The Beginning of 2012

Hey folks! I haven't posted something since 2011! Woah!

Okay, so I'm really not a big fan of those jokes in the first place, and I can't believe I stooped so low as to make one myself. But onto the actual reason for this blog post.

Since I've last blogged, a New Years celebration has occurred, school has started, and yes, I have had a birthday, along with my dad.

New Years Eve, I felt like taking a little adventure to the duck pond we used to frequent all the time when we were dating over the summer. The pond was frozen and there were very few ducks but it was fun experience nonetheless and the weather wasn't too cold that it was unbearable to be outside. We got to feed some of the sparse ducks the rest of our bread loaf as well!

 Ryan looking guilty for standing out on the ice. I was convinced he'd break it but once I stood on it, I realized it was QUITE solid.

 The Provo River (more like a creek, in my opinion)

 Almost sunset in the area. This is our favorite tree we would sit under and watch the pond or cuddle discretely.

I think Ryan's doing something with his phone? Not sure, but I felt a need to take a picture of him anyways.

It was fun to visit the duck pond again after not seeing it since we were dating. I wish we lived closer to this pond or lived closer to a new fun pond so that we could visit it as frequently as we visited this one.

After our pond visit, I made a batch of some spinach and artichoke dip (a Lambson family favorite) and brought it over to Ryan's uncle's house and celebrated for a short time with his family. It was a lot of fun and lots of good food! Then we headed home and had a humble, simple celebration in which we fell asleep during the movie we were trying to watch and then rang in the new year playing Harry Potter Lego on the Wii.

After all that, we spent the remainder of our break enjoying the time off and getting ready for the new semester. I have a fairly easy semester ahead of me. Here is my schedule:

Monday

French 201-12:00-12:50pm

TMA 273 (Documentary Production 1)-1:00-3:50pm (usually, we end at 2:50 unless we need the extra time)

Tuesday

TMA 293 (Documentary History)-8:30-10:50am

French 201-12:00-12:50pm

TMA 384R (Avid Editing 1)-6:00-8:50pm

Wednesday

French 201-12:00-12:50pm

TMA 273-1:00-3:50pm (same thing here, usually it's just two hours, not three)

Thursday

TMA 293-8:30-10:50am

French 201-12:00-12:50pm

Friday

French 201-12:00-12:50pm

I LOVE my schedule. On mornings where I don't work Mon/Wed/Fri, I get a nice, pampered morning where I drop off Ryan at his 8am math class and then I come home, work out, shower, and take the morning for myself to rejuvenate my spirit and maybe do some homework. But mostly, I just catch up on my shows and enjoy having the morning to myself. But when I actually get to work, that's also nice because, hey, making money is AWESOME. 

Fridays I only have one class (as does Ryan) and once my evening class is over in February, I'll have even more time to work, assuming things pick up there. I'm considering finding another job or replacing my job there with something more consistent. The hours that they thought I'd be able to have are disappearing as shows are put on hold or are on break. I love my job there, but I need something more consistent that will give me the hours and the money that me and Ryan need to make it through college. I'm hoping I can find a job in post-production, preferably editing, where I can really practice techniques I'll need and use in the real world. Not to mention, I want to be an editor in the film industry.

Ryan's schedule this semester is also light on credit hours, but he's got a full load. Both his computer science class and math class have demanding homework assignments that have him working tirelessly in the math and computer science labs, getting help and trying to finish them on time. So whenever he has free-time at home, I try and make sure he gets plenty of time for himself so that he can recharge and not feel so overwhelmed. We still get some time on the weekends for each other but during the week, the free time we have is for ourselves for the most part.

The weekend of my birthday was a lot of fun! Ryan's family decided to have a birthday dinner for me the sunday before the actual day and we enjoyed a delicious meal of tri-tip beef (grilled by Ryan's dad), a delicious broccoli and cauliflower medley, twice-baked potatoes, and a fantastic chocolate cake layered with chocolate mousse and sprinkled with Heath bar bits. It was delicious and the company was fantastic! I got some fun gifts, such as all the seasons of Gilmore Girls(!) from Ryan's family, and new pretty wallet from Ryan and some gorgeous earrings, some DVDs from my parents, and a gift card from Melanie to Target, a new book from Juli, and various cards and well-wishes from the rest of my family/friends. 

Monday, the day before my birthday, me and Ryan celebrated the day off (and my birthday) by going to Texas Roadhouse. It was INSANELY busy when we arrived and we were grateful we were only a party of two, which makes it quicker than if we were a bigger party like most of the groups there. It was loud, rowdy, and full of (fake) blondes with tan jobs and large, football-player type men. Talk about living up to the stereotype, people. But, it was delicious! The rolls were succulent, the ribs were amazing, my sirloin steak was wonderful, Ryan's barbecue chicken was fantastic...I loved it all! We were so full by the end that we didn't try any of the desserts, but believe me, if we hadn't been full, I would've been all over the dessert menu.

 Some of the food (Mainly my plate)

 Ryan enjoying the food he's consumed. He gets very happy after he's eaten a good portion of delicious food.

More of my plate of food. The ribs were SO good!

We finished off the evening by watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. 

I would say that just about wraps up all of the big events of the year so far. Tomorrow, we're headed up to Park City to check out the festivities going on at the Sundance Film Festival. Again, I forgot to buy tickets to some films, so we're gonna try and wait list on a film or two. If we don't succeed, we'll at least eat at a delicious restaurant, take a Ghost Tour, and have a grand ol' time up in Historic Main Street. LOVE IT!

Until next time!

The Holiday Season

Alright, so it's been almost a month since I've last blogged. In that time, we finished up our final projects, took our finals, and have been on break for about a week or so, really milking it for all its worth.

We started the Holiday season thinking that we weren't going to be able to buy gifts for one another, instead focusing our money on family and bulking our savings. But this was before we sold my car. One day, during finals week, Ryan went to his parents' house to show a guy the car. This was probably the third or fourth serious showing of the car, and with no real luck so far, I wasn't anticipating anything. I was on the sofa at home "studying" French when Ryan came back from his parents' house. Only, he wasn't alone. A stranger walks in, and they're both talking about the car and printing off a sales paper or something, and before I can blink, the car is sold and we suddenly have a whole bunch of extra cash to spend. We put more than half in savings and used the rest of it to pay for gifts. I was totally okay with having a "Who-ville" Christmas, but I always love an opportunity to buy the people I love gifts.

We also got a small, but cute *fake* Christmas tree. It's not white, like we wanted it to be (they're actually quite hard to come by, surprisingly), but we love it.

There we are next to it after it's been decorated. Notice the black Power Ranger ornament, courtesy of Ryan. We bought the tree at the world's creepiest and most abandoned K-Mart in Orem. I will NEVER be going back there, it was THAT gross. EEK.

Let's see, what else? Oh yes, I made peppermint ice cream with the ice cream maker we got as a wedding present from mom's childhood friend, Jamie Kay.

 Here it is from the front. Nice, old-fashioned, wooden barrel.

 There it is with the ice in it, churning away. It wasn't nearly as noisy as mom's ice cream maker.

 Artsy angle of the fastener that kept everything in place.

The finished product after it's been in the freezer over night. SO GOOD!

Best part? I still have some a week after making it. And it's so good! I am eager to try some more recipes in the ice cream maker, maybe even trying out gelato sometime soon!

Last Monday, I participated in the Merrill's tradition of going down to Spanish Fork for the annual city-sponsored Festival of Lights. It included tons of light sculptures(?) or whatever you call those things. Just look at following pictures (taken with my phone, so excuse the poor quality) and figure it out for yourself.

A lovely castle.

A fun stocking.

The deer and rocking horse, which, if I remember correctly, was actually rocking.

There were some other, more bizarre things like a bear catching fish, dinosaurs, and things that don't really relate to Christmas, but were fun nonetheless.

Afterwards, we went to Santaquin for some huge, and I mean HUGE, scones. Think dinner plate size. I didn't snag any photos of them, so you just have to take my word for it. But they're GINORMOUS. And delicious. Overall, it was a fun evening.

The day before Christmas Eve (the 23rd to be more exact) Ryan's parents were kind enough to adopt a Lambson tradition of having a Jerusalem dinner. There were some modern twists to some of the food (such as the fluffy fruit salad that was made with pomegranates, bananas and apples all mixed together in home-made whipped cream), but it was quite delicious, especially the cornish game hens that were cooked to perfection. We finished off that evening watching "Scrooge", another Lambson family favorite/tradition.

Christmas Eve was the celebration of Stephanie's birthday. We all went up to Park City to enjoy breakfast at The Eating Establishment and window shopped for a bit before returning home so we could prepare for the evening's festivities. The evening was spent with the entire Merrill family at the grandparents' home eating delicious food, participating in a Christmas program put on by the whole family, and chatting about different things. Me and Ryan stayed overnight at his parents' home so that we could wake up early, get ready for church, and go to sacrament meeting with his family.

Christmas Day was better than I could have dreamed. It was my first away from home, and Ryan's family was so good at making sure I was comfortable and happy during it all. It was hard at times, a few tears were shed (especially when I called home and the entire family sang "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer" for me), but Ryan was good at cheering me up. So Christmas was amazing, spiritual, and so much fun. 

I got Ryan a Nintendo 3DS, since his normal DS was on its last leg.

And Ryan surprised me with a nice Camelbak water bottle, and not so much surprised me with a new Kindle Touch (we had talked about getting one for me anyways so I could stop borrowing his).

Mine is the one on the right, the red and blue one. I LOVE it!

The Kindle Touch. He got me a nice case for mine as well that has a light attached to it so I can read in the dark.

I also got a new peacoat to replace my $10 shouldn't-be-used-as-an-actual-coat coat that I've had for a year now, some nice winter boots with fur lining that are both cute and practical (they're a suede fabric, but have been treated in the making process so that they're water-proof and won't destroy the fabric), and some fun winter-styled Toms.

So I am ready for the winter weather that will, hopefully, come. We've been lacking in the snow department so far and on Christmas Day, I was comfortable without a coat, just a thin sweater. WEIRD.

Finally, me and Ryan got a nice, new TV stand from his parents! So the coffee table we've been using as a TV stand can actually serve its true purpose. The set-up is so much nicer and I actually have a place to put our copies of the Ensign and the Nativity set we got from Ryan's grandparents.

We are so blessed to have Ryan's family close by so that we can celebrate the Holidays with them without having to spend too much money on travel. I missed my family dearly on Christmas but it won't be too long before I see them!

Sorry if the post felt rushed. It was gonna be a long one so I tried to be as concise as possible.

Love you all, and Happy Holidays!

What We've Been Up To!

Hey blogger universe! Has it really been a month since I've last blogged? Well, to be fair, since that time it's been hectic. First block of classes ended and second block started up and I am knee-deep in French and am trying my hardest to keep my head above water. It's AMAZING, but so tough! We're getting into the specifics of the language and all the little details such as the difference between the two versions of past-tense that exist and the two versions of future tense that exist as well. It's absolutely insane, but my professor is fantastic and I'm learning so much! I'm even dreaming in French!

But lets get on to the stuff that you probably want to know, such as how my marriage is going and if me and Ryan are still as in love as ever before. Well, I can answer those questions with simple one-word responses, but I'll catch you all up in the life of the Merrills.

A waaay long time ago, I bought me and Ryan a couple of pumpkins in celebration of Halloween and we went ahead and carved those suckers.

Isn't my spouse adorable?

All the delicious guts of the pumpkin (I'm using "delicious" sarcastically...)

I remembered when me and Sarah would carve pumpkins in the past and how we would go to homestarrunner.com and find fun templates there. So that's what me and Ryan did!

He chose the "bear holding a shark" and I chose the whale.

We put towels in front of the TV, popped in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and started to carve. Only problem: our tools were not conducive for legitimate carving. Great were the days when the utensils given in pumpkin carving kits were actually sharp if not a little bit fragile. But I guess there were too many reported cuts and slices to fingers that the companies (or at least the company that supplies Macey's) decided to do away with those handy little saws and replace them with larger, thicker, and absolutely blunt "saws". It was sad.

Watching "Prisoner of Azkaban"

My attempts at carving the whale with my poor utensils.

Ryan's design with the jagged teeth was a little harder to manage with the crappy blades.

So we gave up that endeavor to make Homestarrunner jack-o-lanterns and did un-traced faces instead.

There's Ryan's handiwork.

Mine!

But since I finished the whale design, I decided to include a picture of it as well.

They were only lit for that time since we only had our 24-hour candles readily available and never went out of our way to buy tea-lights. So they never got lit on Halloween. In general, our Halloween was filled with homework and not a lot of exciting things. Hopefully that will change next year.

A second exciting thing was also documented in my month and a half absence: Me and Ryan participated in the school-hosted Murder Mystery dinner. It was held at the lodge that BYU owns up in the mountains (eerie yet gorgeous location if you ask me) and it was semi-formal and deliciously fun!

Though I didn't get lots of pictures of it, I enjoyed getting dolled up, seeing Ryan in a sharp suit, and the two of us participating in a mystery where the actors were FANTASTIC at being eccentric and off-setting and the ambiance was elegant. I enjoyed myself immensely and I think the two of us are going to make this an annual tradition as long as we're in the Provo area.

Just before we headed down the curvy road: we're slightly blurry, but we're excited! (See Ryan's tie? He calls that his "magic and mystery" tie)

Giving our best (and not so best) mysterious faces. I'll admit, we need some work.

Overall, the past month and a half was absolutely busy. There were holidays to celebrate, French to be learned, films to be shot, edited, and put onto DVDs, food to be eaten, naps to be taken...okay, the last one is a lie. I wish I took naps, but nowadays I don't have the time for it.

Thanksgiving was also good. If you want details of that, it's recent enough that you can just call me up and I'll give you the whole spiel. But for now, I'm gonna sign out and "promise" to blog more often.

Homecoming weekend and then some

I wish I were better at creating titles. But I'm not. Last weekend was Homecoming. The entirety of last week, if you remember, was absolutely rainy, cold and miserable, except that I didn't let that get me down. I was still in high spirits. And those spirits still existed when me and Ryan decided to watch the Homecoming Parade and ride our bikes to get there. Thankfully it wasn't rainy when we went at 8am to partake in the free pancakes that were to be served at every announcer's booth (about 1 announcer every quarter mile). After doing some light maintenance (which, for what it's worth, I can NEVER spell that word!) on the bikes, we headed out with quilts in our backpacks so that we had some warmth and a place to sit for the parade. The bike up was really invigorating and we were both hungry and ready for some pancakes. Get this: the pancakes were dyed BLUE! And so, there we were, sitting by the duck pond south of BYU campus, cold and sniffly, but eating delicious blue pancakes.

Ryan partaking in the blue pancakes.

He got ahold of the camera. And I made this face at him.

BLUE! And whipped cream! Yum!

The parade was okay. All the candy they threw were salt water taffies. Love them, but it got a little old. We did get a free beach ball from a friend of Ryan's who recognized him. Woo!

We biked back, absolutely frozen from being there for 3 hours (the parade started at 10) and warmed up by doing our weekly chores: laundry, cleaning, homework...and then at 4:15 in the afternoon, I had to head to the football stadium to work my last. football. game. ever. Gasp! I wish I could say it went smoothly. But it was a bit rough. I left in high spirits, though, and now I am only employed at BYU Broadcasting.

This past week was a bit of a load. I had to film my test footage for my final documentary in one of my film classes. I emailed the author of the blog, Verbal Vomit, and asked her if I could film her as she created a piece of art (she's a fellow BYU student). And she agreed! So, yes, I've met the humorous and delightful Hannah, the creator of Verbal Vomit. And I'll be seeing her again to film the final footage this coming week. She was extremely easy to work with and I'm excited to start getting this documentary together.

I also had to film our spoof film for my other film class that's ending on Tuesday the 18th. Me and my group decided to spoof, or "swede", the film "Eclipse" from the *gag* Twilight Saga. So me and Ryan had to watch the film so I could do proper research. It wasn't as bad as I was anticipating, but it was pretty poor quality. We did that all day Thursday, from noon-6:30 at night. Yikes! But it was fun. And I'm pretty sure it'll be freaking entertaining.

My French 101 class is wrapping up this week as well. On Friday, I took two tests/quizzes in that class: one was the listening comprehension/Culture quiz for chapter 6 and the other was the oral exam for chapters 4-6. And on Monday I'll take a listening comprehension/culture quiz for all the chapters, and then on Tuesday is the final and the test on chapter 6. Yes. Two tests. In ONE sitting. I only have 3 hours to do it. It's gonna be intense, but my teacher has a lot of faith in me and said I'd do well in the 102 accelerated class that starts two days after the final. I'll be hitting the ground running when it comes to French. But it's really fun! I can actually carry a conversation with my native French teacher!

Oh, and the weather? It's not rainy anymore. It's been absolutely gorgeous! And so, that brings me to today. I didn't do anything extraordinary with the weather. But me and Ryan made cinnamon pancakes and cheesy scrambled eggs for breakfast, I had a mid-morning power nap (I'm getting over a cold), we did laundry, and then we headed out to do some errands.

My ward is starting a sewing club and we had our first meeting on Tuesday. I went, since I've decided I need to make friends in my ward. And now I'm uber inspired to try and sew some things by myself. Our first stop, then, was Joann's Fabric. McCall's was having a pattern sale and I got two patterns for $0.99 a piece! One is an easy dress (or so it told me) and the other is a long skirt. I held off on buying fabric because, I'm embarrassed to admit, I had no idea what all the different things on the back meant. I knew roughly what I wanted, but then it said other things and I just got confused and my confidence waned. So...I'll get that next week. I pulled out the sewing machine my mom got me as a wedding present and got myself acquainted with it. Looks like I'll need to buy pins, spools, and a pin cushion along with the fabric, zippers, and buttons when I go to Joann's again next week.

The next stop was Menchie's. I had my final check, the $50 return for giving back the uniform, and some tip money waiting for me, and I needed to return the key to the store. We also had some free yogurt gift cards so we enjoyed some new flavors like german chocolate cake and chocolate-dipped banana. Yum! Then we headed to Target to finish off our gift cards (yes, we are still accumulating them!). We bought a 2-qt crockpot, some kitchen towels, a fancy ice-cream scoop, and all the ingredients to make homemade philly cheesesteak sandwiches.

When we got home, I started on the hoagies.

The beginning of the process

After an hour and a half of rising!

Once they were separated into their little mounds to make separate sammiches, we started on the philly cheesesteak filling.

The veggies! Aren't they beautiful? (the red pepper is organic)

 The steak all cut up and ready to cook in the melted butter.

Ryan doing what he does best: stirring up the meat while I get ready to cut up the veggies.

The end result was pretty good. My hoagies sunk down and became more of a hamburger bun, and we could've been more experimental/exotic with our use of spices in the mixture. But all in all, it was delicious and we have some leftovers to look forward to!

 My Philly Cheesesteak Sammich!

 Inside the sammich: steak, green and red peppers, onion, and provolone cheese on top!

 The mixture in the skillet

Ryan waiting for his to be finished broiling in our (awesome) toaster oven.

All in all, today was good for my soul. Autumn is good for my soul. I got to spend time with my amazing husband and I hope he didn't find this endless time with me exhausting. I absolutely loved it!

Until next time.

The Letter

Since having no social networking sites to distract me, I find myself drawn to my blog more and more. I do a lot more reading as well (on my Kindle app on this laptop or the physical book I'm reading), and I do plenty of cooking and sleeping so I don't feel like blogging is that much of a time waster. I've got all my homework done for the week and most for the weekend is complete and so here I sit, snuggled in a quilt made by Ryan's mom, listening to Phoenix and writing this blog post while Ryan putters around on the internet, searching for new apps or StumblingUpon new things.

A little while ago, Ryan went to go check the mail. He came back damp (since it's spitting cold rain outside) and holding a package from my parents and a letter from my dear sister, Sarah. I immediately went to open the letter since she had told me she wrote me one and I was anxiously awaiting it. Upon opening it, I remembered her words saying that it was a letter full of word vomit. But despite her warnings, I went ahead and started to read.

And what I read were some of those beautiful and troubled words I've read in a long while. My heart went out to my sister, my friend, my kindred spirit who was seeking guidance through her life. As someone who was in roughly the same position a year ago, I have the deepest empathy. I won't go into details as to what is going on in her head, but it's nothing horrible like murder (though she's written fiction about it), just normal things concerning the future.

I will admit I am sitting right in the middle of my dream life: working on an amazing film major at BYU, married to the man of my dreams who makes me laugh, and I know exactly where I want to be in five years and how I'm going to get there. And then there's my amazing sister who doesn't know what the next year holds for her. I want nothing but the best things to happen to her and I wish I had the power to control her future for her. But I don't. We all have agency so that we may earn our privilege to spend eternity with our Father in Heaven. So it's up to her and her alone (with some good insight and advice from friends/family and the promptings of the Holy Ghost) to make the best choices for the future.

I keep thinking about what my sister, Elise, said about her experiences in Indiana. It wasn't necessarily a failure, but it led her to the path she's taking now. Much like dating, making wrong choices in men and women and career paths isn't wrong: it's a growing experience. There are people who do it right the first time around (Like me, marrying the only man I've ever loved), but there are others who try hard but it just doesn't work out. Thank goodness for the Atonement, right? There was a parable-like story in Brad Wilcox's book "The Continuous Atonement" that I loved that talked about the priests reciting the sacrament prayer and messing up. It's up to the bishop to catch those mistakes and let him know, if he doesn't know already. And he recites it again and again and AGAIN until he gets it correct. He doesn't go into the prayer with the thought "I'm going to mess it up on purpose!" No, he has the purest of intent. And that's how we are going through life. Unless we're trying to screw things up, we make decisions thinking that they're the best for us and our path.

So, Sarah, that's my public advice for you (I say public since we'll talk more intimately in the future). Whatever decision you make, make it prayerfully and you might not get an answer with "angels and trumpets"(like my sister Emily said when I asked her how to know if marriage is the right thing), but if you don't get any red flags I say that that's the best answer for you.

Sorry that this ended up so preach-y. But I suggest that you all listen to this song. I really want to use it in one of my short documentaries since, you'll notice, it has a kind of cinematic plot structure: there's the exposition, the inciting incident (where things start going crazy), the rising action (things keep building and get crazier), and the crisis (ultimate crazy moment where it's the biggest!), and the climax, when it starts to resolve. And the gorgeous ending bit would be the falling action where everything is new, a new normal. And, Sarah, this is how your life will play out in the near future. You're in the middle of the rising action right now, but your falling action will come and it will feel as good as this song.