upon A December" and dancing. Do not even pretend you don't know what I'm talking about.

On Rick's actual birthday he had a 3 day weekend and I had to work all 3 days so he took a trip to Vegas with his cousin. He was very excited to tell me he went to Pawn Stars. I didn't even know that was a show until he told me about it.

Did you know Rick is a Dental Assistant? I had no idea until I saw this picture. I'd ask but the mystery keeps our romance alive.

Rick stayed with his cousins in Vegas. They were very good to him. His cousin is a dentist so the previous picture isn't really that weird but it kind of is.

For Rick's birthday he got me a wedding band. Isn't he the coolest? I can now wear my wedding band to work instead of my engagement ring that has ripped and wasted several pairs of latex gloves when I try to put them on.

Happy Birthday Rick! You're not really 56 but you're halfway there.

Summer

I love summertime for a number of reasons. The most important reason being late night slurpees from 7-eleven. The one by the Provo Library has a new flavor - Dr. Pepper. I am in love.

Another reason is because everyone in my family has their birthday in the summer. And when I say everyone I mean my mom, sister, both sisters-in-law, brother, grandma, some aunts, some cousins, and myself. Seriously, by the time August comes around we all want to barf at the sight of birthday cake. My birthday was last week. On Father's Day, actually. For Father's Day I got my dad the greatest gift a Father could ask for - me being an awesome daughter. Also, movie tickets. And he and my mom got me some amazing mascara. Am I the only one that thinks good mascara is tricky to find? My mom is a genius when it comes to knowing what kind of makeup to get me.

Since my birthday was on a Sunday (and Rick has to work on Sundays) we decided to celebrate on Saturday. My day went something like this: Wake up. Rick is gone. No idea where he is. So I get ready for the day. I get a message from my mom telling me that she and my dad just realized that I'm not turning 21 this year, I'm turning 22. Apparently my parents were out shopping and my dad kept talking about how he couldn't believe I was going to be 21, and he knew that I was going to turn 21 because I was born in 1988. I get my math skills from my parents. The lady at the check-out counter informed my dad that she was also born in 1988 and she was 22. Thank you, Nordstroms employee, for knowing how old I am.

Rick came home and surprised me with these.

There was a little card with the flowers and on the card Rick wrote me a little Happy Birthday message and then at the bottom he put the date "06-21-10" which was neither the date that day (the 19th) or my birthday (the 20th). I pointed that out to him and we laughed, and then I told him the story of my parents thinking I was 21. Rick starred at me, wondering if I was kidding or not.

"What?"

"Wait...you're turning 22?"

"Are you serious?"

"When I was getting you the flowers people kept asking me what the special occasion was and I kept telling them it was my wife's 21st Birthday."

High five to Rick and my parents.

I asked Rick what the plans were that day. He said lunch at Red Iguana and then I had 2 choices. We could either go shopping and I could get some new clothes, or we could go buy a saltwater fish tank.

"FISH TANK! FISH TANK!!!!" was my exact response as I was jumping up and down clapping my hands and possibly getting teary eyed. I have ALWAYS wanted a saltwater fish tank. We had fish when I was little and I loved to just watch them, it was so calming. I love fish, I love the ocean and everything in it. Except for oil spills. Which apparently one of the only things that can help clean up the oil spill is human hair. My vote for Rick growing his hair out changed from short to long after I found that out. He still hasn't decided yet, by the way.

We bought the fish tank from a guy on KSL who happened to be a fish expert, which was lucky for us, but also kind of overwhelming. I had no idea how much time and effort goes into saltwater tanks. I can barely keep the plants in our house alive, and most of them are cacti. We spent 3 hours with the guy. He went with us to the pet store where I was ready to buy some fish, and instead he directed us to the salt and sand isle. Did you know that you need ocean sand in your tank, and then the organisms in the sand will bring everything to life? I didn't. So then I ask the guy how much salt are we supposed to put in the tank, and can we PLEASE PLEASE go pick out fish now? He gave us a thing to measure the salinity and specific gravity of the water. Um, what? I need to do that? How do I do that? So he shows us how to measure everything and get it perfectly balanced. And to answer my question about picking fish out, no, you can't. Why? Because you need to set your tank up first, get the salt water at the perfect salinity, specific gravity, and temperature, and then let your tank sit there for a month. Why? Because then everything will be perfectly balanced and it will have the organisms needed for fish to survive. I also asked him if we needed to buy those fake rocks or plastic plants. I think that's one of those questions that fish experts make fun of fish morons like me for asking. "Uh, no, you don't need any of that. Everything you will need in your tank will grow on its own." Turns out having a saltwater tank is like having an entire ecosystem, which makes sense, but I guess I just never thought about it. It's like having a tiny piece of the ocean in our house, which is really cool, but like I said, overwhelming. After the store we went to the guys house where he showed us his tank, talked about how fish aren't cool, coral is cool, and then he referred us to a website where fish lovers unite, told us to sign up, and said that meetings are on Thursdays. Seriously, this happened.

We finally got our tank set up today, and at first it looked like this.

I, too, thought that it looked like we had filled it with water from the lake. But after it sits for a few hours and lets the filter do it's job it will be clear water. The rocks in it are coral, but I guess they are dead. So in a week we will go buy a piece of live coral and the live coral will magically spread it's alive-ness to the dead coral and the dead coral will come back to life. Cool huh? I'm scared we're going to become those weird animal people. But usually people like that have cats or dogs or animals you at least can touch. This is like a whole new level of weird. And I totally plan on naming the fish too, and probably bonding with them. I'm sure I'll have blog posts dedicated to them (kind of like this one, this is already becoming quite a lengthy post) and we'll celebrate their birthdays. At least I admit that we're kind of crazy, right? But you'd be proud too if you were about to be parents of the entire cast of Finding Nemo/The Little Mermaid.

So back to why I love summer. The 4th of July is one of my favorite Holidays. The parade, the fireworks, the BBQs. It's perfect. We have family members coming into town and I can't wait. The whole weekend we will be spending with my family, but on the 4th we will be going up to Duchesne for the pow wow with Rick's biological family. I really hope I'm not the only white person there. I don't want it to be like I'm crashing the party. I mean won't there already be tension at a 4th of July pow wow? Celebrating the white guys taking their land, forcing them onto reservations, and then taking credit for everything and declaring the land theirs? Maybe I should bring a gift so there's less tension. I hear they like small pox. I'll look into it.

It's when I say stuff like that that I hope that people who read this know I'm kidding. I love Indians. I married one. We will have fun at the pow wow and we will take lots of pictures. We will also (hopefully) get Rick's birth mom to finish the Native American papers so that Rick will be a member of the tribe. We need him to join. It will be a huge blessing for us if he does. I work with a lady who is also Native American and who happens to be the same tribe as Rick. She said that all we need is his biological parents names and we can sign him up ourselves. No one will tell us the name of his biological dad and so we have to try to sign him up other ways. So far nothing is happening but we're hoping that talking to his biological mom again will get the ball rolling.

Happy Summer!

My Wife

I told Jodi that once in a while I'd write on this blog. So hello blogging world. My name is Rick and I am part of Team Brimhall. My introduction may sound like I'm starting a twelve step program. I'm not. I'm introducing myself as the water boy to this team. I work hard to keep the captain happy.

This last weekend was my wife's birthday. She turned 22. Shout out to my wife! We still high five, no age limit to the high fives or "go team" slaps. Here is a list of twenty-two things I love about my wife. There is no importance to this order.

1. Her curly hair.
2. She still gives me high fives.
3. Her taste in mexican food.
4. Her spirituality.
5. Her eyes.
6. The way she laughs.
7. Her little stretching noises she does in her sleep.
8. The way she looks at me when I do something childish.
9. The way she makes me laugh.
10. Her cleanliness.
11. The way she takes care of kids.
12. Her emotions.
13. Her sarcasm.
14. Her honesty.
15. Her attempts to get me to dress better.
16. Her vacationing skills.
17. The way she secretly admires the wedding ring I gave to her.
18. Her smile!
19. Her hard work.
20. How she doesn't like loud things but lets me play my drums in the house.
21. How she tells me she loves me.
22. How kindly she tells me she is turning twenty-two and not twenty-one. (My bad!)

So there are a few things I love about my wife. I hope that you can find some enjoyment in these truths. I'm sure there is a post coming up of her birthday weekend. Which happened to be awesome. Blog on!

Happy Birthday Babe, I love you!

-Rick

Ode To My Parents

Earlier this week it was my Dad's birthday, and my Mom's birthday was a few months ago but she was out of town so I couldn't properly acknowledge it. I don't tell my parents nearly enough how awesome I think they are. Here goes.

MY MOM

My mom has more friends than Mother Teresa. Seriously. She is the most likeable person ever. Probably even more likeable than Santa Clause. When I was in high school she was friends with all of my friends. My friends (and teachers) would always ask me how my mom was. I always thought that was the weirdest thing ever, because really, how often to a bunch of teenagers get together and one of them says "Hey, how is your mom?" and another chimes in with "Yeah, how is she? Your mom is so cool." The answer is not that often. Although I thought it was weird then, looking back that actually is really neat. When I have kids I want to be the cool mom that everybody asks about.

My mom has worked with At-Risk-Youth for 20 years. She is the first LDS Female Chaplain in the world. Can you say that about your mom?

My mom is really funny. I love it when she swears. She never does it out of anger, she does it jokingly, and it's the funniest thing ever.

My mom is really pretty. And I love it when people tell me I look like her.

My mom is the biggest spaz ever. She always has stories about her zipper being down for 16 hours or her dress being tucked into her underwear while she walks around Maceys. It's classic. The best part is that she just laughs about it. I'm definitely not that secure with myself. If I walked around Nauvoo with my dress tucked into my panty hose and I was basically mooning everyone around me I definitely would have shot myself already. I told my mom once that when I think of her I think of Superwoman - saving the world one troubled teen at a time, but also having her cape caught in her zipper and toilet paper stuck to her shoe. That's the perfect way to describe my mom.

My mom always pushed me to do things I didn't want to do but that would benefit me. Like going to girls camp every year. I'm not even going to pretend I liked girls camp, but I went every year, and I always learned something.

Every job I've ever had I got because of my mom. She either knew someone or knew of a job she thought I'd be good at. She is also the reason I am in school right now to become a Medical Assistant. Picking a major is something I struggled with, but my mom told me about this MA program and voila, here I am, loving work and loving school.

My mom frequently told us either through a Family Home Evening lesson, by bearing her Testimony, or by a simple prayer how she felt about the Church and what her beliefs were. But the most important thing about that is that she never had to tell us, we already knew because of her example and the way she lived her life.

MY DAD

My dad is really funny, but not on purpose. He just does things that makes me laugh. Like coming into FroYo when I worked there and sampling every flavor 4 times and then after 20 minutes of struggling with what flavor to pick he would settle with a small vanilla. He always does stuff like that and my family always laughs about it. You know how people say that if you are a girl you marry someone like your father or if you're a boy you marry someone like your mother? I never thought that was true until last week when Rick and I went to the movies and he spent 10 minutes deciding on a popcorn size. He had the worker show him the size of the small bag and the medium bag, then he had her open up both of the bags so he could look inside and see how much popcorn they would hold, and then he looked at both bags for a good 3 minutes going through an internal battle. He finally settled for a medium sized popcorn, and I thought his dilema was over until the worker said "Do you want regular popcorn or kettle corn?" and the struggle began again. I am glad that Rick is like that just like my dad is so that our kids will someday tell stories about how their Dad has no problem deciding on big things in life like a mission or getting married, but put a medium size drink and a large size drink in front of him and he just cannot commit.

My dad is a hard worker and will do anything for his family. My mom recently told me a story of when they were first married. My dad worked for a construction company and every morning before work he would throw up. She didn't know why he was sick every morning until he finally told her that his boss knew he was Mormon, and since my dad was a member his boss wouldn't let my dad take a break from working out in the heat all day to get a drink of water. My dad could have easily told his boss that he wasn't mormon so that his boss would not harass him, but my dad is an honest man.

My dad will tell you a joke or a funny story 3 times. At first he will forget the punch line, and so he'll stop, try to remember it, laugh to himself about it and then finally tell it. Then we will all laugh but he will laugh harder than anyone, and he will proceed to tell the joke or story again, laugh again, and then say "oh man, that just was so funny when (insert joke or story here for a 3rd time)."

My dad has a beautiful collection of what I like to call Huxtable Sweaters. You've seen the Cosby show, right? So you remember that Dr. Huxtable always looked like this.

The best thing about these Huxtable Sweaters that my dad collects is that it made for beautiful Christmas pictures.

My dad is not a man of many words, but he is a man of great example. I can always count on him if I ever need anything.

I love my parents.

Change is Good

No, this post has nothing to do with Obama. Sorry to disappoint you. Here are the changes that have been going on with Team Brimhall.

1. Rick turned 27. You heard me, folks, the big 2-7. He doesn't really care about Birthdays. I still get really excited about my birthdays, but that's because I'm still at the point in my life where birthdays mean things like I can vote, I won't get kicked out of casinos, and in 4 years I'll be able to rent a car. I'm living the American Dream. Even though Rick doesn't make a big deal out of birthdays I still thought it would be fun to have a party. His actual Birthday was on Thursday and he had to work so we had a party for him on Saturday. I am, without a doubt, the worst hostess ever. I have no idea how to throw parties. Ask anyone who was there. They'll vouch for me. I just had to google the word "vouch".

2. We got our wedding pictures back. Finally. I would post some pictures on here but anyone who reads this blog is probably my friend on facebook (or a blog stalker, it's okay, we all do it) and uploading pictures to facebook is 8 billion times easier than uploading them to stupid blogger.

3. There is nothing I hate more (that's a lie) than trying to drive to or from work when people are going to or from a BYU game. And Women's Conference. At the same time. That was poor planning on someone's part.

4. Our bathroom sink has had a leak ever since we moved in. As of last month the leak got worse. And it only leaks hot water. This results in the hot water lasting 3 minutes in the shower, and our water heater kicking on every few hours and upping our gas bill. It also makes me feel like I should apologize to everyone in 3rd world countries for wasting gallons and gallons of hot water that they could use. Sorry guys. Rick just finished tearing the sink apart and fixing it. Sexy? Yes.

5. I broke my back. Probably. I have no idea what I did but one night last week I couldn't move. My lower back feels like my muscles are all on fire as well as having a knife in it. In the morning it feels good but as the day goes on it gets worse and worse and the pain shoots down my legs. I've been complaining to Rick a lot about it. Sometimes I'll get tired of complaining about it, but I feel like if I don't tell him that I'm in constant pain he will forget. I'll remind him from time to time just to make sure he constantly feels bad for me. So far so good. Please feel free to feel bad for me as well.

6. I keep thinking about going vegetarian(ish) at least for a little while because I really need to eat healthier. Every time I'm ready to commit I somehow end up at KFC or Wendys.

7. Lastly, I need to give a shout out to my husband for letting me go get my hair done on his birthday while he stayed home and did laundry. Yeah, I know, I'm a crappy wife, but at least I have fabulous hair. I had been thinking about a new hair style and I wanted something kind of drastic. I knew I wanted to go darker for the fall, and I thought about cutting it but didn't know what style. I found some cute pictures on the internet of short hair but I didn't know if I could pull it off. Last time I had really short hair I was in 3rd grade, but I thought if I don't at least try it then I'll never know. Go big or go home, right? So I called a few places and asked some people where they suggested I get my hair done. Did you know that JC Penneys had a salon? I honestly had no idea. My friend Kiara suggested I go there and if you're in need of a hair makeover I highly suggest you go there and ask for Kristy Henderson. That woman can work miracles. 2 and a half ours later I left the salon with short (to my chin) dark brown/red hair. I posted a picture of it on facebook and I got more comments on that one picture than on any of the new wedding pictures I added. Seriously.

21!

I can now buy alcohol and gamble. Score! No, I'm not going to do either of those, but it is nice to know that from now on the mean lady that works at Caesar's Palace in Vegas cannot kick me out of the casino (even though everyone else I was with was over 21 and we weren't gambling). In your face, ma'am.

I had a fun birthday. My awesome mom got me and Rick season passes to 7 peaks which is where we will be spending a lot of our time this summer. Rick got me a haircut, eyebrow wax, new shoes, and a picture, and we also went out to Brick Oven for dinner (I could go there to just eat the Garlic Bread - yum!) It was a good birthday and I was glad to be able to spend it with the hubs. And I love my new haircut, I'll get some pictures of it later.

Time for bed. Speaking of which, as you all know, when you get married you find out new things about your spouse that you didn't know before. I was expecting to find out new things about Rick...and I did. He is a sleep talker. Here are some of my favorite things he's said, the things I have said will be in Red.

"Oh my gosh...What are we going to do?"

"What?...Rick? What's wrong?" (I was panicked because this was 3 am and waking up to that question is never good.)

"Haha...Look at your Grandma. What are we going to do?! Should we tell her her wig fell off? Oh my goodness."

That was the very first night we were married. Here are some others:

"I like candy."

"Jodi Harris? Yeah I know who she is."

"Hahahahaha! Oh my goodness, thats funny"

One of my all time favorites happened a few weeks ago. Rick and I bought a wii on our honeymoon and we purchased some of the oldschool mario games and have been playing them religiously (we've beaten Super Mario 3 once already and we're on level 7 of it again. We get a lot accomplished these days). Well one night Rick was already asleep and I went to bed a few hours after him. I walked into the bedroom and turned the desk lamp on. He wakes up (or so I thought) and looks around and then looks at me and says...

"I've been waiting for you"

"Waiting for what?"

"Waiting for you outside Bower's Castle. I've already died 4 times and we only have one life left and I just...I just really need you to help me."

Haha. Never a dull moment with that guy!