Today is Husband's Birthday.

YAHOO!

Happy Birthday to my husband.

His name is Alex.

And he is the greatest Alex there ever was.

It's crazy how much I love that dude.

Marriage has taught me a lot about being selfless.

And even though I had a slight break down about it yesterday (we're good now,) I love serving my husband constantly.

There's no one in this world I'd rather do it for.

(Ok, confession: I still do not like laundry, especially now that it's double.)

I love birthdays, so I was so excited to celebrate his 24th!

I've been trying to be extra frugal this last month so I could get him some nice goodies.

We woke up this morning at the lovely hour of 8:15.

I usually have to get up at 5:45, so 8:15 was glorious!

Then while Alex was showering I put up the "Happy Birthday" sign and set out a 2 liter of Diet Dr. Pepper and a bag of Hot Cheetos on the couch to greet him when he sauntered on out.

Then we headed on over to this restaurant called "The Blue Plate Diner."

It was DELISH! Alex devoured his omelette.

Definitely going back there again someday!

We came on back home and he opened up his presents!

I found him the "Back to the Future" trilogy at Graywhale so it's slightly used, but works just great, was cheap, and he loved getting it! I was informed that's what we are watching tonight.

I also got him some things from Urban Outfitters. HOLLA 40% off discount! That portion of the present included: a Gibson Les Paul guitar shirt, a button up v-neck sweater, and some mittens. He wears his full on snowboarding gloves and he looks ridiculous since y'know...he's not in the snowy mountains snowboarding so obviously something had to be done. Thankfully they fit his big 'ole hands and he loved them. :)

Lastly, I gave him his homemade gift, which was a book full of people we know wishing him a happy birthday through a picture.

I had to be sneaky, which is hard in a small apartment, but I pulled it off.

He absolutely loved it! He just kept going through the pictures over and over again.

It really is a stellar book. I was so happy people put their personalities in it and had a fun time.

Sadly, he forgot to request work off for today so he had to leave me to go there for 3 hours. So unfortunately, the zoo got nixed off the birthday activities list since they close shortly after he gets off.

So we will head on over to "Color Me Mine" and have a grand time there.

Then dinner tonight is at California Pizza Kitchen; compliments of a gift card. yes.

Then we will go over to the U for a classical guitar performance; compliments of free admission. yes again.

When we head back home we have high hopes of making a killer fort in our living room, watching "Back to the Future" part 1 and eating whatever dessert we can find.

And finally, our birthday festivities will end with us in our cozy bed...because well...we can.

TMI?

Welp, too bad. I'm married. :)

Happy Birthday, my cute birthday boy!

You're more than I could ever ask for.

Thank you for loving me, for rubbing my back whenever I ask, for making me bagel sandwiches, for letting me cry, for going to the temple with me, for attempting to fold laundry, for striving to become better, for dressing up with me, for going shopping with me, for praying with me, and most importantly, for being my best friend.

I love you more.

Search for the piano = completed!

So for those of you that know me...I play piano.

For those of you that know me...know I've been trying to get a piano in my newlywed home.

For those of you that have been to our apartment (which is not so many; shout out to Leah, Bryon, Krista, Frit, Jack, & Jeremiah)...you know our stairs are a teensy bit narrow. (Getting our mattress and couch up those stairs was a nightmare.)

Alex's Papa knew a lady in his ward that had an extra piano that she did not need in her apartment and would give it to us for free! Holla! So we went to go look at it, play it a bit, and see what we thought. It was a studio upright and was a really pretty color. I was down for it. So Papa wrote down all the measurements and then we went to go measure our stairs to make out a game plan for moving that sucker up 3 flights of stairs. Well, we could not do such a thing. The mixture of the piano being heavy, amateurs (Alex and other family members) moving it, and our narrow stairwell was not serving us well. So we called around to see how much it would cost to move the piano by professionals. Oh just a nice grand total of $375. Plus after moving a piano you have to get it tuned, which is another $100. Hmm...did we mention we're newlyweds? That's what I thought. Sigh...

Amidst the time Alex and I were trying to figure out how to fork out almost $500, Papa told us about another lady in his ward (he's a Bishop at a downtown ward) that was needing a new home for her electric piano. So we set up a time to go over and meet this old lady and see the piano. However, there were some rules we had to abide by:

Rule #1: Do not mention we are related to Papa. She no likey Papa. Um...rude. Who doesn't like Papa?

Rule #2: We HAVE to take this piano. Even if we don't like it, take it and get rid of it some other way.

Rule #3: We have to write her a thank you card pretty instantly. She gave away an organ once, never got a thank you card, and still tells everyone 5748394875 times about it.

Well...alright. We're desperate enough to do this. So we met Jack, as well as the couple missionaries that serve in that ward, and headed on up to her apartment. Her name was Mary. And boy was she a firecracker. She does not mess around. She was telling everyone that walked in where to sit and if they said, "oh, I'm fine standing" she got upset and told them they had to sit. Even though she was for sure a bossy lady, she was also very sweet. She wanted to tell me her journey to getting this electric piano and what to do with it when I'm done using it. She also proceeded to tell us a little TMI about her health and her first husband (who apparently wanted her to be the first wife of a few, which Mary did not go for...clearly.) She did ask Alex and the missionary to give her a blessing and Heavenly Father for sure loves her, so that was cool to witness. It was very interesting, but fun talking with her. She told us that when the couple missionaries told her they had found someone to take her piano, she said she felt so warm inside and was so happy Heavenly Father had sent someone to take it and love it.

Thankfully we like it so we don't have to dispose of it. Double thankful it's much lighter than a regular piano so Jack and Alex were able to get it up our stairs! It has a nice sound and touch for being an electric and it's been so nice to have a piano in our home!

Now to get going on sending Mary a thank you card so she doesn't haunt me when she passes on...

NBD. (no big deal...[for those that aren't aware of nbd.])

Just thought I'd share a pretty cool experience that we, the Fosters, had last week.

It was our Stake Conference weekend so our Stake Presidency decided to also have an extra meeting the Wednesday evening before at the chapel in the Salt Lake Temple.

We weren't sure if our schedules were going to be able to make it, but we were able to attend...and boy am I glad!

We knew a sealer was going to be talking with us. It was going to be a little more in depth in talking about our marriage sealings since we were inside the temple. We were just excited to go, so we got ready and headed on downtown. We saw some familiar faces from our ward when we entered the chapel and then picked a pew about 10 rows back. The chapel was gorgeous, of course, and it just felt great being in there.

The meeting began and then the man conducting announced who was speaking. He said that the sealer who would be talking was Brother Dalton. Alright. Then from the pulpit he asked if his wife, Sister Dalton, would bear her testimony at the conclusion of her husband's talk. I assume said lady nodded because he kept on going announcing the layout of the meeting. Alex and I looked at each other and we were like, "Wait...Dalton. Do you think he means Elaine S. Dalton? No. Couldn't be. Well maybe...?" We just stayed in suspense.

Well Brother Dalton gave an amazing talk on the temple and temple marriages. He was a sweet, sweet man. Then sure enough...up walks Sister Dalton. THE Sister Dalton. Her testimony was obviously amazing. She was so sincere and it was so lovely witnessing it happen.

I, of course, wanted to meet her after the meeting. Much to our convenience, our Bishop's wife was sitting next to her. That made it highly easy to waltz on over there. We said hello to Bishop's wife and then said hello to her. She was so sweet and shook our hands. We spoke with her for a few minutes and then just randomly she kinda stood back and stared back and forth at Alex and myself a few times. Then she said (no joke), "Wow! You two, as a couple, really stand out! I just know and feel that you have an amazing future ahead of you and will do a lot of good!"

NBD. Just THE Sister Dalton felt the need to tell us we stood out and that our future is looking bright. It was seriously incredible. She said it so sincere and with such power. I about died. We were definitely on cloud 9 the rest of the evening and are so grateful we were able to have such an experience!

A lazy day.

So I was not feeling too hot from Thursday to Sunday.

I was having some serious stomach issues.

I'm not sure what it was (I think it may have been something I ate) but let's just say my tummy was a'rumblin for 4 days and it was close to unbearable to deal with.

I was not the most fun to be around since all I could do was hang around on the couch.

Thankfully my husband is so sweet and just stayed by me unless he had school or work.

One day we watched "Friends" for 7 hours straight.

It was awesome.

The laughter felt good for my body and soul.

Are we ashamed we watched for that long?

Nope. Not one bit.

Fact or Fiction?

Alex got a B on his latest sculpture, a 70 on his art history exam, an 80 on his color theory exam, and a 90 on his other exam...Fiction. He got an A- on his sculpture, an 83 on his art history exam, a 92 on his color theory exam, and a 97 on his other exam that I can't remember the name of the class!! YAY husband!

I got the assistant supervisor position at work...Fact! I am SO beyond excited!

I made garlic shrimp last night...Fact! Shrimp was on sale over a month ago and we finally ate it. It was seriously delicious! I don't even care that my apartment smells like the ocean.

It's now super cold and I'm liking seeing the snow in the mountains...Fiction. I hate it. I do, however, love the fact that it means Christmas is around the corner!

My husband put his ice cream in the microwave (which is above our freezer) instead of in the freezer after he was done eating it so it was in there all night until he discovered it the next morning and he's now all upset since the carton wasn't even half gone...Fact. And oh how I had a good laugh! (he's going to kill me for putting that on here as he is very embarrassed he did such a thing.)

I don't like the Hunger Games craze...Fiction! I freakin LOVE the Hunger Games and want to read them all over again! I canNOT wait until March when the movie comes out!

My husband is the best husband in the whole wide world, the most good looking man in the whole wide world, the sweetest guy in the whole wide world, and I love him so much. I think I may be obsessed with him...the biggest FACT there ever was.

Happy Wednesday, Y'all!

Gift cards?! Yes, please!

Yesterday was so so great!

(emphasis on SO.)

It started out with some relaxing in bed. I love those mornings when we both wake up, have no work, no school, and can just lay there cuddling and talking. Seriously the best! My sweet husband is such a little boy in the mornings. He is NOT a morning person so he acts like he's 4...him and all his bed head glory. :)

After we did the dishes and made some bagel sandwiches, we marched our little tails on over to Williams-Sonoma & Bed, Bath, and Beyond to spend our heart's delight in...gift cards. Yes, folks...gift cards. We got over $400 worth of goodies and did not spend one dime! Oh it was glorious. We FINALLY got some pots!!! We have been cooking everything in our giant stock pot! Amongst the pots were other treasures, that I was so happy to receive! Thankfully, Williams-Sonoma had food samples out so that kept Alex entertained there. :)

We also made a pit stop at Home Goods to try and find a jewelry holder (since my jewelry is ALL over the joint) and the perfect wall hanging for our bathroom. We found BOTH and they were both under $10! Love me some Home Goods!

After Alex's one class of the day we finished up our errand running at Smith's to get some groceries. The Elder's Quorum is having a chili cook off tomorrow and Alex wants to win SO badly! Has he ever cooked chili in his life? Well, no, but he is determined to win. So he looked up some recipes, found one he liked, and we picked up those items as well. When we got out to the car we realized we did not pay for the milk on the bottom rack of our cart. BLAST! So we had to go back in. Oh well, we picked up a pumpkin to carve on our way back inside.

Unloading all our newly acquired treasures (while I was waiting on the burger meat to thaw) was oh so fun! Then I made homemade french fries and grilled up some burgers on our George! Alex ate it all up. Success!

Then we finished off our evening by visiting with baby brother, Jack, watching Family Feud and eating our cheap ice cream that was on sale for $2.

So there you have it...a day in the life of the Fosters.

Moral of the story...get married! You get gift cards! :)

(oh yeah...and marriage is just awesome in general. That's why you should do it. :)

Seesters

I've decided I miss being able to be with my sisters all the time. I wish I had realized how lucky I was when we were all under the same roof growing up. But, as little ones do, we don't realize and argue over stupid things (especially if your name was Karly & Kaycie. :) I was able to spend time with my sisters over the weekend while we were all in California for the 2nd reception. It was so nice to relax, talk, and laugh with them. I have a feeling heaven is going to be glorious because there will be no such thing as long distance. And that my friends, is worth being good for. :)

Along with my own sisters, I am so grateful for my new sister-in-law, Brittany. She is the best new sister I could have ever asked for and she fits right in with all of us. Well...she may need to change her name to Krittany. Is that alright, Britt? :)

I love all y'all! Thanks for being my friends. :)

Cars. (not the movie)

Any one of these options are looking mighty fine right now:

The fasteners on my bumper came off and screwed up everything on our way home from California (long story), so now the whole bumper needs to be replaced. Add all the different bumper parts, plus the paint, plus the new fasteners...$905 whopping dollars. Um, ok. THEN the next day after we took the car in, Alex and I are driving to a reception in our other car and a rock hits the windshield and cracks it. We're praying it doesn't spread so we don't need to fix it any time in the near future!

I'm thinking we need to find other options of transportation! Cars are so dang expensive! Dang you, modern world, and the need you have for cars!

(Hi, we're newlyweds. We're taking donations for our cars.)

Texting can be awesome!

These two men in my life have made me laugh fairly hard recently through the wonderful world of texting. No...but seriously...really, truly laughing.

The first one came from good 'ole Daddio on September 27th. I was cleaning and organizing our spare room when my phone beeps. I look at the screen and it says "Daddy." So I open it up and it reads: "Dreamed that Justin Timberlake was living w/ us. Your mom kept giving him 20 dollar bills and I had to tell her to stop walking around topless in front of him!"

Ohhhh mannn...when I responded he just said back: "You just can't make that up!"

Yep...that really happened.

Then yesterday while I was at work my husband texted me and it read: "Sooo, I may have figured out that if I yell "hey you turkeys!" to Aladdin and Jasmine, then they have to respond...I know how? Because they were from the Ottoman Empire which was modern day Turkey. And her dad was the sultan...So Agrabah is really Constantinople which is modern day Istanbul." Then a text later: "Turkeys hahaha"

Oh my husband.

How I love both of these men and how they bring smiles to my face.

Mr. Moe

So the hubs and I kinda love going on hikes. It's great exercise, the fresh air feels amazing, and the scenery is always to die for! We've only been on a few hikes together, but this latest one was so much fun! We were gone a big chunk of the day and we hiked 3 miles up and then the 3 miles back down. This is us at the top: we obviously felt very accomplished with ourselves.

We began to eat our lunch when all the sudden this little guy popped up!

I was SOO excited because I had never seen a chipmunk in real life before! He was just scampering around and wasn't too skiddish of us. He would come fairly close.

Then the little guy scampered over and grabbed the corner of my sandwich that I had thrown in the bush! Then he perched up on this rock and ate the rest of it! I was laughing so hard because I thought it was hilarious that he had done that! (Well...I couldn't laugh TOO hard because I didn't want to scare him away!)

Then he left the crust! Just like a little kid.

Then we had the brilliant idea to give him a hot cheetoh. He totally ate some of it! I guess he wasn't too fond of it because he didn't eat the rest and wasn't too keen on being by us anymore! Haha...we probably set his tiny mouth on fire! So that was the last we saw of him.

On our way back down we decided to name him Moe. Moe gave us quite the entertainment for a good 20 minutes! I'm hoping he will rendezvous with us again soon!