Happy Days.

I love hanging out with the fam. We watched Olympics and jumped on the tramp and talked and ate and awww I just love them. It's kinda sad that I'm not around them but it makes seeing them that much better. Here's to hoping I can see them over Christmas! It's crazy to think that this wasn't even the longest I'd gone without seeing them - Disney was still longer!

But there really isn't anything quite like watching Olympics with the family. Favorite.

I asked Paul to send me a picture of himself and he did.

Can't wait to be with him on the beach in a couple weeks! What a good-looking guy..

Luv, Lindsay

P.S. Happy Birthday Mr. President.

And that's all I have to say on the matter.

Move Along

(This post is from August 3..for some reason it didn't actually get published..)

I have this thing where I'm really paranoid about using the same blog post title twice. Not  that anyone would notice..

Happy National Watermelon Day!

I love watermelon. But I am super picky about the texture. It doesn't have to be super sweet for me to like it..it just has to have a solid, firm texture. And be cold. Good watermelon can make any day great.

After my late night chatting with Beth and Holly, I slept in until around 9 (shocking). I actually woke up at around 6 thinking I had missed my alarm but really that was just the time I usually go to work in Texas. So I went back to bed. 

We got up and got ready and got some delicious food at Zupas. More talking, catching up, and agreeing to stay caught up followed.

I love Zupas so much. And it's something you can't get in Texas so I had to!

I love this girl so very very much!

I got to attend my cousin's wedding and see a lot of family - it was so fun to see everyone! Seeing family is the greatest, and being far away makes it so much sweeter. It was especially fun since no one knew I was coming so it was a little surprise. 

In high school I was a Studentbody Officer and today there was a party for Mrs. Sheen, our adviser who is now retiring from that position. It was so good to see her. I had an awesome time in student council and Sheen taught me a lot. It was definitely a party. We had 7/10 officers there! The other 3 are still on missions. It was so fun seeing them, most of them I haven't seen since graduation over 3 years ago. I'm the only one who is out of Utah! I guess that makes sense since everyone is still in school.

It was another situation where no one knew I was coming and it was fun to see the look on their faces when I walked up. After Sheen's celebration they were having a birthday party and were kind enough to invite me! It was so much fun. We had fake margaritas (21st birthdays being celebrated - we had to go a little crazy) and birthday cake.

It was so much fun. But I have a hard time revisiting high school. It doesn't bring back a lot of happy for me. Driving around American Fork can be a little painful sometimes. It really makes me appreciate my Paul. He's so wonderful and makes me so happy. This is definitely the best chapter of my life, and it's only getting better from here :) I'm in love.

Luv, Lindsay

Birthday #21.

Hey y'all! I'm playing catch-up. No time to blog on vacation :)

August 2 - Happy Birthday..to me :)
This birthday could have been quite a disaster. Paul left for Florida on Wednesday for an intern conference EY has at Disney World. Yes, he was in Disney World on my birthday. Rude.

The funny thing was I didn't even remember it was my birthday. Literally. I've never had that happen before. But after getting ready, having yogurt for breakfast, and cleaning up the apartment, I got a sweet text from my hubby wishing me a Happy Birthday. Aww :)

My team at work bought me a huge jug of animal crackers and gave me a sweet letter. I love animal crackers. Unfortunately, they are very addicting and are already half gone. Don't worry, I haven't eaten them all by myself.

My sweet cube-mate, Carrie, drove me to the airport at lunchtime and there began my last non-rev adventure. Dallas to Lubbock was easy, but I was warned getting on that I might get pulled off of the plane in Vegas. That would definitely have ruined my day. Who wants to get stuck in Lubbock, TX? Luckily, they let me stay on the plane and I safely made it to Vegas.

Lubbock to Vegas was my longest flight and I didn't have time to get lunch anywhere, so this was my meal for the day:

Yummy, right?

I didn't feel the greatest later.

So many people want to go to Vegas for their 21st birthday. I couldn't wait to get out! It was fun seeing the "21 and over" type signs and knowing I was old enough for anything Vegas had to offer. Good thing none of it is appealing to me. 

I spent about an hour in Vegas on the standby list waiting to go to Salt Lake. Originally I wasn't worried about this flight because there were plenty of seats but for some reason a lot of people decided to go to Salt Lake City last minute. But once again I was able to get on!

It was a very long day of 3 different flights but funny flight attendants and just making every flight made it wonderful.

And then I got to see my family! They had dinner all ready and even had a birthday cake waiting.

It was a delicious chocolate cake with snickers and whipped cream. Thanks, McKay and mom!

We watched some Olympics together and chatted and then I headed down to Provo to spend the night with my bestest friend, Beth. But of course when I got there she wasn't even home. Loved..

Luckily Holly was there! She had been on skype with a special boy and though I told her several times to leave me to finish her conversation, she refused. What a wonderful ex-roommate she is. :) It was a great talk about life and love and all that jazz. Talking to these girls makes me miss single life a tad but mostly makes me really really appreciate being married.

When Beth got home we talked until around 2:30am. Talk about major catch-up! It was so great. I love my Bethy! I need to be better at calling people I want to stay in touch with..you miss out on a lot when you move to another state and don't call very often!

If you don't realize how ridiculously in love I am with my husband, you probably don't read my blog very often. This guy is the greatest thing. Ever. When Paul was on the bus home from Disney World full of who-knows-how-many interns, he called me and got the entire bus to sing Happy Birthday to me. It was basically the sweetest thing. Definitely not something I expected! It was hard being away from my sweety on my birthday, our first one as a married couple, but this definitely helped.

Paul is the first boy to ever kiss me on my birthday. Cute, huh? He is also the first boy I ever kissed on their birthday. Kind of special.

Overall, successful 21st birthday.

Luv, Lindsay

P.S. Shout out to Elder Tam and Elder Woodfield who share this amazing birthday with me! Also, to Uncle Benny who celebrated his half-birthday on this day. 6 months until Groundhog Day.

Happy National Girlfriends' Day!


It was a good one. I got to teach a bunch of interns about what I've done this summer, show my team a slideshow of all the cool things I've gotten to do this summer, and my awesome girls from work took me out to lunch! They are so sweet :) Thanks, Carrie!

Paul left this morning for Disney World..I can't believe he went without me. I really don't like going to sleep when I'm the only one in the apartment. Especially since I'm paranoid a bunch of bugs are going to come out and I'm going to have to battle them by myself.

Everybody pray really hard I make all of my flights this weekend, k?

K. Thanks.

Luv, Lindsay

let me eat cheesecake.

Happy National Cheesecake Day y'all!

We were already planning on eating at The Cheesecake Factory to celebrate this holiday but when we found out that the cheesecake was half price..what a nice surprise!

I'm not even much of a cheesecake fan. *gasp!* I LOVE all of the chocolate cheesecakes, but the ones that are mostly the true cheesecake...not a fan. I just feel like I'm eating sweet cheese. I guess that's what it is..it's just not my favorite. But what we had today had real cheesecake and I loved it. Read on..

I'm not usually an appetizer order at restaurants, but have you ever had the avocado eggrolls at Cheesecake Factory?

 They are so worth it. It comes with 6 rolls and they are so amazing. Try them.

Why yes, that is a forest on our table. It was a salad night. They are so huge and make for a good next-day lunch. I got the Grilled Chicken Tostada and Paul got the Chopped. They were both good but next time Paul has to remember to get his without the bleu cheese.

This was after we had BOTH eaten some of my salad. Hardly a dent in it!

Paul's birthday was last week and mine is this week so we mentioned that to the waiter hoping they'd sing us a song. They did. And they gave us a candle and wrote on our plate in chocolate! It was definitely a wonderful birthday cake.

We had the brand new Oreo Dream Extreme Cheesecake. I'll let you read the description:

OREO® Dream Extreme Cheesecake
OREO® Cookies baked in our creamy Cheesecake with layers of fudge cake and OREO® Cookie mousse. Topped with a milk chocolate icing. Available July 30th on National Cheesecake Day. 

Can someone say incredible? I sure did.
It had the real cheesecake but enough chocolate to balance it out and make it absolutely amazing.

 Happy Birthday to US!

 I was basically in heaven.

Oreos and more chocolate?

It doesn't get much better.

Happy National Cheesecake Day. I hope you got your piece.

Luv, Lindsay

i'm in love.

Happy Birthday to my sweetheart..He's a whopping 24 years old today!

I love this guy so very much.

He puts up with me when I decide to be crazy and holds me whenever I want him to (almost).

He got some golf shoes for his birthday and a glow-in-the-dark puzzle for his birthday.

He got to play his favorite sport, basketball, with some friends and go out for lunch today. Then it was us time! We went to Medieval Times for an awesome Knight-filled evening. I thought it was appropriate. And last night we saw The Dark Knight Rises so our whole weekend was just all about the Knights! Gotta love it.

There is a Knight in the background, if you couldn't see it.

My big head wouldn't fit in the crown..

My Knight in Shining Armor. 

I love my last name.

We were on the red team.

So we cheered for the Red Knight.

Best one!

The horses were so pretty!

Yeah Red Knight!

The King and the Princess

  

The food was really really good

But you had to eat it all with your hands!

No utensils here.

They had different competitions from jousting to sword fighting.

The Red Knight threw me a flower!

Awww.

The Red Knight won the tournament, of course!

 It was such a fun evening!

I love you so much, sweety! You make me so very happy and do so much for me!

I hope you had a fun birthday and can't wait for the many more we will celebrate together!

Luv, Lindsay

baking fun

One thing I have learned this week:

I am pretty good at making food that tastes delicious. Not so much at making food that looks beautiful. No matter how hard I try, it's just not meant to be. Good thing I'm not one to really care about the look of the food, just the taste of it.

A few experiments this week:

#1

Breadsticks! Like the ones from The Pizza Factory! Thanks to Purple Chocolat Home for the recipe. Hers are beautiful. Mine are alright though. Baking is also a lot harder for me here in Dallas, probably because I'm so used to cooking in a dry climate at a high altitude. Apparently that makes a difference.

#2

Cake Balls.

These were a challenge. I don't know how people make the perfectly smooth ones but it was definitely not the greatest experience of my life. And I'll probably never make them again.

I made them for Paul. It is his birthday tomorrow so I wanted him to have something fun to take to work to celebrate today. So I attempted to make ones that looked like basketballs. Here are some of the pictures of my adventure:

The first ones that really didn't work very well.

I started dipping half at a time and it worked so much better.

Funfetti! There are chocolate ones too.

But look how cute!

I thought this was pretty adorable.

They aren't perfectly smooth and really not the prettiest,

but for Paul, they were fine.

And I still think they're cute.

I though they were cute but like I said, I'll never try to make cute ones ever again. Way too much effort!

Luv, Lindsay