Summary of the last 2 months: ROB AND ME

For the past while Rob has been teaching a computer science class at BYU. We both thought it would be nice if I attend so I went to the first class and took the boys, but they were so disruptive that that was the last class I attended too. Otherwise at school, he is working on some research so he can publish in some journals. Apart from that he has lots of little projects on the go.

I spend my life with the twins and cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, and so on. Rob said I should get out more and so Lyn and I have decided to do some fun things each week. Today we went to one of BYU's museums with our kids and they loved it. Their favorite section was the African animals. They went crazy when they saw the zebra! I want to take them to the zoo in SLC soon. I think they will enjoy that.

Rob and I have been on lots of dates - mostly we go out to eat and occasionally we'll see a movie. We recently saw Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs Evil which was fun, although not nearly as good as the first Hoodwinked (which is the retelling of Little Red Riding Hood).

On June 20th we celebrated our second wedding anniversary and Rob surprised me by taking me to The Roof Restaurant. The food is delicious, especially their desserts. I loved the Cherry Cheesecake, but my favorite was the Creme Brulee. Heavenly! I found the recipe online and so one day when I have a culinary torch, I will attempt to make it.

Rob is a wonderful husband and has been so helpful around the house and with the boys. I really do feel incredibly blessed and it is hard to believe we've been together for two and a half years - the time has flown by!

What's up...

So, our offer on the house was accepted and we were so excited. Because we were going to get a VA loan (i.e. from the military), it has to pass an inspection. Rob went to the house on Thursday morning to go check out some things, like the plumbing in the crawl space beneath the house (no basement in this house) and to his surprise the plumbing was all jacked. We knew it wouldn't pass the inspection and it would be much to expensive for us to fix. Sadly we had to back out of the contract. Fortunately, we didn't lose any money, just time. So, we're back to square one again. There aren't any houses that are in our price range that really stand out to us. Most are either in terrible condition or in terrible areas. We'll see what happens.

Friday night we went to the Ward BBQ for a while - man, do I love a good American barbecued hamburger. Yum! I could have eaten two, but I didn't. Rob and I then took off and Rachel babysat the kids. We went to the BYU Planetarium and stood in line for about 30 minutes with tons of other people only to discover they had canceled the show due to it being a Reading Day (like study week in South Africa) at BYU. So, we drove to the dollar theater to see what was showing. Nothing too exciting so we decided on Gnomio and Juliet, a 3D animated film about gnomes, based on Shakespeare's tragedy. It was entertaining and there were some really funny things in it. It was my first 3D film though! I thought the gnome in a mankini was funny as well as when the one gnome (Benny or something) dressed up as a daisy to disguise himself. He said something like, "I love going commando!" For some reason I found it funny.

Anyway, yesterday Rob and I went for a walk and then we had a barbecue with Heather and Jason. We grilled a huge piece of steak which was just delicious. Tomorrow night we're going to barbecue ribs. Yum!!

This week we have Thomas' and Luke's first birthday party. I got to make a bunch of yummy things to eat. Quite a few people are coming.

"You have to live spherically"

This evening Candice and I watched the movie Under the Tuscan Sun. It is a mildly entertaining, completely unrealistic romantic comedy. Knowing a thing or two about Italy and life there, some of the things they suggest about life there are ridiculous (such as the easiness of buying a villa there). Anyway, it is still a fun movie...and reminds me of Italy and how it would be good to keep up my Italian skills.

One quote I like from the movie is when Katherine tells Frances something she heard from a famous director: "You have to live spherically, in many directions and never lose your childish enthusiasm and then things will come your way."

I think this is so true and I want to live my life this way. I want to live with enthusiasm and celebrate the opportunities that come my way... and grab life with both hands.

This week has been hard. My classes are really demanding, work demands a lot at the moment, I have a thesis to think about (although I'm dropping out of the doctoral program, I'm going to get another masters - I can do that at a distance and won't take too much more from me because I have most of the credits) and a prospectus/proposal to write, a wedding to plan, and I miss Rob SO MUCH. I have just felt so stressed because I feel like I have more to do than I have time for. Anyway, despite this, I know that being at BYU is such a great opportunity and I have so many great things happening in my life... I can only be happy and embrace everything Heavenly Father has given me with enthusiasm. My biggest blessing right now is my Rob. He is so loving and so supportive of me and everything I want to do in my life. Yesterday I got home after having a particularly hard day, there was a big bunch of brightly coloured beautiful flowers waiting for me with a wonderful note attached from Rob. I felt so loved! Then, in the evening, Rob booked a flight out to Utah for the first weekend in April (2 weeks time) so we can watch General Conference and attend my mission reunion together. I'm so looking forward to it!!!!

The Party

This evening I showed Rob the movie The Party (with Peter Sellers). I recently purchased it and was dying to see it again. Apart from there being so many hilarious scenes, I love the house and the music in the movie. When we were kids, we'd regularly watch this movie - it was a family favourite!!


Here is Rob's favourite scene from the movie:

My BIG FAT Greek Wedding

Last night when Rob and I were trying to figure out what to do, I felt it was time to educate him on one of the best movies ever. I have watched that movie close to 15 times in my life and feel I could watch it countless times more. It just has so many HILARIOUS parts to it. The main reason it was important for Rob to watch it is because some of my family and I quote it every-now-and-then. Here is one of my most favourite parts of the whole movie: