A Post Dedicated To....

CHEESE

I have never been a huge fan of cheese. In fact, I hardly ever

ate it growing up. I can not even begine to tell you how many times I have

said, "Hold the cheese please"

Well not actually the please part, but everywhere I go:

"I will have a turkey sandwhich with no cheese."

"Can I have a vegetarian pizza with no cheese."

(I actually take the cheese off of any kind of pizza..so silly)

"I am going to have the Veggie Burrito with no cheese."

"Um...can I have the ceasar salad with no cheese."

And on, and on and on...

My friends have been amazing tolerators of this thing I have about no cheese.

Kelli even makes separate dishes for me without cheese. When she makes her amazing chicken dip, she makes a separate bowl for me. Or those amazing southwestern thingies...she makes a few without cheese. Code does the same exact thing with her spinach artichoke dip.

And then after the chemo, my stomach wasn't able to tolerate dairy

and sugar for the longest time and it just put me more into

the habit of not eating cheese.

Well when I moved home a few months ago, my Mom made these incredible

cheese sandwhiches one day after church, and I have had a MAJOR

BREAK THROUGH.

I can not believe that I have been missing out on this fantastic piece

of amazingness for so long. I have had cheese on my

sandwhiches for the last 4 days and

it adds SO MUCH to a sandwhich. All this time

I have been eating just plain meat, on plain bread

with freakin spray butter nonetheless.

I even put cheese in my taco soup last week and

cheese on my hamburger.

Now I am aware of the fat content in cheese

and I have always been a little crazy about all that stuff

(as much as I hate to admit that)

but for now, I think I will continue

to eat cheese sparingly versus none at all.

But the other day at Rubios, I asked for my veggie burrito with

out cheese and my brother gave me a hard time.

Why? Because I told him about my new revelation concerning cheese.

But lets not get carried away. One menu item at a time.

Lena and Sifa's Wedding

Lena and Sifa were married this past Saturday in the Mesa temple and it was such a beautiful day (HOT, HOT but beautiful). Lena was absolutely stunning and Sifa looked so sharp in his BLACK tux. He was insistent on wearing a white one but succomed to Lena's wishes....thank heavens:)

They looked so happy and it was so wonderful to see these two FINALLY tie the knot. After living with Lena for a year and seeing Sifa on a daily basis, I have seen their relationship develop and it has only strengthened my belief in selfless love...and overlooking things that really don't matter.

Love you both!!

Precious....

I just love this picture for some reason. Having Sifa and Lena sitting in those 2 chairs makes

me feel like I am in living in the 19th century or something...anyone picking

up what I am throwing down???

Lena Marie Latu...has a great ring to it.

I just love this girl so much and she has been such an incredible blessing in my life.

There have been moments where I just think to myself, "I don't know

what I would have done without my sweet, wonderful, pure in heart Lena."

Guilty

I have never written a post like this

but I found this browsing through a website

and it struck me because I KNOW I have

done this a time or two or three.

I KNOW I did it while dating up at school.

There are so many great people at

BYU and so every date you go on, you think

"oh this guy is awesome...but I am sure there

is someone better for me..."

That is the mindset of someone who will probably

never get married.

And it isn't fun for me to admit, but it is the truth.

And I know we all have this perfect person built up in our minds:

He will be:

at least 6'1

ridiculously goodlooking

incredibly smart and witty

so funny that my stomach hurts everytime we laugh together

the next prophet

basically Peyton Manning, Lebron James and David Beckam rolled up in one

Mother Teresa as a man (that sounded so strange)

and...

PERFECTLY PERFECT

blah, blah, blah

This will just never, ever happen.

The key is finding someone who makes you happy

and makes you want to be the best version of yourself.

And 9.9 times out of 10 it is not the person

you have "made up in your mind"

your entire life.

And in the words of Brother Randy Bott:

"If you do find that perfect person,

they will not want to marry you."

Book Review

I love the fact that I can read whatever I want now. It has been so great. Here is what I have been up to...

I started this piece of trash and about half way through...I just couldn't keep reading. Call me prude but I just started to get so uncomfortable with all the crazy talk. I may be offending a few right now and I am sorry for that.

But I will admit I CANNOT wait for the movie that comes out this Friday. I doubt the movie has the F word 500 times or them doing the naughty every 5 minutes.

I finished this book a couple of weeks ago and it was incredible. I found it so interesting and easy to read. My friends Chase and Danny have been telling me to read it for like 3 years now and I finally got around to it.

We live in such a great country. (Well we did until "he who cannot be named"was elected. But that is a whole different post). We as a people can not even begin to fathom the kinds of sacrifices our founding fathers made to allow us to live in a free country. The British Army was far more qualified, experienced, equipped and much larger in numbers. (We are talking 20,000 men against 4,000). Most of the men from the American army were farmers, school teachers, blacksmiths, tradesmen and so forth and never carried a rifle, let alone fought in a war. Some even fought without shoes, with tattered clothing, and dirt streaked faces. Many died from exposure to harsh weather and freezing temperatures or from illness and lack of hygiene.

It was neat to see throughout the book the hand of Heavenly Father leading these inexperienced men. There were a few cases where the weather would take a drastic change therefore the British were not able to attack the Americans. There was one scenerio where the fog was so thick during one of the battles on the British side, you were not even able to see your hand, but on the American side, it was a clear as day.

George Washington, Nathaniel Greene, Henry Knox, John Adams and many others were men prepared to lead this country hundreds of years ago so the Gospel could be restored in a country where freedom of religion would reign.

This was suggested by Stacie and Kelli and if you are looking for a classic fictional read, you need to read this. By reading the summary on the back, my first thoughts were, "Ya right...like I am going to read this." But I actually read it in 5 days. I couldn't put it down. The first 80 pages I even flew through and it is the most boring part of the book.

It is well written, well researched and very entertaining. I found it simple to follow and very detail specific. The amount of details the author is able to compile for your imagination is fantastic. Who ever can be stranded in the middle of the ocean for 8 months with a Bengal Tiger on board, takes my vote as a freakin stud!

And finally..."Secret Life of Bees". I have seen the movie a few times and loved it and it got me to thinking that I need to read the book. I am about three quarters of the way through and am thouroughly enjoying it. The movie follows the book very closely but books are ALWAYS better then the movies and I am remembering why as I read this book.

I enjoy the character development for Lily and Rosaleen and the "calendar girls". That is why books are always better. I enjoy Kidd's style of writing because this book is seen through the eyes of a child, since Lily is the main character, but she does it in a way where you forget that you are really not 14 and living with a bee keeper. I am anxious to keep reading and see if the book ends the same way as the movie.

It's Official

I am officially no longer a resident of Provo, Utah. Stacie and I flew up Saturday morning for Lena's bridal shower and to get the rest of my stuff. But it was fun because it was a complete surprise to everyone that I was bringing Stacie along with me. I feel bad for having to lie to everyone for so long and I have to admit...being a liar is kind of hard. I really had to keep my story straight and who I was telling what. Exhausting! But here is a not-so-awkward picture of Stacie and Code hugging when we surprised them. My timing was a tad off in this picture.

Kelli and Code slaved away in the kitchen preparing the food for the shower. And the food was awesome in case you were wondering.

And we can always count on Lena to never disappoint in her reactions. When Lena is happy, she has the best reaction. Lots of jumping up and down and screaming. They truly are some of the very best moments of my life. But she was very surprised to see Stacie. She was happy to see me of course but more Stacie.

More hugging...

Me and the blushing bride-to-be. Isnt Lena so pretty.

B-A-M...that's all I gotta say to that!

Our table of food...

Amy and Lena

Lindsee is having twins...one boy and one girl. Byron and Nora will be coming into this bright, shining world at the end of October. I really hope I can pull off cute dresses like that when I am pregnant.

Jill and Jocelyn

Lena opening presents...

Sure love these girls! We missed all those that couldn't come. But I will say this...I didn't buy enough plates (silly me) so you would have had to eat out of a cup if you would have come. But you missed out!

Ok now for the next session of our trip. In case you haven't heard, I had a recent roommate move in at the end of April that is really nice but not well...BYU-ish. Which can be a good thing at times but not when you are messy, inactive, inviting boyfriends to be in your room, and had a so called "beer" party while I was out of town, it can create problems in the future. I didn't really come on to her real strongly or anything since I knew I was moving home even though I mentioned to her the BYU housing rules and so on. But I was really, really nervous to come back to my apartment because I didn't really know what I would find. Well...I found a nightmare. Stacie, Kelli and I walked in and had to choke for air since the stench was more then we could handle. I was so sad. I love my apartment. And I found this picture on my door. Who doesn't want a milk mustache picture of Kelly Clarkson right? The next few pictures view at your own discretion...

My oh so lovely bathroom

The kitchen sink...not sure when the last time was she did the dishes.

The garbage smelt like something had died and there was no liner. No liner!

And of course...food that had been sitting out for probably a week...I wanted to cry! Our poor Apartment that has been passed down through our circle of friends for 3 years is now a dump. We no longer have ownership in the Avenues 111 and I am kind of relived b/c I couldn't live with this. There might be a cat fight...well not really. But something very close to it.

So we then treated ourselves to Pizzeria Seven Twelve on State Street and it was INCREDIBLE pizza. I could have eaten a whole one by myself if I hadn't eaten so much at the bridal shower. And I just really enjoyed this water pitcher. I love, love, love when servers leave the water on the table. If they were smart, more servers would do that so they don't have to keep refilling my water.

Sunday we had dinner and Code and Jon's and invited some friends over too. It was so great to see Chase and Danny and Stacie and Kelli's younger brothers.

I made chicken fajita flavored rice and it really didn't turn out as good as I wanted it too. Note to self...do not buy Rice-A-Roni chicken fajita flavored rice. Check.

And Stacie made her famous Green Chili Burros...

Hanging out in the kitchen...

Smile Chase...

And then came the process of packing up all my stuff. Here are some before pictures...

And some after pictures...so bare.

This is the first time I have ever seen my closet doors closed. It was sad to leave. It was sad to vaccumm (well Stacie vaccuumed) for the last time and turn off my light for the last time and close my door for the last time and blah, blah, blah. This has been my humble abode for 2 years. It was sure fun while it lasted.

Monday night Stacie and I went up to Salt Lake to stay with Kelli and she made dinner! Of course she did! It was her roommate's birthday and we were more then happy to participate in the celebration. Once again Kelli out did herself and it was amazing. I can't even begin to tell you how much work this took and all the ingredients but it was better then any restaurant. We had steak with goat cheese and a sugar glaze, potatoes with butter and cream and salt and pepper, a strawberry and vinergarette dressing and her famous rolls.

And then for dessert ( I don't have a picture) we had this lemon pastry dish with cream and fruit. It was HEAVENLY to say the least. Oh my goodness. Words don't even come close. Feel free to cook for us anytime and I would like to join in on all of Kelli's birthday dinners. I don't care if I don't know the person from Adam...I will be there.

So the trip was a success and so much more. It was so fun to see everyone and the weather was incredible. I could go for 80 degree weather anyday. The temperature gauge in the car read 91 degrees on Saturday afternoon and Stacie and I couldn't believe it was 91 since to us it felt like it was in the 70's.

I was expecting to be sad that I don't live there anymore and that I would want to stay but I didn't feel that way at all. I love Provo and I had an incredible experience but time to move on and start a new chapter. Plus I really enjoy being around my family right now and as my friends call him...I do have a "love interest". That is funny!