As of late...

... life is awesome!

In just about one week, Spencer and I will head up to Lake Chelan with his entire family for a FUN week of boating, swimming, wakeboarding, tubing, getting tan, and general frolicking. And we are VERY excited!

I've officially finished my first term of graduate school and am now working full time at the BYU Library. Meanwhile, Spencer's been working his tail off at his two jobs. I've also learned that the best way to wake him up in the morning is NOT shaking him repeatedly, but by announcing that it's 5:30 a.m. and the word cup is on downstairs. I've never seen anyone fly out of bed so quickly! Never again can he use the "it's too early" excuse. :)

Here's a rundown of some fun stuff that's happened:

1. Paige Brianne Tucker was born!
2. Father's Day was on Sunday and I got to talk to my dad about golf
3. Spencer and I made S'mores on the Bell Tower lights at BYU
4. Spencer and I discovered the Fablehaven series and are LOVING those books
5. We faithfully cheered for France in the World Cup and are glad that the U.S. has been playing hard to compensate for Les Bleus
6. Spencer got called as an Elders Quorum teacher
7. We played with JaiCi, Ifraz, and their cute kids TWICE last week (and I got to swim with Mana!)
8. We bought a brand new black leather sectional... it's AWESOME
9. I found out about a secret scholarship that I'm getting so we won't have to pay for ANY of my first year of grad school (HUZZAH!)
10. I'm still working at the temple every Wednesday... but it's closed for the next 5 weeks for cleaning :(
11. We saw the new Karate Kid movie and I got totally mission trunky with all that Chinese
12. The weather has been nice enough that Spencer and I can go on walks (or jogs) several times a week
13. Mom and Tuck are coming to play with me OH so soon!

So yah... we have nothing to complain about! Love you all...

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

I am so OCD. I have discovered that my reliance on schedules, clocks, and calendars is borderline neurotic. At this very moment, I rely on four calendars, two daily planners, two watches, eight clocks and a cell phone (which does is all, anyways). And yet with all of these planners, I never find the time to update my danged blog.

What have I been up to lately? Oh, not much... just Graduate School. I (being young and naive) began this Spring term expecting to be able to work about 30 hours per week in addition to my six graduate credits. The first week of my classes, I discovered that 10 hours of work a week is an optimistic goal and that a one credit class does not in any way translate to one hour of work (more like six in class and two to three outside of class). And this is just with ONE client! Come Fall and Winter I'll have three clients and I will still be getting a grand total of only one credit for the entire experience. Masters Degrees take WORK! However, I'm loving every second of my classes and working in the clinic is SUCH a rewarding opportunity. After so many years of schooling, I'm finally to the point where I feel like everything in my life, in my classes, in my free time, in my family... is all meshing together to form a bigger picture. I love this stuff :)

Here's a quick rundown of some of the eventful things that have happened since I updated this blog (in no order of occurrence or importance)
1. My mom just had a birthday... and she's still looking fabulous
2. My parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary
3. Tuck got engaged... and then left for Italy for like 6 weeks (my heart goes out to ya, Hugh....)
4. Spencer and I went to Pendelton, Oregon and spent Memorial Day weekend with his fam
5. I lost 5 pounds for the Walker Biggest Loser Competition... but Spencer lost 15 and is looking FINE
6. On that note... Spencer and I decided to run a 10K on Pioneer Day
7. We moved into our new apartment and love it SO much :)
8. I aced my first graduate midterm
9. I managed to eat salmon, steak and pork ribs within a single weekend
10. I survived a 9-hour car ride with five full-grown adults and two dogs. Twice.

I'm pretty sad that I haven't been keeping track of all of this stuff more meticulously, seeing as I have NO problems planning out every single minute of every single day in all of my day planners/calendars. Spencer's been keeping busy getting skinnier (and even MORE handsome, if you can even imagine such a thing), working two jobs, and keeping me the world's happiest wife. I love him WAY too much for a little blog entry to do any justice.

The take-home message: We're busy, but we've never been happier. I love you, all :)

One down, Infinity to go

One year ago yesterday, Spencer and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Forgive me for not posting these pictures yesterday... I was busy celebrating with my cute husband. Here are some fun photos that I love from the best day of my life:

I love you, Spencer. :)

What's that? "How am I feeling right now?" I'll tell you...

I'm so happy I could just SQUEEZE you!

Yes, all of you.

Our contract was signed by an AWESOME couple at 1:00 this afternoon. Happy day!

All I want....

... is to sell my stinking contract for our cute little apartment already.

THEN, we can move into THIS place :)

Broken ends and broken toes...

So much happens in my life in a matter of days; it's a shame that I don't write more frequently. OH WELL!

To celebrate the imminent Spring season, I decided that I was sick and tired of my nasty, long, stringy hair. I was ready to kiss those split ends goodbye and get ready for a lower-maintenance and less time/shampoo consuming hairstyle. So Spencer and I called up Charlynn and we took my hair to the chopping block! Spencer's never seen my hair short (except for my school picture from kindergarten when mom cut my hair into an 80s-tastic A-line) so he was surely (but silently) apprehensive about my determination to come back with hair a foot shorter than before.

Luckily, I found this hot picture of Charlize Theron to use as a model of "what my hair's SUPPOSED to look like" and all of his fears and apprehensions were abated:

Unfortunately, reality soon set in and we both realized that I will NEVER look like Charlize Theron... but we were okay with settling on allowing me to imitate her awesome hairstyle.

Here's were I admit that my camera is not working properly - I will issue a blatant warning that the following photo is not being posted because I think it does my hair (or my ridiculous face) any justice, but rather because I promised a plethora of people pictures and I REFUSE to be known as a liar. Yes, I used a cell phone, and YES, I had to take it standing in front of a mirror. Don't even get me started on the stupid cat quilt that I made in 8th grade for a Laurel project. I know my bed's not made and I know the quilt is UGLY. Oh well, at least it's not on Facebook... so here's the aftermath:

My favorite part is when I put it back in a ponytail and it makes an inch-and-a-half long knub.

Until my camera regains consciousness, you'll have to settle with this. Trust me, it looks better in person. Plus, Spencer always makes fun of me for putting pictures on my blog of everything except us. EAT THAT!

Much to my surprise, Spencer informed me that I'm never allowed to wait an entire year before cutting my hair ever again. He prefers it shorter... imagine that! (Thanks, Charlize...)

MOVING RIGHT ALONG...

The laundry monster attacked our apartment this weekend and Spencer and I fought back with full-force. We eyed our has-to-be-shared-with-8-other-couples washer and dryer like hawks and moved in for the kill when we noticed the same batch of wet laundry didn't move for 24 hours. We moved some other poor, unfortunate peoples' clothes into an empty laundry bin and plead the "you snooze, you lose" argument as justification for our deeds. However, justice is a vengeful, cruel mistress and my karma caught up with me while I went to switch our clothes three loads later in the evening.

Our laundry room is a floor beneath us. Unfortunately, the hallway lighting burned out a couple weeks ago. As I was walking down the stairs with a big laundry basket, blinded by the darkness, I biffed it on the stairs and plummeted onto the cold, ill-carpeted floor. I thought I was going to escape this fiasco with only a bruised and skinned up knee, but as I stood up to regain my composure and sanity I noticed a much more intense pain throbbing in my left foot. You know, the kind where you can feel your pulse in your injured limb? I took it like a man for the next couple of minutes and successfully switched the laundry over, but as soon as I made it back upstairs I curled up on the couch and complained of the pain to my oh-so-patient husband who fetched me an ice pack and some ibuprofin.

I decided I'd sleep on it to see if it felt any better.

And the verdict is....

Nope.

I'm pretty sure I broke (at least one of) my toes. I'm walking like a gimp (with very cute hair, mind you...) and have a purplish/reddish hue to my now-oversized middle toe. It's very attractive. My biggest concern: how in the heck am I supposed to exercise with broken toes?! I suppose I can use the exercise bikes at the gym... but I'm afraid I might have to miss out on Zumba. Stupid toes.... I figured that there were ten in case some of them decided to stop working for a little while. Apparently not. I always have the lamest bone-breaking stories, which is sad since I have about 15+ stories to tell. Some laundry, eh?

BUT... life is still good. Spencer and I are looking at newer, BIGGER apartments to move into this Spring and I already had a call today from a girl who might want to move into OUR apartment. HUZZAH!

AND... General Conference is this weekend, which I'm stoked for. Kent and DeRue will be in town, and thanks to my cute parents the four of us have tickets for the Sunday Afternoon session!

Life is grand, 8 toes and all.

Getting My Butt Kicked... and other stuff I've been up to lately

So working out isn't supposed to be easy, right? Let me just say, I'm glad that the first two weeks of my new workout routine are over and I'm still going strong. Whenever I put on those neon green/yellow running shoes and sinfully-bright-blue running shorts my body starts to clench and seize up in retaliation, but alas... I am the task master! I'm whippin' myself into (better) shape, dang it... and no aches or pains or charlie-horses are going to keep me away from my goal. I'm not trying to lose weight, I just want to be better about exercising regularly. And so far, I'm off to a pretty good start... even if I'm kicking my own butt in order to do it.

I am in love with Zumba! There's a cute girl in our Relief Society who is now teaching a class on Saturdays at 10:00. I went for the first time last week and sweated my REAR off... but had a BLAST at the same time. I'm definitely planning on going every Saturday that I can. It beats going for a run all by yourself.

Moving On...

Last week was absolutely AMAZING! My sister is the bomb-diggety. My mom came into town and she, my Grandma Spencer, and I drove up to Rexburg for the weekend to hear Tuck knock our socks off in her Opera Scenes. I'm not a huge opera fan... but I could listen to my little sister ANY time. She was phenomenal. AND, she looked really cute... well, that's before they made her put on a potato sack, trash her hair, and cover her face and teeth in enough black makeup to look like a demented zombie for the Macbeth number. She played one of several witches and she looked demonic, that's for sure. BUT, she was AWESOME once again. I wish I had pictures, but I'm lame. So I don't. So sue me.

We got to meet Tuck's boyfriend, Hugh... and the two of them together get two thumbs WAY up and an enthusiastic sisterly nod-of-approval. "Momma says he's bona fide!"... cool points to all who can name that quote. Hugh got her some awesome roses for her performance... my only complaint was that they made the tulips from mom, grandma and me look pretty second-rate. Oh well, I guess I'll let him win the prettiest flower competition.

Mom and grandma shared a hotel room for the weekend (which meant that Tuck and I reaped the rewards of a fully-loaded continental breakfast), and Tuck and I SHARED her twin size bed. You may laugh, but we were comfortable and I'm not complaining! She's got memory foam, ooh la la! Plus, neither one of us move a muscle in our sleep so we just slept soundly (and snugly) through the night.

Then this past weekend, Tuck and her choir (The Collegiate Singers...(?)) came down here to Salt Lake Cizzle to sing with MoTab for the Music and the Spoken Word Broadcast. Unfortunately, they start dressing young girls in MoTabesque smocks at a young age... but if anyone can look fancy in black velvet, bell-sleeves and paisley-patterned glitter, it's my sister. She got to sing with a sextet of girls and she hit all the high notes. I'm going to post this video and you have to watch her! She's the cute little one, second from the left.

ARGH! I can't get the link to work. Just trust me... she was cute. Maybe you can google it or something.

It was SO neat to see everyone in my entire family that day... minus my dad :( And I mean practically EVERYONE! Both grandmas, aunts, uncles & cousins from both sides, family friends from Hawaii, and ALL my siblings, their spouses, and their cute kids... both living and in embryo. :) It was hard to leave them all, but it was great to spend a little bit of time with them to celebrate Tuck's pure awesomeness. Plus it was pi-day, which necessitated further festivities.

I celebrated pi-day by baking a DELICIOUS cherry pie. I'd show you a picture, but the only one I took was on my phone and the picture's fuzzy. OH, WELL! Imagine Martha Stewart-like aesthetic perfection, with a delicious cherry filling.

Plus I made a Quiche. AND a really yummy soup.

Can I tell you how awesome my husband is, too?! Okay, thanks for the permission. He's the greatest! He's come to the gym a couple of times with me and I got to watch him haul TRASH at an intramural basketball game. His team won by about a jillion points. AND... he's handsome to boot. The other day, I mentioned that I like the "Choose to Give" shirts that people are wearing on campus and he came home from work last night with an extra one just for me. :) Plus, he thinks I'm pretty much the greatest cook ever (I guess I tricked him REALLY well). Finally, he let's me be the big spoon sometimes when we cuddle and I LIKE it! I love me some Spencer, mhmm.

I got accepted to the University of Utah this week. It'll be nice to send THEM a rejection letter (much to my dad's chagrin). The commute and an extra several thousand dollars of tuition every semester don't sound that favorable to me. Besides, I just found out that BYU's going to give me a pretty hefty scholarship for my first year. That means less time at work and more time with my hubby!... oh, and my textbooks. And so BYU it is. HUZZAH!

So life is pretty darn awesome! I love love love my life :)

P.S. I got a 100% on my ComD 421 test. BUT I forgot to wear green for St. Patrick's day... I guess blue must be the new green when it comes to luck... hmm...