happy birthday john

John turned 23 this last Wednesday, and he didn't want to do anything.

I offered for us to go out, and he said no.
Just dinner? No.
Can I make you dinner? Okay.
So I asked him Tuesday what I could make him, he said meat. So when we got home from work I said do you want me to do like steak and potatoes? (Steak is his favorite meat, I figured it was the obvious choice). He said he didn't want steak and that he couldn't decide at the moment because no food sounded good.
...Okay?
Wednesday (his birthday)at about 4:30 I get a text message, telling me what he would like me to make him for his dinner.
What did he ask for?

Corn dogs and potato chips.
I married a five year old.
If that isn't enough evidence for you, listen to this.
John's mother asked him what kind of birthday cake he would like for dinner last Sunday; he asked for a Batman cake. It was already Saturday afternoon so I didn't expect that she'd be able to get one, and I ended up being right, she couldn't. But she bought a Batman action figure and put it on the cake.
Batman. For a 23 year old.
THEN. John tells me he wants to have a birthday party.
He wants a have a BATMAN birthday party.
Where everyone dresses up as a Batman character, but he's the only one allowed to dress up as Batman.
And then we'll all go to Nickelcade.

Do you see what I have to deal with?

Anyway, I figured I could handle cooking corn dogs, and I even bought chocolate to dip strawberries (more for myself, but whatev.)
So I turn on the oven to cook the corndogs, because you know, they're only good when they're crunchy and when you put them in the microwave they get soggy. Thank you J.
So the oven is on, and I'm in the kitchen cleaning strawberries, and getting ready to cook asparagus (I needed something slightly healthy for myself) and I started to smell smoke and burning. I turned around and there was smoke coming from the oven door and also up and through the burners.
I opened the oven door and there were FLAMES everywhere. John was raised that when there is left over pizza, you put the boxes in the oven...I have NEVER done this in my life, so I didn't even think to check. Sure enough, there were three pizza boxes in the oven, and they were all on fire.
I freaked.
I had no idea what to do. We don't have a fire extinguisher, and even if we did I don't know that I would know how to use it.
Luckily John was next door, so when I called in a panic he rushed right over.
I felt like the biggest idiot ever. The one time I try to cook, I start a fire.
I am not meant to be domestic.

Good thing my husband is awesome and didn't even make fun of me, because I would have cried my eyes out.
And good thing I got him awesome presents.
First, I bought him a scale 18 Dale Earnhardt model car.
If you know John, you know his love for Dale and NASCAR. The first race he ever watched was the race that Dale was killed, and he just loves the legend.
Because Dale no longer races with NASCAR, they have discontinued the making of the car. Therefore, it was impossible to find. But I did it! And he loved it! I was so glad.
But, this was the bigger present..and he loves this more.


This is his "new" car. It is a 1975 Toyoto Land Cruiser. AKA FJ 40.
We bought it from a seventeen year old kid who has completely rebuilt the engine, and done all this other stuff to it (the engine is the only part I remember.)

I love the stripes, and you can't see it very well but there is a bull on the side of it. He hates it, and wants to paint over it, but I'm not letting him, he's vintage.
It kind of scares me to drive in it, but it will get better I'm sure. Can't wait for the summer and drop top. MmmmMmm good.

Which brings me to my next point.
We have a great car for sale.
2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Black with Tan/Gray interior.
No problems at all, but with John getting the FJ, we don't find it necessary to have two SUVs. Therefore, I need to sell the Jeep so I can get this cute little thing.

2006 Honda Accord.
After driving it, I was in love.
We won't be purchasing the rack, seeing as we don't need it for anything, but I'm so excited for it.
What can I say? I'm just a small car girl.

ladies night

My friends decided that we're sick of promising to hang out with each other and then it never happening. So we came to the conclusion that we are going to have a girls night once a month, on the same Friday every month, so everyone knows when it is, and doesn't plan anything instead of it.
Of course our first one was kind of a bust. Of the eight girls that were included in this planning, four showed up to dinner. It may be interesting to see what happens with this new tradition.
Anyway, we went to Noodles and Company, and caught up just the four of us, and then we didn't know what to do. We have a slight kink put into our plans, so we were just flying by the seat of our pants.
It was Kensie's birthday the week prior to this night, and I had yet to see her apartment; so I suggested that. Abbi called Kensie and we were on our way. I must say that I love their apartment, especially the way it is decorated. You can see in the first picture that there are Vinyl Records on the wall, I think that's pretty cool. I need to figure out something to do with my house. All I have are pictures, which I love, don't get me wrong, but I want something original.

I saw this girl three weekends in a row. That's a record for us during the school semester. I can't wait until summer, and we can once again run errands together.

Love these three.
Abbi, Andrea, and Kensie.

family pictures...

With Riley leaving in about a week and a half, and with Rach and Company in town, my mom wanted to do family pictures.
The only day that ended up working for everyone, was not the day that was working for Mother Nature.
We scheduled our pictures with Opie, and we planned on getting them taken at Wheeler Farm. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain; and there isn't anywhere inside the Farm that's lit well enough to take pictures.
So, needless to say, we were all a little wet by the end. But the pictures don't show it; not terribly. I hate the ones of me, but that's definitely not because of the rain.
Oh well I guess.

Noelle wasn't being the most cooperative child, so this is Ben and I trying to get her to smile.

It didn't work.

Afterward, the majority of us headed to Rio for lunch. And after being a butt for two hours, I finally got her to take a picture with me, and actually smile.

I felt so bad about this. I gave Jells this green coin, and at first she kept telling me that it was here eye. She then goes to her mother and shows her what she had, then to return to me asking me if it was "all plastic." When I said that it was, she told me she wanted a chocolate one. I didn't even think I was fooling her into thinking it was chocolate, but I felt bad when she realized that it wasn't what she thought.

I promised her a Coloring Book, which I never brought her. So Rach, be expecting a package from the Lawrences for her birthday.

true blue lacrosse fan...

I've never been able to use that phrase..."True Blue" seeing as I'm a die-hard Utah fan.

Except when it comes to lacrosse.

Between Melissa and Elliot, I am slightly obligated to support the Y.

I even purchased a shirt. Mel told me that when I go to Elliot's games I can just cover the "Women's" with tape. Haha, I think I'll just keep it that way, but thanks for the suggestion. :)

John and I love watching her play. She's crazy fast, and the best player on the team. (No offense to anyone else.)

John and I took almost this exact picture, in these same bleachers at this time last year, and we'll probably take the same picture in these bleachers for the next two years. :)

This is also a repeat from last year. Except Mel said she had to be in the middle this time, and we made sure that John put his hand around her (seeing as last year, he wouldn't touch anyone and the picture turned out awkward. haha)

I must thank Brooke for taking this picture. We didn't meet her until Saturday but she was nice enough to take this and was the cutest ever!

Such a trooper too! During the Colorado State game (their first of three that day) Brooke took a hard foul. This angry girl from the other team took her stick and wacked Brooke across the top of the head, and made her bleed. I haven't been a lacrosse spectator for long, but I've definitely never seen a hit that hard. Not in girls lacrosse, and not over the head.

Also, the girls deserve a large CONGRATS for beating CSU for the first time in BYU women's lacrosse history. It was a big win for them, and we were glad we could see it!

Love you Mel Nash.

We'll see you in two weeks against Pepperdine.

No red card this time, kay? ;)

I'm debating making my blog private...

I don't know how I feel about the fact that just anyone can look at it.

Any insight?

what we've been up to

John and I went to the Monster Truck Rally over the weekend of Valentine's Day.
(I'm a good wife, I know.)
I really didn't want to go, but John was so excited when he saw the commercial, so I decided I would take him.

I think this picture is awful, but John loves it...so there ya go.

This is the whole reason we had to go to this.
"BUT GRAVEDIGGER IS BACK FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FOUR YEARS!!!"
Direct quote from John.
Explains itself.

We had Dust, Tace and the kids come along.
The kids LOVED it, which made it a little more worth while.
And I love this hat.

This is the one part that I LOVED.
The Motocross.

Riley went through the temple. It was the first time I'd been since my wedding. (Whoops). It was good to go, and it was good to see Riley go through.
I think it's safe to say Dad was pretty excited. Mom was a mess, tears all over the place. But Dad is so excited for Riley to go on the mish.

Mom was taking the picture, or else she would have been in it also. :)

David left pretty fast. I think it was a little hard on everyone, but it's good that he went back out. It was the first time that I had ever witnessed a setting apart of a missionary, pretty cool experience. Get to experience it again in about 5 weeks. Eek.

The Lawrence boys can't be serious.

Last but not least I want to say a big

CONGRATULATIONS

to Elliot who was named Lacrosse Magazine's pre-season Player of the Year for his division. Pretty large award, national recognition!

From what I hear he's quite the celebrity down in PTown.

I'm one proud cousin.

Good work Ells.

This is the interview that was TrueBlue. I don't know how to post a YouTube video in here, so here's the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTwcnHGRgdg

holy toledo...

This sucks.
Since just one this afternoon I've been so sick. Out of nowhere, super nasty fever, and have wanted to do nothing but sleep. Not only that but my calves are STILL on fire.
On Thursday, I was at work, and I was going from one floor to the other, and decided to use the stairs because I freaking hate when a person gets in the elevator just to go up or down a single floor. Seriously? Just walk.
Well, on this particular day, I entered the stairwell without my access card. All five of the floors to my office are locked, therefore we need our access cards. I realized I didn't have my access card after it was too late. I went from the seventh floor to the eighth, and then went to the tenth floor hoping (stupidly) that maybe that floor was open because the tenth floor is the only one unlocked to the public.
Of course, the floor to the tenth floor was locked, so that mean all I was left with was going all the way down. I was in the fire escape stairwell which meant that I even after going down ten flights of stairs, and was at ground level, there was no way out. I had to go down four more flights of stairs underground, then ended up in a tunnel...I had NO clue where I was going, there was an exit to a parking lot, but I didn't know what parking lot, or where I was. So I continued to follow the fire exit. I went through the tunnel, then up a long, steep set of stairs. Really, it was the kind of staircase that makes you feel like you're going to fall backward. That was followed by another tunnel and then two more steep flights of stairs. I was so scared the entire time, and was so grateful to get out of there. Not to mention, I was freaking tired.
Anyway, by Thursday night, my legs already hurt from my adventure.
Friday morning, I was on the verge of tears. I have NEVER been that sore in my entire life.
I couldn't walk. I was limping, and every time I would step I had shooting pains through my calves. People made fun of me all day at work. Last night we went to the Monster Truck Rally (which I will post pictures later) and getting up and down the stairs was ridiculous. It hurt so bad.
This morning has been a little better, the more I sit, the more it hurts to get up. My lovely husband has been trying to rub out the pain, but this morning it was just too much. I cried. Literal tears. John told me that he thinks my Achilles is too tight. I don't know if this is normal, but when he flexes his foot, his toes go toward his shin. My foot can not do that. I just can't do it. So he thinks that's my problem. I think I'm just out of shape. Obviously, terribly out of shape because like I said, I have never felt this much pain from exercise.
Hopefully it goes away soon. I'm sure John is sick of my complaining and I'm over this pain.