Our Happily Ever After

Hey guys! Over here!

2011-05-28T11:51:00.002-06:00

http://www.thenshesmiles.blogspot.com is where L is blogging now.

It's not you, it's me

2009-10-03T18:47:00.002-06:00

Dear blog,

I think it's time for some changes.

I mean, the web address of this blog is: dustinandlandon.blogspot.com, but let's be honest with ourselves: how often does D blog? Yeah, never. It's all me.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I have another blog. And I think instead of keeping the two separate, it's time for me to choose which blog I want to continue to write on. I'm really candid on my other blog. And I could do that here too. I just need to know if this is the place or if it's time to say goodbye.

So, which one is it going to be? My blog or "D & L's" blog?

We're both the same!

2009-09-05T22:52:00.001-06:00

I am grateful that D and I both like college football.

Especially on a night like tonight when we watched BYU beat Oklahoma. :D

Here's what ESPN had to say about the game:

Quick observations from BYU-OU game

September 5, 2009 10:41 PM

Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Griffin

Here are some quick impressions from BYU’s stunning 14-13 over Oklahoma Saturday night. I’m as shocked as anybody by the result.

How the game was won: It would be easy to blame Sam Bradford’s shoulder injury. But BYU won this game because it converted key plays and took advantage of critical Oklahoma penalties and mistakes. The Sooners fumbled three times, losing two. And they were flagged 12 times for 94 yards in penalties.

Player of the game: BYU quarterback Max Hall torched the Sooners for 328 yards and two touchdowns to spark the Cougars’ upset victory. But as impressive as his statistics were, his gritty leadership helped spark the Cougars. Hall converted three third-down plays and a fourth-down play on the Cougars’ game-winning drive.

Stat of the game: Oklahoma was limited to 264 yards of total offense. It was their lowest output since producing 230 yards in a 27-24 loss to Colorado on Sept. 29, 2007.

Turning point: Bradford’s hopes of repeating as a Heisman winner, as well as the Sooners’ national title hopes, went up in smoke when he was hit cleanly by BYU linebacker Coleby Clawson late in the first half. The Sooners’ offense never recovered as they lost their first season-opening game since losing to TCU in 2005.

Second guessing: I’m wondering why Bob Stoops went for a 54-yard field goal with Tress Way to try to win the game at Oklahoma’s final possession. It was the longest kick attempt of his career. I know he likely didn’t have much confidence in Landry Jones in that possession, but wouldn’t a fourth-and-14 conversion been easier than a miracle 54-yard field goal?

What it means: The Sooners’ national title hopes have been dealt a staggering blow. They aren’t dead, but they are on life support. And with Bradford’s status uncertain, their hopes for a fourth-straight Big 12 title look pretty slim now, too. It also provides the Mountain West Conference with a strong national calling card victory that arguably might be the biggest in the conference’s history.

Photos to Match

2009-08-23T15:19:00.006-06:00

This is Lucy. She is my in-law's dog, but she thinks she lives in the trailer so she and I spend a lot of time together.

D by our front door. Barn on the left, home sweet home on the right!

Barn on the right, trailer in the center, garden on the right

This is my MIL's garden. Lizards and frogs can frequently be seen zipping through the plants. I water this garden daily.

More garden. Pumpkins, potatoes, watermelon, zucchini, squash, strawberries, sunflowers...

This is the bunny I found in the garden! In the watermelon plant, to be specific. Look how cute and little he is!

Highlights

2009-08-23T00:15:00.002-06:00

So Monday was our 2nd anniversary - huge milestone, I know.

We thought we would be super romantic and celebrate by sending D to work for 11 hours roofing in hot hot weather while I sat at home applying for jobs and watching for movies. And then when he got home, we hit the town and went to urgent care because he had a HUGE infection in his right elbow (aka - not the one he broke). The doctor said had we waited one more day to have is arm checked out, he would've ended up in the hospital. D got a huge shot of antibiotics in his bum (super hot), which made him a little loopy. The nurse was laughing hard at all of his jokes (can you blame her though? he's hilarious!). To end our evening, we went and got popsicles at the grocery store and then sent my boy to bed.

Aren't we the most romantic ever?

But, in all honesty, D is the best man ever and I'm more grateful every day for our love and friendship. I would post pictures in tribute, but I'm on my MIL's computer and the pictures of D on here would probably embarrass him. :)

Also super exciting news, D passed his National EMT Registry test!!! He is now a nationally licensed EMT-basic! I'm so proud of him!!

Here's what happened with D's elbow, for everyone interested (and willing to read a ton):

Back when he was in the bike accident (the day of his graduation - we like to celebrate big events by going to urgent care apparently), he got road rash on his right arm. We treated the road rash, not even thinking something more could be wrong. Well, turns out there's a sac in your elbow that protects your elbow from injuries that could occur from leaning on it or bumping it. Dustin injured this sac and it never completely healed. While roofing, he was using his elbow a lot, causing the skin on the elbow to wear thin and also causing micro-abrasions on his skin, allowing bacteria in. Because the sac was already injured, it provided a place for the bacteria to live and grow. The infection flared up on Sunday, but D thought it would go away on its own because the sac has randomly been filling and un-filling of fluid for the last 4 or so months. Monday, D texted me saying he needed to go to urgent care. Guessing he was on his lunch, I called him and he told me that he was exhausted and felt like he had a flu. When he got home, one look at his arm confirmed that the infection had already started to spread into his system. We went straight to urgent care where the doctor was surprised at the size of the infection. Fortunately, we caught it in time and the antibiotics have done wonders. Plus, he got the rest of the week off so he and I got to spend some time together!

California!

2009-07-30T22:35:00.003-06:00

We made it! We're here in California!

I wish I could say that the move was easy.

It wasn't.

I rented a 12 foot truck thinking we would have plenty of room, but we had to leave things behind because apparently we accumulated a lot of stuff in the last 2 years and it wouldn't all fit. But D is a rockstar and was able to get almost everything (except for hangers and my bookshelf) into the truck!

My dad and brother came out to help us move and they were awesome as well - cleaning, packing, running errands, etc.

And we have the greatest friends. Seriously, who else has 15 friends show up on a Monday night at like 10/10:30 pm to help clean their house?! I'm tearing up just thinking about it. Thank you all!

Here's the rough part: Penske screwed up and charged us 3 times for our truck (that's almost $1000 people!) sending our checking account into overdraft fee heaven. I've been on the phone with Penske and Wells Fargo for hours a day since Sunday and so far, so progress. If nothing happens tomorrow, there will be hell to pay. Penske has promised me though that everything will be fixed by tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

We're unpacking slowly. The kitchen is pretty well put together and the bedroom and everything else is a total disaster!

But we're living - we're swimming, playing with our niece and nephews, helping with projects and problems, etc. I even went to Stake Enrichment tonight! (Of course it helped that my MIL was going and my aunt was speaking...) We're both looking for jobs, too. It's...different from Provo to be sure.

But I think I like it.

And if you know of anyone who's hiring in the Roseville/Loomis/Rocklin area, let us know!!

Leave of Absence

2009-07-15T00:14:00.006-06:00

This blog has been kind of silent for a while...

Sorry!

Here's the reader's digest version of what has been happening in our lives.

D's been working (Mission President's Seminar, normal shifts + any he picks up that week). He's been our sole provider since May and I am so grateful to him!
L directed a show that is currently playing: Standing Still Standing (It's a romantic comedy that is totally fun for everyone!)

L took a spontaneous and very quick trip to Jackson Hole, WY with M to see E!

We celebrated L's 2_ birthday! D spoiled her by welcoming her to the 21st century with her very first beautiful, green ipod (the name of which is yet to be determined)

We're getting ready to move and counting down the days! Less than two weeks and we will be saying goodbye to P-town! While we're (read: I'm) a little sad to be leaving P-town and ending this fun chapter of our lives, we're so looking forward to being in CA, closer to family, and starting new adventures together.

That about does it folks. We've been really busy and running around like crazy people, but it's mostly because of the show and work! Even though life's been crazy, we've been really blessed with health and strength and energy and great friends and family. Thank you all!

And that's all the news that's fit to print! ;)

Father's Day

2009-06-21T18:55:00.009-06:00

I'm pretty positive that our dads do not read this blog. But, our moms do! So, Moms, we are relying on you to relay this information to the dads. :)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO THE BEST DADS IN THE WORLD!

Announcement

2009-06-13T14:31:00.005-06:00

Here's the deal guys: money is tight, the economy is less than friendly, we're all looking for ways to cut back and often the things that are cut are the fun things.

I'm working on a show (my last one in Provo) and we're doing giveaways every Friday. We're giving away date night packages. And, as part of the giveaways, we're we're giving away tickets to the show (a free night out!!). The show is about a comedy about a married couple and it really is hilarious - there's something in it for everyone!

To enter the giveaway, go to http://SSStanding.blogspot.com. Like I said, we do a giveaway every Friday, so keep watching and entering! With money being tight, a giveaway is just the thing to bring some fun!

For more information about the show, you can check out our facebook event page or our show blog.

blessed day

2009-05-31T17:35:00.002-06:00

there is nothing quite like going to church in the morning with the person you love the most, coming home and laughing together, taking an afternoon nap, waking up to the most delicious smells in the world thinking it's coming from someone else's house only to find that the person you love the most made you an amazing dinner, broken elbow and all.

sometimes, when i lose perspective, God does things like this to remind me that He does indeed love me and want me to be happy.

that's why D is in my life. :)

happy sabbath.

Introducing...

2009-05-11T12:39:00.005-06:00

Our little bundle of joy (hehe) is here!

Meet Optimus Prime!

Isn't he just great?! We sure think so!

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T22:09:00.005-06:00

D and I are so blessed to have wonderful mothers!

If blogger would let me, I would upload photos of both of them. But blogger won't let me. :(

Regardless, I want to take this opportunity to wish both of our mothers a Happy Mother's Day! Thank you both for being such great supports, examples of righteousness, and loving us both through the good and the...not so good. :) We are so grateful for both of you and we couldn't ask for better mothers or mother-in-laws!

Happy Mother's Day!

Exciting!

2009-05-08T16:31:00.002-06:00

D and I have been married for 1 yr and 9 months (almost). We've loved our time as the two of us but felt like it was time to make an addition to our little family! And we are so excited!!!

Here are some hints:

1. It's blue!

2. It's little!

3. It is quite active!

Any guesses?

It's a SCOOTER! :D

D and I have been transportation-less for a while now (since September actually) and with a billion people moving out of P-town and trying to sell their mostly useless stuff, there have been some really awesome scooters going for really cheap! We found a 2008 blue 50cc MotoBravo scooter that was purchased in September of 2008 and has 300 miles on it for $650 (including a brand new helmet Moms, don't worry) and is still under warrantee so we snatched it right up! It's in the shop right now getting all tuned up (the seller stopped driving it when it started snowing and hasn't really driven it since so she wanted to be sure it was all perfect and ready to go) and it will be all ready for us to adopt (hehe) on Monday or Tuesday!

Horray for transportation! Horray for a fun summertime scooter (that I will be able to continue to use in CA)!

Editor's Note

2009-05-06T14:30:00.002-06:00

I spoke too soon.

D is back in a cast after seeing an Orthopedic dr. today. Apparently, if D keeps moving his arm around, there's a good chance the fracture could break off and he would have to have surgery. So D is in a cast for at least 6 weeks, although 3 weeks from now he should be able to begin to move his arm a little. He has to see the orthopedic guy once a week and have x-rays done every week to be sure the bone is healing and all that jazz. And then once it's healed, he might still have physical therapy to do.

Oy!

So we're back to life with a half cast on. This version is smaller and allows D to use his hand (the other version did not), but it's still a cast. :(

Pray for his fast healing!

Update on the Patient

2009-05-04T14:24:00.002-06:00

Because I know you all are losing sleep over the condition of D and his elbow, let me set your mind at rest.

He saw a dr. today and the dr. said, "Your elbow is indeed broken. But! You don't have to wear a cast! Just a sling! And go see an orthopedic person! And do physical therapy!"

The dr. was concerned that if D's elbow was casted he would lose range of motion, which would be bad news bears. So he is uncasted, but slung, and will be seeing an orthopedic person on Wednesday to start figuring out physical therapy.

I was very happy when he came home from the dr. and was able to hug me with both arms. What a small luxury that I've missed so much! I'm sure D is happy about things like being able to use his left hand again, dress himself, etc.

Life around here is never boring!!

Current Events

2009-04-30T11:53:00.008-06:00

Yesterday was quite the day for our family!

D graduated from fire academy at the top of his class! He received something called the Instructor Recommendation, which is the top honor that any recruit can receive. Two-thirds of the instructors had to vote for his recommendation. I am so proud of him and how hard he has worked for the past 16 weeks!

Here is D officially graduating from fire academy!

These are all the guys that D graduated with - Company 51!

Here is D with his engine - Engine 1. For the last 8 weeks or so D has been a company officer for company 1 and this has been their engine!

Notice how D is holding is left arm kinda funny at his side? That's because it's broken. It took a lot convincing to get him to go to urgent care and have a Dr. look at his arm. He crashed his bike yesterday riding home from work. His left arm took the brunt of the weight of the fall and his right arm took the brunt of the slide from the fall. D was convinced that he would be fine and that he was just bruised, but as soon has he discovered that he could not completely straighten his arm without tears of pain, we knew there was something more seriously wrong. We went straight from graduation to urgent care!

His left arm is in a half hard cast thing from his shoulder down to the end of his pinky finger. His right arm is bandaged because of all the road rash.

Cute huh!! What a day!

D is on Lortab for the pain. He has never been on prescription pain meds before so it's been a fun time! (fav. quote from last night "I think I might be high. There's no top to my head! It just goes on and on into happiness!")

I am so proud of D and how tough he is! He's going to be such a fantastic firefighter and I love him so much!

A huge thank you so much Dave for letting us use your car! :D You're a lifesaver!

It's Happening

2009-04-27T17:34:00.003-06:00

We always knew that living in Provo would be temporary. (Length of "temporary" can vary, but nonetheless, Provo does not equal permanent.) With both of us graduating, we realized it was time for the inevitable, the move out of Provo.

Today, I reserved our moving truck.

On July 25th, we'll be waiving goodbye to Provo and hello to California!

(we figured the timing was appropriate - it's Pioneer Day Weekend - so while all the Utahns celebrate pioneers coming into the valley, we'll be celebrating leaving the valley.)

Crazy!

WE DID IT!

2009-04-24T21:05:00.006-06:00

We did it!

We Graduated!!!

And I love that we did it together! :D

(don't get your knickers in a twist - there will be more photos soon. i just have to sort through them first)

Last Ditch

2009-04-22T13:55:00.002-06:00

This is my last ditch plea for you to come to our graduation party on Friday any time from 4-7 pm!!

Food, Friends, Fun, etc.

Please come! :D

And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

Mother Nature

2009-04-20T19:16:00.002-06:00

When it snowed this last Thursday, I'll admit I felt a little bit of panic. I mean, I know I'm living in a state that doesn't get the concept of separate seasons very well, but 6 inches of snow in the middle of April?? Come on!

Fortunately, here is what the weather looks like for the rest of this week:

Amen!

Book Buy Back

2009-04-17T16:56:00.001-06:00

Last book buy back at BYU and how much did we get back?

$4.

So long, BYU!

Graduation!

2009-04-13T22:08:00.003-06:00

Dustin and I are both graduating this April!

To celebrate, we're having an open house at our place from 4-7 on the 24th. It's a come and go thing and there will be food and fun (i mean, hello, we have a wii) and you are all invited! Please come and stop by, even if it's for just a few minutes. We would like to see all of our friends who have been such great supports to us, which is all of you! So mark it on your calendars now and we hope to see you! :D

A Letter

2009-04-13T09:21:00.003-06:00

Dear ants who live in our wall,

Yeah, you know who you are. I have two words for you:

I WIN.

You thought you could come in my house. You even had multiple entrances/exits. You thought you were invincible as you kept sending more scouts out, despite the fact that I made D kill all of them. You didn't even listen to my threats (shouted as you were each sighted and squashed. Oh how I hate you).

Well, I made good on them. Thanks to the help of D and some caulk, your entrances/exits are sealed. There is no getting into my house any more.

Take that.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T15:07:00.002-06:00

We are so grateful for our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. On this day, we rejoice in celebrating our Savior's life, death and resurrection. We love Him and we look forward to Him coming to earth again!

Happy Easter to everyone!

May we all take time today to reflect on His life, infinite atonement and infinite blessings that our given to us because of Him.

It's Heeeeeeeere

2009-04-09T22:27:00.001-06:00

The Wii came today. :D

If I never post again, assume I'm playing Wii.

Happiness is:

2009-04-04T18:10:00.004-06:00

There were never video gaming consoles in my house growing up. I've never felt deprived or anything because of it. In fact, I like that my family did a lot of activities together growing up.

D, on the other hand, did play video games. Not all the time, but he definitely knows his way around a video game controller remote thing. Imagine his surprise when he discovered that

I did not know how to play any video games! There has been a lot of good natured laughter at my expense as I've tried to steer my Mario cart by turning the controller remote, among other things. :) I didn't enjoy playing video games at all, mostly because I really sucked at them, so D thought that there was no hope for having any video game systems in our house.

Then the Wii came along. I played it a couple of times and really liked it. Guitar Hero, Mario Cart, etc., were all games that I could enjoy! I especially liked the more social feel of playing Wii. D saw that video games had an in with me now.

Fast forward to this year. We file our tax return. D asks what we're going to do with our tax return money. I'm thinking, "pay bills, duh." D had other plans. He wanted a Wii! It didn't fly however, as I reminded him that we still had to pay his BYU tuition, rent, utilities, and some how buy another car. No Wii for us.

Last night, I got paid for a directing gig (LHS). It was much more than I was anticipating getting! So, I thought, why not splurge a little?

We bought a Wii.

Now, because I am frugal, we bought it from overstock.com for $100 less than what it goes for in stores. It's brand new, but was returned to Best Buy so they put it up for auction on overstock.com. And then we bought it. I'll admit - I still had some anxiety with such a large (ha!) purchase, but I am really looking forward to having a Wii!

Our next Wii purchase: Wii fit. :)

2009-03-29T21:02:00.002-06:00

Wow - talk about serious lack in blogging! Don't worry, I'm not going to make excuses like I've been busy or I wrote this huge post and then the internet dropped the second I hit 'publish post'. I'll just update and let the update speak for itself. :)

D is doing great in fire academy. He passed state testing this last week and is now officially a firefighter 1/fireman 2. He'll be spending the rest of his semester studying hazmat stuff. I never thought someone could be happy because they smell like smoke and sweat, but those are the days D is happiest because it means that they burned stuff at fire academy. Our washing machine is is run just about every day so that D's fire academy clothes don't stink. ;) I'm thrilled to know how happy he is with his career choice. He is good at it too! As much as it still freaks me out to think of him running into burning buildings, I am proud of him for how hard he works and that he will be protecting people and saving lives.

I closed a show on Monday night, Little Happy Secrets. It went so well! The response we received from the show was overwhelmingly positive. Normally I dread talk backs after shows (the chance the audience has to ask questions or share thoughts) but the talk backs after this show reminded me why I do theatre! Theatre really can change the world, even if it's just one person at a time. Every talk back was an incredibly spiritual experience for me. It was a wonderful show to be a part of and I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity I had to be involved.

D and I are both looking forward to graduation! D will be walking with my college at convocation (which I am excited for!). We have no idea who is speaking at commencement. But we do know that D's parents, sister and brother-in-law and their kids will be coming out along with my parents and my 3 youngest siblings and my two grandmas. We are so excited to see our family and be able to spend time with them! And we are so excited to graduate!!

I get to go to California tomorrow morning with A (former roommate and best of friend!). She is going through the temple on Tuesday in preparation for her mission and I get to be there with her! I am so excited! There is no greater feeling (in my mind) then being with best friends in the celestial room. And, I'll be honest, I'm looking forward to getting out of Provo and down to sunny LA for a couple of days.

Other than that, we're living life day in and day out. We love each other more and more each day (I know, so presh) and we're grateful for what we have (minus the snow outside). :)

Til next time!

Luck o' The Irish

2009-03-17T10:35:00.004-06:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

In honor of the day, I'm not doing a blessed thing other than wearing green. I don't even know if D is wearing green. I'll also be taking a wonderful nap, going to a tech, and not eating anything green. Check out the Irish in me. :) [M, on the other hand, is wearing green 'Kiss me I'm Irish' pajama pants and socks.]

Hope your St. Patrick's Day is as festive as ours!

Together Again!

2009-03-15T22:57:00.002-06:00

When D and I were engaged, D spent 6+ weeks in California working for his dad while I worked here in Utah. Miserable!! Since then, we haven't been apart for more than a day. Sure, we may only see each other for an hour a day, but that's better than nothing!

Well, Wednesday, I went to Oregon for a friend's sealing. D couldn't get off of school and work so here he stayed. That's right - I was in Oregon and D was home alone in Utah for 4 and a half days! (That is not very long, I know. Don't judge me.) It was so weird to not have D with me! We talked every night, sure, but talking on the phone is not quite the same as being together. It was a wonderful trip home, though, and I loved every minute of it and being able to be there for my friends as they went through the temple. I even got to be home to celebrate Kara's 17th birthday!!

D and I have been reunited (thank you Kayla for giving me a ride home from the airport!) and are so happy to have each other! Being married to D is the best and I love him and am so grateful for him. And I'm grateful to know that even though we may be separated for a few days, we can be together forever.

Bragging Rights

2009-03-10T12:58:00.003-06:00

I just have to brag a little bit about my awesome husband.

On Wednesday, the instructors changed up the companies at fire academy. Dustin was made a company officer of Company 1! In his company of 4 are all of the former company officers (except for 1). All of the new company officers are ones that the head instructor wants to have more face time with the other instructors because they're all candidates for the highest recommendation given from fire academy!! That's right - D has gotten high A's on all his tests, done super well on all the exams and rotations, etc. He's awesome!! I'm so proud of how well he's doing and how hard he's working. What a stud!!

Life With Us is Never Boring!

2009-03-01T22:41:00.002-07:00

D and I don't get to see each other much during the week with school and work and all. D got a huge blessing and was not scheduled to work on Saturdays or Sundays this semester. We love spending weekends together!

Yesterday was no exception - except I put a little damper on the weekend and smacked my head really hard and got a concussion. Passed out, thew up once, and was completely out of it for a good long time. All I wanted to do was to sleep but D wouldn't let me (thankfully!). Today, I'm still pretty dizzy and have to move around really slowly or I fall over. This is the first time I've ever had a head injury and D was so nice to me! I'm so grateful that he has EMT training and was able to take care of me.

Life with us is never boring, that's for sure!!

Woes of a Pedestrian

2009-02-27T16:24:00.002-07:00

With no car since September, D and I have spent a lot of time on foot. Or on bike, in D's case. Here are some general notes for the public learned from our experiences.

Bikes do not belong on the sidewalk. Get the heck off! The sidewalk is for walking, like it says in the name. Bikes are motorized vehicles and therefore belong in the bike lane of the road or on the side of the road. So get off my sidewalk and stop hogging it and then glaring at the pedestrians who are using the sidewalk correctly.

Drivers of cars watch for pedestrians at cross walks. When the white man is telling me to walk on that little box across the cross walk, I'm gonna cross. Please don't hit me! Seriously, I don't think I should have to look behind me to see if someone is going to run me down while turning right when I'm crossing in the cross walk when I'm supposed to. If I was jay-walking, ok run me down.

The white line at the light is for you to stop behind. Thank you. Your inching forward into my cross walk while I'm walking in front of you is not appreciated.

Pedestrians, you are not going to be seen at night if you wear black or brown. Don't be dumb.

And now I will step off of my box and let you continue on with your day. :)

Year and a Half

2009-02-17T10:03:00.003-07:00

Although not nearly as monumental as a yearly anniversary, Dustin and I have been married for a year and a half today!

I love you, Dustin and am so grateful and thrilled to be your wife for time and all eternity! I love you more and more every day. :)

Isn't it funny?

2009-02-09T16:18:00.003-07:00

D can function like a normal human being on 5 hours of sleep.

I need at least 8-9 hours of sleep a night to function like a normal human being.

Yet, I'm the one who takes on a million-bajillion projects and works and goes to school etc.

I think God is awesome at regulating us. He knew that if I only needed 5 hours of sleep a night, I would try and take over the world (not a healthy thing). And I would never see my husband.

Editor's Note

2009-02-08T18:25:00.002-07:00

In saying that we're the black sheep of the Wheeler family, we did not mean outcast, or unwelcome or unloved or anything of the sort. We're just a little different. You know, like white sheep are different from black sheep (different color and all). We know we're loved and we feel a part of the family (like sheep are still sheep). We're just odd balls. :)

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Follower

2009-02-04T16:02:00.004-07:00

So this survey thing has been going around facebook like wildfire. I thought it would be fun to do one for D and I combined, so here it goes!

25 Things
Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

1. We met at FHE - our apartments were paired together for FHE and we had the greatest FHE's ever!

2. We're night people. We rarely go to bed before midnight. Ever.

3. Our parents know TONS of the same people and didn't realize it until two days before we got married (ex. D's dad dated the older sister of a girl L's dad dated. Also, L's dad worked with one of D's dad's cousins.)

4. We were friends for 4 months, dated for 4 months, and were engaged for 4 months.
We've happily been married for more than 4 months. :)

5. We couldn't be more different - D's gonna be a firefighter and likes science and outdoor stuff. L is a theatre person. We make it work and love it!

6. We have more friends who are single than married. Weird? Whatev.

7. For every occasion at which photos are taken, we always take at least one flashing the peace sign. Case in point - our Christmas card was us flashing the peace sign and underneath it said "Peace on Earth! Happy Holidays Love, the Wheelers." We're cool.

8. We have awful car karma. If anyone knows how to cleanse it or whatever, please let us know!

9. We're the black sheep of the Wheeler family. We're not outcasts, just different.

10. We have beer in our fridge. Don't Judge! It's from a show! And L is going to wash her hair in it!

11. D is a better cook than L.

12. L is ok with that.

13. We think we're hilarious. We laugh a lot. Mostly at ourselves.

14. We love football! L even understands it, which D loves. In fact, she was more vocal than some guys around them at games this last season. Awesome.

15. Even though we have a California King sized bed, L is not good at sharing it, as D will tell anyone who will listen. L wants a bigger bed. D just wants to be able to sleep in the one he has without getting pushed off the edge.

16. We can quote Arrested in daily conversation without missing a beat.

17. We are each other's best friends.

18. We want to adopt some of our kids.

19. We won't have kids for several years. But when we do, they'll be the cutest kids ever!

20. The longest we've been apart was during our engagement - we were apart for 7 weeks. D was in California working for his dad and L was in Utah working for BYU Sports and Dance Camps. Worst. 7. Weeks. Ever.

21. We want to travel! So if you feel like donating to our traveling fund... ;)

22. We will both be walking in April 2009. L will be graduating then and D will officially graduate in August (he has a couple classes to finish Spring term). Horray graduation!

23. We have radically different taste in music.

24. We both play piano and are saving up to buy an electric piano so that we can keep developing our mad skillz.

25. We love each other more today than we did yesterday and the day before and the day we were married...
L was the one to say "I love you" first though. :)

That was probably more fun for us than it was for you, but it's our blog so that's what you get! :D I dare you to do one now too!

Phew!

2009-01-26T16:17:00.002-07:00

The show opened, closed, and was a roaring success!

My mom came out and visited this past weekend and saw the show (three times, actually. She says she knows most of the lines now. We've been quoting them on and off all weekend). Pictures will come as soon as my mom sends them to me. ;)

Now we can get back to normal life! (Wait...what's that??)

Come See Landon's Senior Show!

2009-01-11T17:44:00.003-07:00

Come see Rabbit Hole: Landon's senior project!! Tickets are $5 (so cheap!) and the show plays four performances in the Margett's theatre at BYU.

Trust me, this is one show you don't want to miss!!

That time of year again...

2009-01-05T18:30:00.002-07:00

School has started once again - but it's our last semester of classes!!!

Dustin is attending Fire Academy at UVU (6:30 am - 5 pm MWF) as well as taking a class at BYU and doing his internship for BYU.

Landon is attending BYU and trying desperately to not take more than 12 easy credits. :) (4 1/2 years is too long to spend doing undergrad work. I'm done.)

We are super grateful to be nearing the end of our undergraduate work at BYU/UVU - Hopefully we'll make it through!

Is it April yet? ;)

2008 A Year in Review

2008-12-31T19:38:00.005-07:00

January

We stared winter semester
Dustin is working for Action Target
Landon is working for BYU Sports and Dance Camps

February

Landon separates her right shoulder

March

Landon’s 35 minute show performed: A Piece of My Heart

April

Landon has another show perform: Ladybirds and the Strawberry
Landon win’s the student directing award for Winter 2008 at the Theatre and Media Arts banquet
Dustin starts work as a Media Technician at the Provo MTC
Landon starts TAing for the beginning directing class
Landon works as a stage hand for a BYU show: Esperanza Rising

May

Grandpa Reichhold passed away – we made two trips out to Loomis to be with him the weekend before he passed and then again for the funeral.
Lots of work!

June

Dustin worked Mission President’s Seminar at the MTC –he worked 60 hours in seven days!

July

Landon turned 22
Dustin and Landon made the trip out to Oregon for Mom Taylor’s graduation from Phoenix University with her Masters in Education
We sold the Explorer
And bought Roxanne – a 1998 Mercury Mystique
Shaine came out and visited us for 10 days
Landon started directing Bread of Affliction

August

Roxanne broke down for the first time – all of the timing stuff needed replacing.
We celebrated our 1 year anniversary!
Dustin turned 24!
Landon threw Dustin a surprise party and even kept it a secret! - thanks to Shaine's help

September

Fall semester started
Dustin started school at UFRA
Roxanne broke down a second time – she needs a new engine!
Landon started work as the TA for the intermediate and advanced directing classes
Bread of Affliction performed five times at three different venues – to rave reviews!

October

Bread of Affliction performed three more times
Dustin passed the CPAT test!

November

Landon started directing Rabbit Hole
We had Thanksgiving at our house – Jocelyne and Collin joined us for an awesome dinner. Landon cooked the turkey and no one died!

December

Dustin passed his EMT state skills practical!
Dustin is accepted to UVU’s Fire Academy program!
Bread of Affliction is adjudicated for the ACTF festival.
Landon is nominated and accepted to go compete at ACTF in the directing competition
We finished all our finals!
We passed our classes!
Christmas & New Years in Utah

Things We're Looking Forward to in 2009

Growing more in love with each other
Graduation!
Rabbit Hole and Little Happy Secrets performing
Graduation!!
Moving to California and Dustin starting paramedic school - which means living in a trailer behind Mom and Dad Wheeler's barn
Graduation!!!
Buying a working car! (first we have to file with small claims court...)
Graduation!!!!
Competing at ACTF
Graduation!!!!!
Fire Academy
And whatever else comes along. After all, Elder Worthlin said it best:

Come What May and Love It!

Best Ever

2008-12-27T23:24:00.003-07:00

If you were wondering if I have the best mother and mother-in-law, the answer is yes.

Here's why:

For Christmas, my mom sent me a card telling me that she's coming out to Utah from the 22-26 of January to see my senior show, Rabbit Hole, and spoil me and Dustin! Best gift ever!

Also for Christmas, my mother-in-law has started this new thing where she gives three

gifts: a need, a want and a treasure. She completely met our needs and our wants and surprised me with our treasure.

That's totally a Willow Tree nativity set!!!!!!!!!! I'm love it!! The second Dustin and I got home from the Caldwell cabin, I opened it up and and put it up on the shelf. :D

So, my mom's rock. Totally. I love them. :)

Victory!

2008-12-20T17:42:00.002-07:00

Today's Victories

New Furnace!!!! (yeah, it's Saturday. yeah, it was supposed to come yesterday. it was ordered from Vegas and with all the snow storms, it took a little longer to get here.)

New hair cut

Working drier (the furnace guys also vented our drier to the outside instead of down into the crawl space. when they vented it, they found that the vent thingy was clogged with like a foot and a half of junk. so that's why it took us 6 full cycles to get our clothes clean!)

Clean dining room floor

Everyone's Christmas gifts (except Dustin's) are purchased and wrapped

What I Will Still Accomplish Today

Clean kitchen (floor, dishes, stove, fridge, microwave [just for you, Rach])

Clean clothes

Baking gingerbread cookies

Car Update

Our car is dead - needs a new engine. The inspector found that a piston head shattered and that is what caused the engine to die. The reason it shattered was because oil wasn't getting up to it. Basically, the previous owners did not change the oil at all in the 83,000 miles they owned it. We got the paperwork from the inspector in the mail yesterday. Now we will be filling out paperwork against the previous owners with small claims court. Wish us luck! It sucks not having a car (especially with like 8 inches of snow outside and at Christmas time) but we really have been so blessed.

Finals Update

We're done!! :D Now I just have a ton of grading to do before December 30th.

Sorry for the ADD post! Hope everyone is safe and enjoying the winter weather!

Update

2008-12-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

We're getting a new furnace.

On Friday.

It's 27 degrees outside...

yeah...

The property management people are supposedly bringing over electric space heaters to keep us warm until Friday.

And we're getting a new furnace!! Horray!

Blog Worthy

2008-12-17T10:51:00.004-07:00

If I could, I would probably blog about everything. But instead, I ask myself "is this blog worthy?" so you all aren't bored to tears with the awesomeness of our lives.

Today, I encountered blog worthy material.

Bridget saved my life.

I'm not even joking. We went to go do RS visits this morning at 9. We were meeting at my apartment. It's freezing, so Katie and Lori drove and waited in their respective cars. Bridget walked and came in my apartment. When she came in she said, "Wow, it smells like natural gas in here." I had just woken up about 8 minutes ago and I guess I was used to the smell because I just didn't smell it. A couple minutes later she remarked again, "It's really strong." At this point, I her remarks had me concerned and decided that when we got home from doing visits I needed to make some calls. We left to go do visits, and when I returned home I called our property management people. Don't you worry, I had called them not even a week ago because our apartment smelled like natural gas coming from our heater and drier. They came and I assumed they fixed it. Apparently not! I talked to the lady at the property management place and she told me to call Questar. They are my new heros! Not even 45 seconds after I got off the phone with Questar, a technician showed up at my door! He came in and said, "This is bad."

There were life threatening quantities of natural gas in my house.

He turned off my heater (the source of the problems), talked to my property management people, aired out my house, and told me that if the property management people didn't fix it right to call him back ASAP.

I love that Questar technician.

So, a heating guy came, looked at the heater, and then left...

And that's where we are. I made Dustin come home from work to help me deal with this because, maybe it's the gas, but I can't do this.

Damn apartment.

That's my story. Watch for updates.

Thank you Bridget!!!!!!

Finals update:

Dustin: 4 finals down, 1 to go. 0 projects down, 4 to go.

Landon: 3 finals down, 1 to go. 2 projects down, 1 to go.

Tick, tick, tick...

2008-12-15T14:59:00.002-07:00

Dear Blog,

We're sorry we haven't posted it a long time. We haven't forgotten about you, we have just remembered our other responsibilities, mainly to school.

Current Count:

Dustin - 5 finals. 4 down, 1 to go. 4 projects. 0 down, 4 to go.

Landon - 4 finals. 1 down, 3 to go. 3 projects. 0 down, 3 to go.

We're awesome!

We promise, dear blog, that we will remember you again when finals are over. Until then, we'll be drinking Coke.

Football

2008-11-23T21:56:00.005-07:00

Dustin and I are huge football fans - esp. of the BYU Cougars! So, of course we watched the rivalry game of the season against the Utah Utes yesterday.

Sad.

I mean, really Max? 5 interceptions? Really?

But, as huge fans as we are of BYU football, Dustin and I both agree that we're happy for Utah to have an undefeated season and play in a BCS bowl. Seriously, the MWC (mountain west conference for those of you not in the know) did better than the Pac Ten this year, which is awesome. And way to go Utah for playing some good football.

I can respect that.

So don't disappoint and suck it up in a bowl game, ok?

Home for the Holidays

2008-11-12T23:08:00.004-07:00

The holidays are coming up quickly! Dustin and I will be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas and want to be sure that our friends all have some place to go to celebrate the holidays. We will be making a Thanksgiving Dinner and all are invited! Let us know (leave a comment, email, phone, whatever) if you'd like to join us so we can be sure to have enough food! :)

Happy Holidays!

Saturday Adventures

2008-11-01T23:47:00.008-06:00

I needed a break from the preproduction work I'm currently doing for one of my shows, so Dustin and I decided to hit up Ross today to see if they might have any artwork we could hang on our bedroom wall. We were thinking it would just be a quick trip to browse. Little did we know what a productive trip it would be!

Ross worked out great for us and Dustin found a great painting for our bedroom that now hangs above our dresser!

We decided to see if our lucky streak would continue and we walked town the sidewalk to TJMaxx to try and find Reed Diffuser stick scent thing. Again we scored! We found a package of two for the price of one. Now our room smells fantastic!

Since we were feeling so fantastic about making our house cuter, we stopped at WalMart and picked up some red spray paint for a shelf in our kitchen that was there when we moved in. We decided it's time to make it look a little better. Dustin has put the first few coats on and it's pretty rad. (I'll put up pictures when it's finished).

On our way home, we drove past a house right across 9th east from us that had some furniture out in the lawn for sale. One of them looked like it could be a bookcase and maybe even oak! We walked by to see if we really were that lucky - and we were! A beautiful oak bookcase in great condition for $15!

So this is what our room looked like before:

All one level and boring!

And here's what it looks like now!

Seriously, so much better!

A close-up of our awesome bookshelf

A close-up of the great painting Dustin found

Needless to say, when we came home I did not go back to my preproduction work that I was supposed to be doing, but instead got to work putting things in their new places! There's still a little more to do, but already I love my bedroom so much more! Shannon and I are taking a trip up to Ikea next Saturday so we should be able to finish up everything else. So, more pictures to come later! :D

Family Pictures

2008-10-26T14:03:00.017-06:00

What a good looking family!!

Thanks Doug for taking these fantastic photos!

Believe it or Not!

2008-10-23T20:46:00.008-06:00

The Wheeler family is coming out this weekend (parents, sister&brother-in-law&children) and in honor of their coming, we cleaned our house. I mean, cleaned.

Dustin and I aren't dirty people and we do clean our apartment, but with us both being full time and then some students, sometimes we just fall a little behind. We made up for it this week!
(Ok, Rach, it still might not be clean to your standards, but I tried!!)

And just in case it doesn't happen again this semester (and with the way both of our planners look, it probably won't) I wanted to document our apartment being this clean!

So, here it is, here's the proof! :)

Everything else is clean too, including our little office space, the closets, the laundry and the bathroom!

See Mom, you taught me well. :)

Info on Prop 8

2008-10-20T22:55:00.002-06:00

Dustin and I plan on calling California 'home' someday and have been anxiously engaged in the campaign to vote Yes on Prop 8. We both found this video to be very informative (Thanks Lori!) and encourage you to watch it and pass it on!!

Better Than Flowers!

2008-10-15T18:41:00.004-06:00

Dustin = Awesome

I know it's considered fantastic for husbands to bring their wives flowers.

My husband has found something better:

Yup. Coke and M&M's! Seriously, coming home to this is the best thing ever! He didn't need a reason, he just wanted to surprise me because he loves me.
Dustin is so wonderful! Look how happy he makes me!

Dear Readers,

2008-10-13T14:08:00.002-06:00

1. I have a new email address: landon.wheeler@gmail.com. Unfortunately, when I created this blog, I did not have this email address. So if you had invited me to your private blog on my other address, please re-invite me with this gmail address! (Kayla, Elise, etc.)

2. I have started new blogs. I decided to go with my idea of categorizing my blog life. My blog for theatre is: http://theatreismywayoflife.blogspot.com. I've also started a blog just for myself. If you want to read it, leave me a comment or something. This blog is now strictly (with the exception of this post) a blog about our little Wheeler family. :) Which I heart. <3 Like that.
And, by the way, anyone can comment. You don't have to be a blogger to comment on this blog. Comments are open to everyone.

Ok, that's all the technical news I've got. :D Happy blogging.

Go Cougars!

2008-10-12T14:42:00.010-06:00

For our 1 year anniversary, Dustin and I bought each other All Sports Passes. We didn't buy them last year because our wedding threw off the timing and we missed out. We both love football, and it's our last year at BYU so we figured it would be the perfect gift to enjoy all year long!!

This week has been BYU's homecoming week, which, of course, ended in a homecoming football game! Yesterday, we experienced a huge drop in temperature (we're talking it was 40 degrees outside). Did this stop us from going to cheer on our 9th ranked team, the BYU Cougars? No way! We bundled up in about 7 layers of clothes and braved the stadium (Ok, so it was really more like 3 layers, but we were still warm).

We stayed the whole game (it was a pretty quick game, though. I mean, it started at 4 and ended before 7 - right as the sun was setting. Perfect) and jumped around and cheered a lot to stay warm. :) Here's the proof we were there!! (And if you look really carefully, you can see how short my hair is!)

Dear Blog,

2008-10-10T17:40:00.000-06:00

As a director, I frequently ask the question, "what are the rules of this world?" Every world is a little different and so there are different rules that apply. I also find myself thinking about audience response. How should material be presented in theatre in a way that is accessible to the audience?

I find myself asking these questions about you now, blog. What are the rules for you? What can I blog about? What is off limits? What will my audience respond to? What will they be offended by? What will they not care about? Frequently, I am censoring or editing or modifying what I am typing because of who may read this blog. I am very, borderline overly, sensitive about my audience. At the same time, I don't know what is acceptable to post or not. What is allowed? What are the rules? I can't post just anything. I have to stick to the rules of this blog.

From the title, "Our Happily Ever After," I should be blogging about the wonderful things that our happening in our lives now that we're married. Our lives. Ok. There's one rule. And wonderful things. So keep it positive. Ok. I can stick to these two rules for starters and establish others along the way.

Perhaps this means I should start a few more blogs, in addition to this one. Maybe one just for myself where I don't have to worry about my audience and can say whatever (like yours, Rach!). And maybe one just for theatre stuff.

Blog, would you be mad at me if I stuck to these rules? It would make my life a lot easier (and my head would hurt less, I'm sure). Would we still be friends blog?

Good.

Because who doesn't need another bag?

2008-10-10T17:22:00.002-06:00

Go to this website and enter to win a free handbag! No catches, no spam, just a free handbag to kick off Handbag Planet. :) Good luck!

Tagged By Kayla

2008-10-07T15:32:00.001-06:00

My cousin Kayla tagged me and so I'm following through. It's a different, really fun sort of tag. So the rules go that you post the sixth picture from the sixth folder in your My Pictures folder. Here's mine:

This was taken on our wedding day as we left the temple. Dustin looks so happy and I couldn't stop looking at him like that and smiling all day. I loved him so much then and love him even more today!! I didn't really care what happened the whole rest of the day because after getting sealed in the temple, nothing else seemed to be important! That's not to say that I didn't love the luncheon and the reception. They were both a blast!! But what was really important is what happened in the temple. I couldn't be more thrilled to be married to Dustin - my best friend!!

I tag: Bridget, Alison, Ashley P., Amanda Ah Sue, Meg, and Ashlin. :) And, anyone else who wants to do this cuz it's fun!

My Paradox

2008-10-01T23:05:00.003-06:00

I live in this paradoxical world. When I'm busy, I want to run away from everything and have no responsibilities. When I'm not busy, I want to tackle every big project in the world! For example, this summer, I got pretty bored and was unhappy as a result. I translated this to mean that I needed to be busy to be happy. Welcome to this school year where I am booked past my ears!

And, what frustrates me more is that there are things that I would like to add to my schedule! Like exercise... or yoga... or sleep? ;) I am sleeping, promise, but exercise would be a good thing to throw into the mix I'm feeling. The problem is, when?

Isn't there a balance? What do you do to help your schedule stay balanced?

Followers!

2008-09-27T17:43:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I don't completely understand this follower thing, but I added it and will figure it out! :) So if you follow me, I'll follow you, or however it works.

PS - horray for spending Saturday in the library when it's beautiful outside!
PPS - I chopped my hair. Seriously, chopped. Pictures to follow. You'll have to let me know what you think.

I'm spending time in the library, Mom!

2008-09-22T18:28:00.004-06:00

Since coming to college, my mom has encouraged me to do my studing in the library. Well, lately I've been spending time in the library, but not for studying! Just to access the internet! :)

I figured I owed everyone an update to let you know that we're still alive and pretty happy!

1. Our floor is fixed! :D And our landlord turned over our apartment duplex to a property management company, so maybe now we can get some things fixed finally!

2. Our car is in the same city as us! Dustin went to the car dealership that worked on our car 4 weeks ago (before the blow out) and told them what had happened. They towed our car, at their expense, back up to Provo where they're doing an evaluation. We'll see what happens in the next chapter when they call us. But, there's progress!

3. Our computer is also in the computer shop because it's running exceedingly slow. And exceedingly slow is not going to cut it for two busy college students! So we're fixing that.

4. There are angels watching out for us!! Tuesday night, I came home from class at 7 to change quickly before going out with the RS Pres. I came in the back door because it was faster. When I left out the front door, I couldn't open the screen because angels had some and left us food on our porch! We're not starving, but getting to the grocery store without a car is not easy business, so thank you to who ever our angels are!!!

5. School is going well. Dustin is really loving his classes, especially EMT. I love to see him so happy! I'm keeping busy with school and work and lots of projects, too.

6. I've started a new thing where I'm planning my meals for the week. It was frustrating last year to get home and not know what to eat - I was tired, I didn't want to figure out a meal too! But now I just have a list! It will *hopefully* make grocery shopping easier and D and I are both happy because we're well fed. Example: tonight, we'll be eating enchiladas.

Speaking of, I'm going to go home and make dinner now!
Loves! <3

When it rains, it FLOODS!

2008-09-15T21:46:00.004-06:00

(yes, I know I got the cliche saying wrong.)

Remember that one time when we bought a new (to us) car? Roxanne? And she was so nice and like new and only had 83,000 miles on her?

Well, after we drove her to and from Oregon, all of the timing things broke. That was crappy. It cost a lot. But we made it through that and we thought we'd be doing fine for a good long while.

And then, yesterday, as we embarked on driving down to Paso Robles for my great-grandmother's funeral (who I am named after and at which funeral she asked me to sing a million times), 32 miles outside of Cedar City, our car broke down again. Great, we're thinking. Totally just what we needed. We called AAA (thank goodness we decided to renew our membership) and they towed us to a shop. We called Jocelyn, Dustin's cousin, and she comes and pickes us up on Parowan (middle of nowhere? what?). We called the shop today to get the diagnosis and (drumroll please) we need a new engine. Yeah, that's right, a new engine. Engines are in the price range of $3,000 - 5,000. No big deal right? Ha. Maybe if we were bagillionaires. But if we were bagillionaires, we'd have a cooler car.

Apparently, there was no oil in the car and so things were just grinding against each other. Did we just get an oil change when our car was in the shop 3 weeks ago? Have we only driven 300 miles since? Should we have run out of oil yet? Did the shop screw up and am I going to give them hell?

You bet.

So, we waited in a Days Inn yesterday for Joce to come pick us up (Joce, you're the best!!!) and I'm working on homework on the laptop, trying to at least use our time wisely. I'm working in word and listening to itunes. Suddenly, the computer starts going really slow, the music is skipping, and it's wierd. So, we restart the computer. It doesn't start again. We try again. Still no dice. We think, ok, whatever, we'll worry about it when we get home. It started last night, but it took around 2 hours to finally boot up. Dustin ran diagnostic tests on it (he's awesome) and couldn't find anything wrong. We took it into the BYU computer place today (we would drive to a Mac store, but our car is still in Panowan) and they said it's probably the motherboard. Awesome. Motherloving Awesome. Ha.

Add to that, Dustin ran me a bath the other night because I was tired and stressed and baths feel good. Well, I was so tired that I fell asleep waiting for it to fill, as did Dustin. Fastfoward a few hours later and there's standing water in our bathroom and a little on our carpets. No big deal - we put towels down to soak up the water, had fans going, prevented the mildewing, we thought we were ok. Nope! A floorboard completely warped - like it bent 5 inches upward. Cool. (Hence the "when it rains, it floods" title.)

The computer thing we're working on. We'll hear about it tomorrow and I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that it's something that's simple and cheap to fix. The floorboard thing we're ignoring for the time being. The car thing? Well, that just sucks. And I want to be all positive about it and say, "there's something we're supposed to learn from all this." But, honestly, I have no idea what the hell we're supposed to learn. We prayed about buying this car before we bought it and felt very much like it was the right thing to do. Meanwhile, this car is in Parowan and we can't just drive it back up here. So if anyone owns a tow-truck or a truck that can tow and would be merciful on us and help us tow our car up here, we would appreciate it!

And whenever that car gets back here, I'm going to that dealership and raising some hell!

Additionally, if anyone knows of a trustworthy place we can find another car, we would appreciate that too. We're pretty sure we're gonna have to cut our losses and part out the car. Which means we need another car. Let us know if you know of anything, please!

Phew, thanks for listening to me vent. :)

Why Theatre Makes Sense to Me

2008-09-13T04:16:00.005-06:00

My show opened this week. After nine-ish weeks of rehearsal with cast members coming in and out of town, production team members being involved and then not involved, and general chaos, my show opened. Really, it was quite the process!

To sum up, we cast this show without a script. All we had was a concept and a goal in mind. This show, Bread of Affliction (also affectionately referred to as Jewzapalooza, High School Jewsical, Jewsical the Musical, Jews the Right, and As I Have Loved Jew), was commissioned by the Jewish American and Holocaust Literature Society. They came to the ETC at the end of winter semester and asked us to create a new Jewish comedy to present at their symposium this year. We cast the show and then did a lot of research on jokes that people of the Jewish faith tell to one another. In our research, we found that many jokes came out of times of great difficulty. Our brilliant playwrite dramatized these jokes and also built a framework for them. Really, amazing work. The cast worked their behinds off and developed this show. We presented the show yesterday to rave reviews! What a relief!

So the show is up and running and I am so proud of my cast and my collaborators. I feel so extremely blessed to have had the opportunity to work with these people! I have learned so much from each of them about myself, humanity and the purpose of life. My testimony of "Men are that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:25) has increased so much because of the example of the Jewish people! The fact that the Jews used humor even in the darkest of times is a testimony to me that the Lord always wants us to be happy and it has taught me to live in the moment more. My testimony has been strengthened in so many ways by working on this project.

And that brings me to my purpose: why does theatre make sense to me? When I'm working on a project, my life seems to fall into place more. (My house falls apart, but I can live with that.) I'm much happier and more fulfilled. But even more than that, I can see the hand of the Lord so clearly when I am working on a show. I know with assurity when ideas come to me that are not my own. I can feel the Lord's guiding influence and I trust him. For some reason, I have a difficult time trusting my whole life to my Father (call me stubborn or stupid), but I couldn't do theatre without Him! I rely so heavily on Him. As I work with his children, I rely on him to help me to know how best to help each of them. As I work with material that bears the truth, I rely on Him to help me know the best way to bring the truth to the audience. As I discuss the pieces I'm working on with my collaborators, my testimony is strengthened. I don't do theatre because it's an addiction and I need a fix. I do theatre because I feel so close to my Father when I'm working with His children, dealing with messages of truth, and creating ways to present these truths. As a director, I feel especially close to my Father when I think about how I am working to create this piece and how our Father is the ultimate creator. I feel very much as if He takes me under his wing and shows me a little bit at a time regarding creation.

But can't theatre be some terrible thing that will drive people away from the gospel? Let me share what I've learned. The Spirit bears the truth of all things - secular and non-secular. When I direct a show, I find a theme. This theme is something that must have truth in it, otherwise the Spirit can't bear the truth of it to the audience. Now, if I were to choose something not truthful, that would be a problem, yes. But, as I work with the Spirit in the process of creating a theatrical piece, I trust that He will bear the truth to the audience. Sometimes the truth is uncomfortable. That doesn't mean it's wrong! So, really, theatre is an uplifting, edifying experience!

I believe that theatre is a gift - one that is not used enough! Theatre can teach, uplift, serve as an example to others (positive and negative). I'm of the opinion that theatre should make us reflect upon ourselves, why we act and think the way that we do and if that's what we want or not. Complacincy is something that scares me, but when I'm working on theatre, I'm constantly self-evaluating. That's one thing I love about theatre. It truly is a blessing!

Bless you if you read all that. :) As a reward, here are some pictures of my cast and production team!

Snippets

2008-09-05T11:26:00.003-06:00

I don't have a lot of any one thing to talk about, so here are a lot of little snippets from the last couple weeks of our lives. :)

School started Tuesday - today is Friday and Dustin and I just got our schedules figured out, mostly. Dustin was, gratefully, able to get in to the EMT class at UVU (horray!). He's also taking Intro to Fire at UVU, and at BYU he's taking Ethical and Philosophical Issues, Organizational Behavior, Fitness Instructor Workshop, Biomechanics Kinesiology. If you were wondering, that's a whopping 23 credits between the two universities. My husband is so smart! I'm taking an Improv class, Dramatic Literature, Voice Lessons, Human Development and World Religions. I'm really really really really hoping to get into a Shakespeare class in the English department, but I'm still waiting on that. I'm also trying to figure out if I can add a playwriting class, but we'll see. It'll be a crazy semester for both of us!

I'm continuing in my quest to look like an adult. Yesterday, we received a wedding gift in the mail and Dustin took me to Target. For a long time, I've been wanting a cute bag that could also carry the laptop in. I use the laptop for the classes I TA so that I can get on blackboard and grade stuff, but in a normal backpack it just rattles around in there. No bueno! So at Target, Dustin bought me a super cute, very adult, red laptop purse bag! :D I have the best husband. So now I'm looking more the part of an adult, less the part of a crazy-bojangles college student.

My show goes up next week! It's a Jewish comedy titled Bread of Affliction which you can learn about here. Basically, it's going to be amazing and I am so grateful to the amazing production team I've worked with and my awesome-town actors! What a project!

We got our bathroom fixed! No more mold! And we are now paying rent again, which our landlord loves. However, there are still a number of other things to fix in this apartment, like our heater which still hasn't been fixed since it schized out this summer...

BYU won their first home game! It was insanely hot and I even got a flip-flop tan on my feet. I love it! Football = heck yes!

We love having 3 cousins in Provo with us. We had a Wheeler family dinner last Sunday and it was a blast! Rumor has it that 2 more cousins on the Wheeler side will be joining us in Provo shortly. Party!

My body freaked out at me last week. Turns out I had a staph infection (who knew, right?!) on my left leg that appeared out of nowhere! The super nice doctors at urgent care put my on serious horse pill antibiotics that have made my body go insane, but the staph is gone! Life with me is never boring!

Dustin and I are both back to working 20 hours a week, so we're once again a two (meager) income family. :) Our schedules, despite sounding insane, kind of work together this year and we both happen to have Friday mornings and afternoons open, so we're excited about having a day to spend together this year! :)

I bought a CD for the first time in like 7 years - Sarah Bareilles. I have a bit of a crush on her. She's super talented and listening to her songs make me feel happy. It is entirely possible that I am rocking out to her right now. Seriously, check her out.

We're alive, we're still very much in love, we're looking forward to our last year of school, we're enjoying our time here, and we're happy! :)

2008-08-22T11:38:00.003-06:00

I am by no means a makeup expert. For starters, I will freely admit that I don't know what comes first: foundation or concealer. And I don't know how to make your foundation stay on your face for longer than an hour, or your eyeshadow either for that matter.

But I have found a foundation that I have a testimony of: Maybelline Mineral Foundation. This stuff is fantastic! I was a little sketched out at first because I really didn't think that a powder could offer the coverage of a liquid or cream. But this foundation evens out skin tone, covers any blemishes, and looks so natural! It feels like you're not wearing anything at all on your face and it lasts for hours!

So, if any of you ladies are looking for a new foundation but don't know where to start, I suggest Maybelline Mineral Foundation! That's my shameless plug for today. :) (And they're not even paying me for it!)

I Am Grateful

2008-08-20T12:45:00.002-06:00

"Gratitude is a mark of a noble soul and a refined character. We like to be around those whoa re grateful. They tend to brighten all around them. They make others feel better about themselves. They tend to be more humble, more joyful, more likable."

-Joseph B. Wirthlin

I feel like I write a lot of posts about being grateful, but that is because the Lord never forgets me and Dustin, even when we feel forgotten. There are many things that seem as though they are trials or stressors, but I am reminded of the scripture, "Ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith" (Ether 12:6).

The last week or so has been a huge trial of our faith. Our brand new (to us) car had to be taken to the shop and had $1900 in repairs done on it. With tax, the total came to $2054. For the record, that's more than a semester of tuition, and tuition is due in 6 days. Ouch. Dustin and I were scrambling, not knowing what to do or where we would come up with the money for tuition and the car and to pay rent, utilities, health insurance, food, etc. Ah! Financial nightmare!

Today, I found out that Dustin and I were both awarded the maximum amounts of Pell Grant money for this next school year (because we're poor). This is a huge blessing to us, especially as Dustin will be attending BYU and UVU in the fall! While this doesn't take care of our car issues or anything, this is a huge burden off of our shoulders! We no longer have to worry about how we're going to pay for tuition! Just the car, rent, food, etc. :)

Also, my sisters are awesome. I really need a new pair of jeans as all of my jeans either a) don't fit or b) are falling apart in all sorts of non-BYU dress code approved ways! My sisters, for my birthday, got together and ordered me two pairs of jeans! They are the best! Thank you Shaine and Kara!

The Lord doesn't forget his children and he blesses them in many ways! I am so grateful!

One Year Ago Today...

2008-08-16T22:12:00.019-06:00

Dustin and I were married for Time and All Eternity in the Portland, Oregon temple! It was the happiest day of my life!

Dustin makes me so happy every day. I am amazed by his selfless nature. He is constantly giving and puts others needs before his own. He is always happy and positive, upbeat and cheerful. Nothing fazes him! I love his positive attitude! He is such a good influence!
I love the way Dustin and I have so much fun together all the time. Every day we're alive is a good reason to laugh and celebrate. Our love isn't something that we celebrate one day of the year, but we celebrate our love for each other every day!
We were blessed to marry into wonderful families and have also been blessed with wonderful friends. I am so grateful every day for the amazing people in our lives. There are so many people who have blessed our lives that I would not know if it wasn't for Dustin!
I love Dustin's kisses. ;)
I love how Dustin always treats me so well. With him, I feel so confident because he is always telling me that I can do anything and how beautiful I am. He is my rock and my cheer-leader! I'm so grateful to have him on my team.
I love that Dustin helps me keep an eternal perspective. He helps me see what is important long-term, which helps me not be as stressed. :)
I love that Dustin and I have eternity to spend together. I know that he will be a fantastic father to our children (someday!) and will continue to be a fantastic husband. Eternity with him will be a blast! The best thing ever!

Thank you Dustin for one wonderful year of marriage! I look forward to an eternity of happiness with you. You are my best friend, my eternal companion, and the man that I have always loved. You are more than I could have ever dreamed of. I am so blessed to have you in my life.

I love you!

Mission Accomplished

2008-08-13T13:00:00.003-06:00

All of our Thank You cards from our wedding have been written, sealed, stamped, and mailed.

Now, just to explain so that you don't think that we're a couple of slackers, almost all of the cards have been done for several months. There were just a few (we're talking 7) that were just difficult to write for some reason.

But! We overcame that last night and wrote the last 7. The mailman picked them up this morning.

Phew!

I'm so grateful for the wonderful friends and family who were so kind and giving to us. I'm grateful for the one year that we had to write these thank you cards. I'm also grateful that I didn't put them all off until right now! They're done, with a few days to spare even! ;) Hallelujah!

2008-08-10T17:42:00.004-06:00

I love reading other people's blogs.

But when it comes to updating my own, I never feel witty enough or like I have anything to say worth reading or whatever.

Regardless, here is a blog post. :D

End of July - Beginning of August = Awesome.

Dustin and I had the opportunity to go back to Oregon for two super awesome events.

Justin and Shannon got married (woohoo!) and my Mom had her graduation from University of Phoenix where she has studied to get her Masters in Elementary Education. Justin and Shannon's wedding was beautiful and we felt to blessed to be able to be there to celebrate with them. Mom's graduation was awesome, too. I'm so proud of my mom!! Kara and I even made a poster to show off how proud we are. :D In addition to celebrating, we also got to spend a lot of time with my family, which was a blast!

We took Shaine home to Provo with us to spend 8 days here. She got her braces on the day that we left - poor girl! But, she was so tough! She never complained once! Instead, she happily ate ice cream, pudding, slurpees, and all sorts of other soft things for meals. While Shaine was here, we played tons! She came to rehearsals with me, we went grocery shopping, hiked the Y, went to 7 peaks, went shopping (several times, perhaps), walked all over campus (where we were like 1 foot away from Pres. Samuelson!), watched a great deal of Arrested Development, threw Dustin a surprise birthday party, watched movies, stayed up late, slept in, laughed and had a fantastic time. I wish she could stay forever! It was very sad to have to say goodbye to her Wednesday morning. We both cried. :) (I think we're related or something.) But we'll play together again soon. For photos of our play time see her facebook photos.

In other news, our fabulous new car has to go to the shop tomorrow. After we got home from Oregon, the check engine light came on and the car started having some crazy timing problems. We got some of them fixed, but we're taking it to the dealership tomorrow to have them finish fixing things for us. I'm praying that it's not an expensive fix...silly cars.

We are also excited to welcome our newest nephew into the family! Sabrina, Dustin's sister, had her baby this morning and we're so excited!! We can't wait to get out to California later this month to meet him!

Dustin worked his last week at Action Target (his last day was August 1 so this is kind of old news, but oh well!). It was kind of sad to leave since he made some good friends there and Action Target was really good to him (I mean, a company that will feed him 5 pounds of food for free?! Awesome!). But since Dustin is going to be doing Fire Academy at UVSC...ahem, I mean UVU...starting in the fall, he needed a job that would be more flexible with his school schedule. So now he is working 30-35 hours at the MTC until school starts when he'll go back down to 20. With his new found free time, Dustin has enjoyed sleeping and playing a little more. And I have enjoyed having my husband around more! I kind of like him. :) We feel so blessed that during a time when the economy is shaky, Dustin and I have been so blessed and so taken care of. Thank you Action Target! And continued thanks to the MTC!

I (Landon) have been working on a show with the Experimental Theatre Company at BYU. The ETC was asked to write a new Jewish comedy for the Jewish American and Holocaust Literature society for their convention in September. I was asked to direct this show and it has been such a wonderful experience so far! We have an awesome production team and terrific cast. This show has been a totally new experience for me. I have never worked on a show that didn't have a script! Instead, the script is coming a little bit at a time and we get to try new things and improv and experiment and collaborate and discuss. I've learned so much! I have a new found gratitude and respect for the Jewish people, a greater understanding of my Savior, and an appreciation for the people that I'm working with. I have loved working on this project! The show will run September 12-13 in the NELKE at BYU, and September 17-18 at the Provo Theatre Company in Provo, in case anyone is interested. :D It'll be hilarious!

The Lord continues to throw us new adventures every week, but I am so grateful to have Dustin by my side and the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. We are so blessed!

It's a...

2008-07-19T16:51:00.004-06:00

...new (to us) car!!

After months of searching, Dustin and I are pleased to be the new owners of a Mercury Mystique! (We decided to name her Roxanne.) :D

We have loved are Explorer and are so grateful to Dustin's parents for giving it to us. We have some really sweet memories with that car (is that strange?). It was in the Explorer that Dustin first told me he loved me. The Explorer has been with us through dating, engagement and almost our whole first year of marriage!

However, the Explorer only gets 15 mpg in city and about 22 mpg on the hwy. And with gas prices only going up, frankly, we're just too poor for that!!

The Mystique, on the other hand, gets 25+ mpg in city with the A/C on and 35+ mpg on the hwy.

Amazing!

It was a little freaky to the two of us. This is one of the first big purchases we've ever made together! But we're really grateful that we were able to find this car that was such a great deal!

To celebrate, we're driving to Oregon. :)

Big Girl Clothes

2008-07-14T18:05:00.005-06:00

*Warning - This is a silly post. If silliness is not your thing, I suggest you move along to the next blog on your Google reader*

Starting in middle school, name brands were big. Girls wore shirts that said 'Limited' or 'Abercrombie and Fitch' across their chest just to prove that they had enough money to shop there. The shirts weren't particularly cute. I'm talking like t-shirts with lettering on them. And yet, I wanted shirts like that! Even in high school, name brands were big. Not as big, but still important. It was important to shop at the expensive stores and look like the cool kids and fit in. An outfit was cute if it was name brand. If someone could see 'Abercrombie' or 'Holister' or 'Express' on your clothes, you were sure to get a compliment on how cute you looked that day. It didn't matter if the clothes were flattering, cute, whatever. It mattered what your clothes said.

When I came to BYU, I still had this high school mentality. Shop at the expensive stores, look like the cool kids, fit in. It has taken me four years at BYU to transition out of this thinking. Four years and hours of watching What Not To Wear (*shout out to Dustin who consistently watches this show with me. He is the best shopping buddy ever. He knows his fashion stuff!*). I have finally moved out of the stage of wanting to shop at the expensive stores for the sake of the label, to wanting to dress like an adult.

I used to have a very different body shape. Very different. Part of me still thinks that I still look the way I did until my Sophomore year of college. But, as I went shopping and found things that actually fit me and flattered my body shape, I realized that I don't look the same way I did before. I can wear clothes that I didn't think I could because of my shape. It's kind of empowering! And clothes are empowering as well! Looking good makes me feel like I can do just about anything!

I went through my closet this week and DI-ed all the 'teeny-bopper' like shirts - you know, the ones that totally aren't flattering, have no shape to them, that you'd see high schoolers wearing, etc. Dustin also took me shopping twice this week to find 'big girl clothes.' We even had a conversation about the effect clothes have on a person. It seems so silly, but if I feel like I look good, that's what I radiate. If I feel like I look dumpy, I'll act dumpy. And I've even had days where I feel dumpy, but dress well and then I feel better.

Thinking about dressing like an adult has also made me think a lot about becoming a real adult. As opposed to a fake adult who is married and pays bills, but is also still in school and living in a college town. I'm planning on teaching for a year, so I'll have to look the part of a professional teacher. A theatre teacher, granted. But still a teacher, an authority figure. After I teach for a year, I want to go to grad school and get an MFA in directing. Which would make me a professional director (again with that p-word!). If I'm going to be a professional, shouldn't I look the part? Duh!

I have begun my quest to weed out the teen-aged portions of my closet and replace them with more grown up, flattering, adult pieces. 'Big Girl Clothes' if you will. This is a weird transition for me to make. It's weird to me to think that this is where I am in my life. I'll be done with college in less than a year and moving into the real adult world. I'm no longer a teenager. I am my own, adult person with much to offer and so I should look the part! Because, think about it - if you were interviewing two people for a directing position and they both had the same qualifications but one looked professional and the other looked dumpy, who would you hire?

If anyone needs a shopping buddy or knows of really great deals, let me know! I'm in the market for new clothes! ;)

Birthday Fun!

2008-07-11T12:51:00.010-06:00

Yesterday was the first anniversary of my 21 birthday (or my 22 birthday, I guess. I'm in denial) and it was the best birthday ever! Seriously fantastic. I am so blessed!

Wednesday night we went and saw Wall-E with Kelli and Curtis at 9:50. Awesome movie! We got home close to midnight and hung out with Kelli and Curtis until midnight when Dustin told me to go open the closet door for my first birthday present. (Is he awesome, or what?) I rushed to go open it and Kelli followed close behind because she knew what I was getting. Dustin bought me a little black dress from Downeast Outfitters. I've been looking for one since before we were dating! Totally awesome!

The next morning I woke up and Dustin was already gone! I freaked out thinking he had left for work without saying goodbye. Oh no, he was in the living room setting up my next birthday gifts - lawn chairs for our porch! Now I can enjoy having a porch and it being summer time. Woohoo!

Dustin took the day off of work and I got to spend the whole day with my best friend, eternal boyfriend, and awesome husband. Not only do I have an awesome husband, but he has an awesome family. The mailman dropped off three packages for me yesterday morning from his family. I now have an awesome new wardrobe and super cute holiday decorations! I have the best in-laws!!

Dustin took me out to lunch to Pizzeria 712 which was amazing. I don't think we'll ever go anywhere else for pizza!

They hand pull their mozzarella cheese, make their own tomato sauce and sausage, use local grown stuff, and have a fire oven!

It's so good! (I think an almost identical picture exists of me somewhere from when I was like 3...Good to know I haven't changed, I guess!)

Dustin then took me shopping at Forever 21 and I found way too many cute things, but exercised self control and limited myself. :) Dustin still spoils me, though. Love him!

Bethany came over and hung out with us when we got home. I haven't seen her in weeks so it was about time! ;) And we planned our summer birthday celebration at Tucanos. Mmm...the fun will continue!

Later that night, Mitch and Meg came over to play and we enjoyed a super good birthday cake made by Dustin - funfetti cake and rainbow chip frosting! It took 3 of us to light the candles because I'm old now or something and then we all dug in (without plates, of course). We played Settlers and laughed way to hard and talked about everything. I've missed them tons!

Moral of the story = awesome birthday. I missed being with my families a lot, but I get to see my Taylor family in a week and a half! And my Wheeler family in a month and a half! And cell phones are a pretty awesome invention, so I got to talk to them too. :)

I'm super grateful for good friends and a great husband! :D

Audience Participation!

2008-07-03T11:44:00.002-06:00

Dear Blog Readers,

I am going to be starting my own business thing in the next few days. To give you a general idea (and if you steal my idea, I'll beat you up or something) I'm going to scan family photos and transcribe journals for people so that they have a lasting, user friendly, digital copy. Everything is ready to go, except a name! I have some ideas, but I don't know which one is best. That's where you come in: vote for your fav! This business is going to be geared to people in their 40's and 50's (like our parents ages) so put on that kind of thinking hat. Here are the options:

Connect the Dots

Binding Memories

Family Ties (although I bet that one's already taken...)

Nurturing Roots

Remembrance

Recording Records, Preserving Memories

Blots and Spots

If you have other ideas, submit them!! (I came up with these at 1 am, so I'm sure there are better ideas out there).

Thank you!

Mid-Year Resolutions

2008-07-02T00:05:00.003-06:00

I don't think I really made "New-Years Resolutions" this past year. I may have, but let's be honest - I am a space cadet. So, if I did, I don't remember them. I was laying in bed tonight not sleeping (because who sleeps at night?...oh yeah, normal people) and thinking of some goals I'd like to make. I then realized that we're at the half-way point of 2008. (It's still July 1 to me, even if it is after midnight.) Six months down, six more to go. Why not make some mid-year resolutions?

Here they are, folks, in all their glory. :)

Get on a normal person sleep schedule
Read real books
Read more plays
Talk less, listen more
Invite more people over, rather than waiting for invitations
Spend more time selflessly serving
Do the dishes much more frequently (goodness, I hate doing dishes. good thing Dustin is so nice to me and does them.)
Pay off our debts and stay out of debt
Start my own business
Learn to enjoy life in the moment more
Study scriptures with regularity and excitement
Cut back on the Coke(-a-cola, duh!)

Ok, I feel good about 12 goals. That's totally do-able, right? :) Wish me luck in my mid-year resolutions!

Anyone else have any goals they're working on?

Camping!

2008-06-25T12:20:00.007-06:00

Lately, it's been hot in Provo.

Maybe for some of you, it's bearable. For me, not so much. We have a swamp cooler, but we took it out for the winter and put it in our garage. We've called our landlord to put it back in and nothing. It's still not in. So our house is like an oven. During the day, I look for excuses to go any place air conditioned - the grocery store, campus, anywhere! We've been eating out a lot because restaurants are air conditioned and cooking in our house = insanity. Neither of us have been sleeping well at night because it's so hot. Last night, I finally reached my breaking point. So, what was the solution?

Put up the tent in the back yard!

This is almost embarrassing to admit, but I slept 12 hours last night! It was so nice outside in the tent! So until our landlord gets his act together and helps us put in our swamp cooler, we'll be outside in our awesome tent!

PS - Deepest thanks to the people who gave us the tent as a wedding gift. You = life savers.

Happy Birthday to Sabrina!

2008-06-20T21:39:00.007-06:00

Today is Sabrina's (Dustin's sister) birthday so we wanted to do a shout out to her in honor of her day of birth.

Holla!

Sabrina is an excellent sister/sister-in-law and we love her very much. While I was dating Dustin, before marriage bells were even chiming, Sabrina and I emailed back and forth and she told me all about him and the family. :) It was awesome for me to have that connection to her and I appreciated it very much! (I still have all those emails. Just...for the record...or something.)

Sabrina also threw me two bridal showers in California where I got to meet all of the women who watched Dustin grow up (and I heard some good stories there too!) as well as all his aunts. It really meant a lot to know that Sabrina cared about me and it helped me feel accepted in the family. Sabrina also let me crash at her house for a whole week last summer before the wedding and kept me entertained. Needless to say, we went shopping. :) (On the shopping note, Sabrina has taught me how to bargain shop! Love it!)

Sabrina helps to keep us in the loop with everything that's going on in California while we're out here. She has let us crash at her house most recently in May when we went out to see Grandpa Reichhold. She helped us book our plane tickets and took us too and from the airport. She is so generous!!

Sabrina is an excellent mother (CFO if you check her facebook profile). Her kids adore her!! She's also an awesome wife and Clarke adores her too. I'm so impressed with how selfless she is when it comes to her family! I've seen her stay up late to help Clarke prepare for interviews with fire departments, watched her do all sorts of things to help her mom, heard and seen how she spends hours helping Owen with therapy and entertaining Lilly's creative mind. Amazing.

Sabrina is amazing and we love her!! Happy birthday Sabrina!!

Tagged by Sarah!

2008-06-18T18:06:00.002-06:00

4 things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Living in Michigan
2. Spending summers playing outside or in the basement
3. Discovering the Internet and playing online for hours (when we had dial-up even!)
4. Getting ready to turn 12 and join Young Womens

4 things I was doing 5 years ago:
1. Getting ready for my Senior Year!!
2. Babysitting for the Adel's family
3. Teaching my siblings piano
4. Taking voice lessons

4 things I did yesterday:
1. Went to work at Progrexion
2. Went to work at Western Wats
3. Graded for 3 hours
4. Shared dinner with Dustin

4 shows that I like:
1. Arrested Development
2. Americas Next Top Model
3. CSI
4. Law and Order

4 Biggest Joys of My Life Right Now:
1. DUSTIN!
2. Family
3. the SUN!
4. Playing piano/singing

4 things that you might not know about me:
1. I am 5'2" (yes, I'm really that short)
2. I talk my mom at least once day, usually more
3. I hate onions
4. I HATE bugs in my house! - spiders, ants, etc.

4 people I tag:
1. Amanda
2. Miri
3. Kristine
4. Maggie

work-a-holics!

2008-06-11T15:23:00.005-06:00

Dustin is working sixty hours a week. 20 at the MTC and 40 at Action Target. He is wonderful!

I, on the other hand, am working like 10 hours a week... :( I am lame. Ok, really it's more like 18 hours a week. 10 hours TAing and 8 hours at Sports and Dance Camps. But compared to Dustin, I feel pretty lame!

But I'm stepping it up! Watch out world! I start a new job on Monday at a place in Orem. This Friday I have an interview at Progrexion in Provo. And I'm wanting to start my own business. We'll see what happens! Pretty soon we'll have like 6 incomes. Maybe we'll be able to afford gas! ;) Not to mention tuition and rent...

I feel like all this working and budgeting stuff is so grown up! When did we become adults?

Sorry folks, working is about all that's going on in our lives. If something exciting happens, you'll be the first to know! :D Cheers for summer!

I'm in a Cooking Rut!

2008-05-29T16:34:00.003-06:00

This is a plea for help to all of you! I am in a cooking rut!! I cook the same meals again and again and I'm getting sick of them! My repertoire consists of:

spaghetti (or other varieties of pasta)
chicken and rice,
steak and potatoes,
homemade mac and cheese,
tacos,
enchiladas,
...and that's about it.

Help me please! What are some recipes that you love that are delish? We don't have a lot of space in our kitchen, recipes that are more simple would be ideal. We need more variety! And now that it's summer and I have more time, I want to try new things! So send me your fav. recipes, please? :D

Highlights of California

2008-05-21T15:40:00.009-06:00

Dustin and I made two trips to California, May 7-11 and 15-18. Here are some of the highlights! :)

Driving Lilly around in the Cabrio with the top down (We were going like 35 mph and the wind was blowing her hair all over the place. Initially she squealed with delight, but then scolded Dustin for driving too fast. Really, she just couldn't handle her hair in her face. It was cute.)
Spending time with Grandpa Wheeler (he made us an amazing Waffle Breakfast and showed us awesome pictures from his African Safari)
Being able to spend 2 nights at Grandma and Grandpa Reichhold's house and help out
Being able to say our goodbyes
Eating at In and Out
Playing with our niece and nephew
Playing Settlers with Clarke until 1 am (Dustin and Clarke each won a game. Me, not so much.)
Dustin and Clarke going on a date to see Iron Man
Playing about 100 games of Head Shoulders Knees and Toes
Having Owen run into my arms, give me huge hugs and say 'Love You'
Playing piano while Lilly danced around
Watching the kids run in the sprinklers
Singing For Good with Jocelyn
Learning how to shop for kids and get great deals (Thanks Sabrina!)
Taking Lilly and Owen on the Merry-Go-Round
Learning more about Grandpa Reichhold's life and having the opportunity to celebrate it
Growing closer to my in-laws
Eating three meals a day (haha)
Watching Lilly expand her photography skills (as soon as we get a new digital camera, I'm donating our old one to her. She's so funny with taking pictures! She took that picture of Sabrina and me.)
Dustin making friends with one of the flight attendants and scoring us better snacks and extra drinks on one of our flights. (No peanuts for us! We got cookies and cheese-its.)
Enjoying the moment as we spent precious time with family!!
Being able to give service
Watching TV! (sad, but true)
Meeting more family members
Relaxing - I mean, yeah, things were stressful, but we didn't have to worry about going to work or anything.
Not worrying about picking out outfits because we were living out of suitcases. ;)
Being mistaken for a 14 year old (see previous post)

2008-05-18T22:21:00.002-06:00

Dustin and I took our first trip out to California together last weekend to see his family etc. (We also went again this weekend, but that's another story and therefore another blog.) We flew out Sunday night and had a lay-over in Vegas. We left Sac. at 9 pm, got into Vegas around 10:15, and our connecting flight didn't leave until 11:55 pm (putting us into SLC around 2:30 am) so we just hung around the airport and pretended to sleep. Sleeping in that airport is close to impossible with the neon lights (inside the airport!) and the many slot machines. So we just waited out the time...

We finally got to board and it was one of those little tiny planes that only caries 50 passengers and there are two seats, an aisle, and then two seats. I hate those planes. Because it was a tiny plane, we had to walk down onto the run way and take some stairs up into the plan. Dustin and I were seated in the emergency exit row (not even next to each other!). According to Federal Regulations passengers sitting in the emergency exit row must be at least 15.

So we're thinking no big deal, right?

We head out to board our plane and the lady taking our tickets took my ticket and looked at it, started to say something about being seated in the emergency exit row, stopped, looked at me, looked back at the ticket, looked at me and said, "...How old are you?" The lady didn't think I was even 15! Here I am at the airport with my husband and I'm getting stopped because I look like a 14 year old. Wow. I reassured her that I was, indeed, old enough to sit in the emergency row of the plane and was allowed to board. I just laughed it off thinking, "Well, hopefully people will still think I look 8 years younger than I am when I'm old!"

Viva Las Vegas!

Brace Yourself

2008-05-12T11:30:00.010-06:00

This weekend, Dustin and I were able to make a quick trip out to California to see his family. In the four days that we were there, so much happened! To make blogging everything more manageable, we'll split the events into different posts. I know that there's at least one that Dustin will want to write so... onward and upward. :D

We flew out to California Wednesday night and stayed the weekend at Sabrina and Clarke's (Dustin's sister) house. The were so nice to let us crash at their place! During our quick trip, we were able to spend lots of time with Sabrina and Clarke and their kids, as well as Dustin's parents and grandparents. The trip was much needed and we are go grateful that we were able to see so much family!

We have the cutest niece and nephew! Don't try and argue with me that yours are cuter, because it's just not possible! They certainly wore us out. We played follow the leader, hide and go seek, tag, and many other games! There was never a dull moment with Lilly and Owen. I think I played head shoulders knees and toes at least 60 times. It amazes me how these kids never tire! And it also amazes me how much they enjoy spending time with family. They just soaked up being with us. Lilly found out that I had brought our digital camera so we took silly faces pictures!

Owen didn't know what to really think of us, but obliged us by letting us take a picture of him. I'm pretty sure after this picture he put his hands on his head and played head shoulders knees and toes with him at least once.

We really do have the cutest niece and nephew!

We are Grateful

2008-05-03T23:26:00.003-06:00

Dustin and I got married on August 17th. We went on a honeymoon, came back, moved in, and started school. Christmas provided us with a short break, but then school started again. Here we are at summer break (horrah!) and we have some time to breathe. So, we're working on our Thank You cards! We got some done over Christmas break, and I've been able to get a few done here and there during the semesters. But we still have tons to do! (we are grateful for the year allowance to get them written). It's been kind of nice to work on them now because we've kind of settled into our apartment and the thank you cards are a nice reminder of the people who were so kind to us when we got married! We figured out if we both write 5 a day, we'll be done with them in two weeks. Not bad!

We are also grateful, on a different note, for summer! I hope that it's here to stay! We cheered in summer-time sun and warmth by purchasing otter pops. So I will be beginning my summer time otter pop diet (Tara, are you in??) and routine of getting as much sunshine time in as possible. I won't tan, oh no, but I'll sure feel good because the sun makes me happy!

And, since it's summer, I have much more free time and am currently job hunting. If you know of any jobs that are hiring for mornings, let me know! And if you know of any good books or fun summer activities, send those my way too! And if anyone wants to play in the sun, let me know!! :D

It's a Celebration!

2008-04-24T11:32:00.002-06:00

Finals week is over! We survived! Winter 2008 is officially over! :D Congrats to all those who made it through.

We now have a (short) break. I'm going to Bethany's graduation tomorrow and Alisha's baby shower on Saturday. Dustin is working half days today and tomorrow so that he can catch up on being a normal person. :)

And then, we're undertaking some crazy bojangle things!

We're cleaning up and selling our car so that we can buy a new one. That sounds simple...you can even type it in one sentence! However, it's not that simple. It's rather stressful. But we can do it! Dustin is going to be working two jobs: Action Target and the MTC. I'm going to be working 3 jobs: Sports and Dance Camps, TA, and something else that I am in the process of looking for. I will also be taking classes in the Spring.

While I've been looking forward to summer since...the end of last summer, this summer doesn't really seem like it's going to be much of a break. But, you do what you've gotta do, right? Fortunately, we have 2 trips planned that will give us the chance to get out of Provo and play a little. We're going to California at some point that is yet to be determined to see all our family out there. We're also going to Oregon for Justin and Shannon's wedding and my mom's graduation. :D

But for right now, I'm going to live in the moment and celebrate not having homework or tests or papers. :)

Burnt Out!

2008-04-22T11:48:00.002-06:00

Finals week is killing us softly (with it's song...).

It's killing Dustin more than me. Poor kid has had to take 4 finals and still as 2 to go!

For me, I just have an 8-10 page paper of death. I have 5 pages written and cannot find in me anywhere the motivation or even the knowledge to write any more!

I've got nothin'.

It's due tomorrow, Wednesday, at 5 pm. That means I have 29 hours to finish at least 3 more pages. This is such a new phenomenon for me! Usually I have more than enough to say in papers. I go over the limit nearly every time! Yet, for this paper, I'm done.

So what am I doing instead?
Blogging. Wasting my life on facebook. Sitting on google.
Not writing my paper.

Anyone have any better ideas for how to waste time?
Or, better yet, anyone have any ideas on how to finish this paper?

Out of Neccessity

2008-04-15T10:33:00.003-06:00

Friday night, Dustin is going to participate in the Elder's Quorum activity.

Leaving me to do...well, whatever!

So, I'm feeling the need for a girl's night.
Really feeling that need.

Anyone interested?

Let's All Eat Cake

2008-04-10T22:59:00.006-06:00

Today was...one of those days. You know, the days when you wake up with no desire to get out of bed and then everything proceeds to make you wish you never had.

Fortunately, I had two wonderful conversations today that were answers to prayer. They were late in the day, but very much needed and appreciated. So Morag and Gabby, thank you both.

The first conversation was with Morag about cake. We were talking about the idea that some people, myself included, have about their own worth. the idea being that if someone else is good at something, somehow it takes away from your worth. She likened it unto cake and how just because you have a piece of cake doesn't mean that no one else can enjoy the cake too. There's enough cake for everyone! What made this conversation so pertinent to me today was that Dustin and I were attempting to have this same conversation, only I was failing miserably at explaining myself. So, thank you Morag for understanding me and articulating what I failed at. Honestly, I have felt myself that if other people are good at something it makes me less good. Which is silly! We all have our talents and areas in which we excel. We should working together to learn from each other, rather than harboring feelings of jealousy or self-loathing or anything of the sort. So, I've made it a new goal of mine to focus more on divine worth and learning from others. There is so much that everyone has to offer and just because someone is better at something than I am doesn't mean that I am a failure or anything close. I have strengths and things to offer too. We can all eat our cake together. :D (And it's more fun to share cake than to eat it by yourself!)

Second conversation was with Gabby. Gabby and I were talking about things that we had to sacrifice to be in the theatre program at BYU. We both are singers, yet in the theatre program, it feels like you have to be either/or. Either a singer or an actor, but not both. So, both of us have hidden our voices. Seriously, no one thinks of me as a singer. Which is sad to me because that is how I identified myself for so many years, well before I became involved in theatre. And it's not that I don't sing anymore (just ask Dustin), it's just that's a part of me that's become compartmentalized and is not shown at school or really anywhere else. Anyway. We then started talking about other things that we had to hide or sacrifice upon entering the theatre program. This may sound kind of surprising, but we both felt as though we've had to hide our testimonies. In our classes, people apologize for "going all spiritual on you" which seems silly. We're at an institution that is funded by the Church. Why should we apologize for bringing things into our classes that the Church teaches? And we talked about how some people seem to feel that there needs to be a separation between

theatre and our church lives. These people avoid bringing spiritual messages into the work that they do. But, the Holy Ghost bears the truth of all things. And isn't that why we do theatre? To teach the truth? And our audiences will understand the truth through the Holy Ghost. That doesn't mean that the theme of our pieces always needs to be "Jesus loves me." There are many universal, foundational truths that are not only Mormon doctrine or anything like that. But we should embrace the fact that the Spirit can reach our audiences. That is such a huge blessing to us! I don't want to compartmentalize my testimony, but I want it to permeate all things that I do, including my work in theatre. My testimony cannot be either/or in theatre.

So Gabby and I are going to start a revolution. :D

Ok, that was really texty. But I mostly needed to write these conversations down for myself so that I would remember them.

And scene. ;)

So Close!

2008-04-09T09:48:00.005-06:00

Today is Wednesday.
Hump Day of the week, if you will.
It's really ugly outside (currently 40 degrees and cloudy with a chance of snow tonight) and this day promises to last about half of an eternity.

So, in celebration, here is a list of things to be happy about! (in no particular order...)
- 5 more days of classes!
- Sabrina and Clarke are coming this weekend!
- The weather this weekend is supposed to be beautiful! (in the 60's)
- Dustin
-Being sealed to Dustin forever
- All of our laundry is done
- I got a TA position as a TA for the directing classes
- so I can put in my two weeks at Sports and Dance camps.
- Heavenly Father answers prayers!!
- I have a really cool certificate from the TMA department for my mask club ;)
- It's almost summer!
- We have been blessed with awesome friends!
- The front page of The Daily Universe says that there are economic worries, but both Dustin and I have jobs.
- We have a cute little apartment
- and it's clean!
- Reading other people's blogs
- Adding blogs to my google reader
- And discovering other new, fun blogs to read.
- Blogging in general. Does that cover it?
- General Conference this weekend was amazing!
- We have a really fabulous bed (that I wish I was sleeping in right now)
- Cell phones make our families just a phone call away.
- Facebook (maybe it makes he happy to stalk people...)
- I can play Cities and Knights online (I just confessed my nerdhood)
- BYU has provided some really awesome directing opportunities.
- We have food to eat (accomapanied by a list of meals I can cook)
- Temples!
- and having one of those just up the street!
- being able to take family names through the temple
- the Atonement
- the Gospel
- fabulous music
- living our life TV free (no TV show addictions is a very liberating thing)
- Arrested Development
- Dustin
- Coke
- with lime.
- email
- gmail chat
- crossing off things in my planner/to-do list
- being silly
- the nerf guns that we got as a wedding gift
- otter pops!!
- pudding wrestling
- playing with friends
- cute girls in the Relief Society presidency
- the smell of rain
- funny jokes
- Dustin
- playing the piano
- singing
- learning new things
- getting good grades
- laughing!
- nights of no homework
- figuring out the future and feeling good about it
- helping friends
- playing with cute babies
- Dustin.

Ok, i'm in a better mood. I can face hump day. :D

Hope everyone else is happy too!

So Goodbye to Tomorrow...

2008-03-20T15:03:00.002-06:00

That song from The Last 5 Years is totally stuck in my head right now.
And then I hear someone else talking and a new song comes into my head from what they're saying. Why am I not a music major again?

This semester is killing me.
I don't really know why. It's not that my classes are especially hard. I'm only taking 14.4 credits. My show is done. I have most of my huge paper done. I am on top of my assignments. My assignments really aren't that difficult.
I just have no motivation to do anything.
And no desire to be in Provo. Or Utah for that matter.

California? Please?

Wheeler Look-alike Meter

2008-03-14T10:52:00.001-06:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

Taylor Look-alike Meter

2008-03-14T10:48:00.001-06:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Sweet Sixteen

2008-03-13T22:38:00.004-06:00

Do you remember your sweet sixteen??

My little sister is turning 16 on Saturday!

I thought it would be kind of fun to put together some dating advice from the "experts" - aka you! What do you wish you had known when you started dating? What have you learned about dating etiquette, the do's and don't, the opposite sex, etc.? What embarrassing or silly stories do you have that my sister could learn from? What have you learned from your dating experiences that you could pass on to my younger sister who is about to embark on her dating career?

Thanks everyone!

Tests and Chocolate

2008-03-11T17:55:00.002-06:00

So I love chocolate. I think I Like chocolate a lot more than most girls due. we have a 10 pound bar of Italian milk chocolate that is sooooo good. But its probably not 10 pounds anymore. Oh well I'll finish later.

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

2008-03-07T16:51:00.002-07:00

It's getting to be that time of year again, folks.
Spring!

And with spring, comes changes. You know, trees get their leaves back, flowers bloom, etc.

Here are the changes happening in our lives:
1. I (Landon) finished my show (A Piece of My Heart...senior project basically...) and it was brilliant. My cast and crew did an amazing job and I couldn't be more proud of each of them and all the work that they did. What an awesome opportunity!
2. Since the show is now over, we get to spend time together! It's kind of sad that that's a change we have to make in our lives, but we're looking forward to it!
3. We are not going to be sick anymore. I decided. Take that cold virus. :P
4. Our blog got a face lift! (It was time.)

Ok, so we'll start small with four changes. :D In time, it will increase. For instance, in the near future the semester will be over and that will bring all sorts of changes! (horrah!) Like, we can read books for fun, we can play in the sun, we can not be freezing when we leave the apartment, we can put away winter clothes, we can start living solely on Otter Pops...oh man! I can't wait!

school

2008-02-28T12:53:00.003-07:00

maybe it's because it's a thursday and i dislike those days, or maybe it's the beautiful spring weather outside, or maybe it's even the fact that it's almost the weekend but not quite...

whatever it is, the fact remains:
i am sick of school

there. i said it.

my parents raised me to be a good students. A's were not exceptional in my house. instead, they were expected. it got to the point where an A was average and not anything to be celebrated. i remember in high school bringing home a B+ and getting scolded because "i was capable of so much more." right.

this mentality has stuck with me through college. i learned in my first semester (thank you American Heritage) that B is not the end of the world, but could be the end of a scholarship. i also learned that i will not go to hell for getting a B. in fact, Jennie Chandler (who was my visiting teaching companion freshman year, actually) had this sign on her dorm door that said: a grade is just one letter in the essay of your life. love that.

in any event, i have worked really hard to get good grades in college. i am on 3/4 scholarship and have always worked while taking a full load of classes. (in fact, this is my easiest semester, credit wise, to date: 14.5 credits.) yet suddenly this semester: i just don't care.
rather than thinking of my classes in terms of what i'm learning, i have already decided which classes i'm not going to do well in this semester (396 and 457, if you were wondering). and, i decided, that's ok. i'm still trying to learn as much as i can, but i'm less concerned with the final result.

i have to finish this semester, take classes in the fall, and then i'm student teaching! that's do-able, right?

but today, i just want to be done. forget leaving my clean and homey apartment to walk back up to campus for a set construction class and rehearsal. forget the midterm that i have to study for tonight. forget the scene that i should be memorizing. forget it!

ah, thursdays.

Happy Three Day Weekend!

2008-02-17T19:49:00.003-07:00

Today is our 6 month-iversary!

To celebrate, I had 2 of our wedding pictures printed at Walmart last night and they are now hanging in our house. Horrah! It makes me very happy to look at those pictures and remember that perfect day. Really, it was perfect.

And then, because I was feeling exceedingly gold, I made Dustin help me re-arrange all of the furniture in our living room. I'm am now very pleased with how everything looks and should be satisfied for another 6 months. :D (I spent hours yesterday cleaning our house organizing closets, going crazy basically, so re-arranging the furniture is just the tip of the iceberg as far as my gold-ness yesterday is concerned, but that's another story.)

Dustin and I are happy to report that marriage is wonderful after 6 months. We have become even closer friends, fallen deeper in love, and learned so much! We look forward to 6 more months as well as years and years together. :D

for the sake of updating

2008-02-05T14:37:00.001-07:00

this is my token update. some day it will be a real update. just like someday i'll be a real boy...i mean person...i mean blogger.

and scene.

Merry Christmastime

2007-12-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to write one of these posts for a while now, but my family has been distracting (in a good way!). We've been planning this trip to Oregon for a really long time! When Dustin and I started talking about engaged, I asked him if we could come to Oregon for Christmas this year and he agreed. We got here on Friday night at about 1:30 am. It was a long drive. Fortunately, we had a lot of fun driving with the Hannibals, so it wasn't all that bad. We even made a friend on our trip: Joyce from Taco Time. Too bad she took foooooorever to get us our food. ):

Saturday and Sunday were baking days during which I made lots of cookies and candies (I hardly left the kitchen!). Sunday night we did some caroling and delivering of cookies to some friends from the ward. We got really good at singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Monday was Christmas Eve, and we had our traditional Christmas Eve Family Home Evening started by my Grandpa Taylor years ago. We had tons of friends and family join us this year! Robert and Terry (from across the street), the Daines and McCann families, the Hunts, the Bryans (of course!) and the Kohlers. We ate good food, shared Christmas songs, and acted out the Nativity. This year, Dustin and I played Mary and Joseph in our nativity story. *Reason being, Meg Daines just had a new baby like a month ago. Her baby fell asleep while Dustin was holding her and to avoid disrupting her, we played Mary and Joseph. Bathrobes were costumes everyone participated. We had an awesome host of heavenly angels (all the girls participated. Cousin Rachel was the most excited about it [she's 4] because she got to wear wings. They were green. It was awesome.), shepherds and livestock, and wise men who came bearing gifts. My favorite part was James Bryan. He was so excited about being a wise man this year and following that star! I love our Christmas Eve traditions!

We were, after much persuasion, able to talk Nathan in to letting us sleep until 8:30 am. Of course, as luck would have it, I woke up on my own at 8:20 and proceeded to jump on my siblings (minus Philip because he scares me) and wake them up. They loved it, I promise. Again, family traditions, we all found where Santa signed us (left forearm) and lined up on the stairs youngest to oldest while Dad checked if Santa came (he did). And then, of course, pictures!

We all went downstairs to the piano room where Santa had left his loot. I got more baking stuff (my parents liked my Christmas cookies so much they're encouraging me to keep baking! HA!). We then passed out presents and went around the room, youngest to oldest, opening one gift at a time. Dustin and I feel so blessed to have such wonderful family who cares so much about us and truly spoiled us! I think the gift that Dustin is most excited about is his new rock climbing pull up bar thing. I'm excited about our date nights from G and G and our New Years Eve at the coast from Mom and Dad. Pretty much awesome. We also got some awesome games and movies from the Caldwells and Mom and Dad Wheeler spoiled us both with clothes and movies too. We are so blessed!!!

We spent Christmas day lounging around, playing games, watching movies, enjoying each others company. It was totally lazy and relaxing and I loved every minute of it! Christmas night we took a family picture. Bear in mind that most of us had been in pajamas up until the point when we took this picture so it may not be the most flattering. It amazes me how much everyone has grown. We take a family picture like this every year, but you used to be able to see the tree! Now, we're all big kids!

Dustin and I ended our Christmas day by reading The Most Amazing Christmas Pageant Ever. That book, without fail, brings me to the reality of why we celebrate Christmas. I am grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I am grateful for his life and the Atonement, for it is the Atonement that gives such great meaning to his birth. I know he lives and is our Savior.

Merry Christmas!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

2007-12-11T19:55:00.001-07:00

Well, we've reached that time of year again folks. Finals. And how is it that I am finding time to post now when I have finals looming not even 24 hours away in the distance? Easy. I'm a procrastinator. (: That's not something to be smiling over, but I don't know any other way to cope right now. Grin and bear it? Oh man, this week is taking that phrase to new levels.

Although next week is technically finals week, the majority of my professors decided to spare us the pain of finals week and hold finals this week. But that means that I have 4 finals tomorrow and 2 on Thursday. Awesome. Fortunately, the library is opened until 2 am during this wonderful time of year, so that's where I'm living. Sleep? Who needs it!?

Tonight at the library I'm having way more fun than I should, at the expense of my homework of course. My old roommates, who I love, came to the library to study too so we're all hanging out here just enjoying our time together since we haven't seen each other in forever. We keep telling each other that we need to focus and be productive, but I'm all productived-out. I'm so stressed about what's due tomorrow that I can't do any work on it. Yeah, I don't get it either.

So while all of you are preparing for Christmas, baking delicious goodies, decorating, gift-shopping, celebrating the joy of the birth of the Savior, I'm studying. How can this be the most wonderful time of the year if it's finals time? Riddle me that, huh? And BYU tries to be all festive by putting up Christmas trees everywhere, but all of the students are too distracted by final projects and papers and tests to even remember that it really is Christmastime. I think there's something wrong with the Lord's University distracting us from the Lord during Christmastime.
Ok, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but I really don't want to take finals!

I don't really know what else to say except that professors should stick to holding their finals during finals week. That's why we have a finals week, after all. And...the end I think. I'll write more if I feel the need to procrastinate later. (:
Happy studying!

Our Joint Post

2007-11-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

We decided to be a little crazy and write a post together! We're sorry if it confuses anyone...not sorry enough to promise we'll never do it again, but sorry for your confusion. We hope everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving break! We sure as heck did!

We are acting in a scene together for Landon's directing class and it's rad. Dustin is a great little actor. You'd never guess it was his first time acting. He now wants to create the Wheeler Acting Guild (WAG for short...hahaha). Our first preview for the scene is tomorrow. In the scene, we are a Palestinian married couple. He has just been selected to be a suicide bomber that day and she just found out that she is two months pregnant. What will he choose?! Life or death. It's pretty intense. (Dustin's comment of course is 'No, camping is in tents"...hardy har har. Now you know why Landon married him.) We've been working a lot on the scene over the break and it's been fun and challenging.

We loved loved loved having time off this weekend (Landon is singing 'Without Love' from Hairspary after typing that). We got to see good friends. We spent Wednesday with Alisha and Aaron and Jeeders in Ogden. Alisha made Thanksgiving dinner and it was sooo good! The turkey was amazing! I wish we had gotten pictures together, but we were all in a food coma.
And we got to see lots of family (poor Dustin. Our first Thanksgiving together and he's thrown right into the thick of the Taylor family. Landon loved it! Dustin...I think he was a little overwhelmed.) Landon's family came out for Kayla's (Landon's cousin) baby's blessing. We ate at the Comfort Inn in Orem. We had 2 Turkeys, a Turducken (chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey), and all of the sides. Delish! This is Landon and her cousin Taylor during Thanksgiving dinner. Afterwards, we played some hilarious games of Spoons, Apples to Apples, What If, and Settlers.

We decorated for Christmas on Friday. By decorated we mean that we went out and bought a little four foot, pre-lit fake tree from Big Lots, some cheap plastic ball ornaments, and a poinsettia garland. We also wanted to decorate so that we could put up our two 'first Christmas together' ornaments from Aunt Wa and Sabrina. Sabrina had given us stockings and kiss-kiss Christmas bears so we put those up too. Now a little corner of our house looks Christmas-y!
Look how cute our little Christmas house is. (:

After our first Thanksgiving together, we have had time to reflect on the blessings that have come into our lives, especially in this last year. We are truly grateful for our friends and family who have been so supportive of us as we begin our lives together. Thank you!

And, as a brilliant final note, GO COUGS! Way to beat the Utes!

(:

2007-11-22T23:04:00.000-07:00

happy thanksgiving