A Proud Friend!

There have been a lot of graduations going on. My cousin Chelsea and her husband just graduated from Weber State. They made it and could not be more happy to be done. Now Chelsea can be with her son Jackson more!
Also one of my very best friends graduated with her Doctor of Pharmacy. I am so proud of her. The last little bit was rough and she wanted to quit many time, but she stuck through it. I am so happy she did. She is going to be a great pharmacist. Even though she is graduated she still is not done studying. She still has to take 2 boards to be able to "officially be a pharmacist." However, no more school!
Ryan and I went up to her graduation since I felt this was a pretty big deal and really wanted to be there for her. We sat with her husband Kerry and his family. You should have heard us yell "Great Job Michelle" when they called her name. Everyone heard us and were very impressed. We just wanted her to know how proud we were of her.

Here she is! She absolutely loved her gown too. (Not really, but it is something to be proud of!)

Proud friends of the graduate

Michelle and Kerry (the man that helped her through it all)

I am so so so very happy for you Michelle! You made it! Good luck with your tests! I am sure you will do great! Just remember what I told you, "This is something you can brag about your whole life."

Good day!

Today is going to be a good day! I have not seen Ryan since Tuesday morning before I left to work. He is coming home today and I could not be more excited! It is awful when he is gone. I hate being alone. Everything is so quite. I just turn on the TV for some kind of noise. I also do NOT sleep well at all without him in bed with me. It is not a good thing. I just need to get over it I know, but I just love him so much. I hate being away from him.
He is such a great husband. Michelle is graduating from Pharmacy school. (I will post about that later.) It is such a huge accomplishment in her life I want to be there for her. So Ryan is making sure he will be home to go to that with me. He is so good. This weekend will be a good weekend because I get to see my husband! And I get to see Michelle. I do not get to see her enough! Congrats Michelle on getting through Pharmacy School!

Love

"Falling in love is easy, but staying in love is something special."

I love this quote! I think it is very true. There are so many divorces that go on every day. It is very sad to me. I wish everyone could have someone that would work at keeping their love alive. However, we all have our own challenges and that might just be something that that person has to go through. Falling in love is easy. You can fall in love when you are 5 years old (well at least you think you are in love). However, when you truly love someone that love will never fade. It is something that has to be nourished everyday. It is not the easiest thing, but if it was easy then it would not be as special.

I am so grateful I have a husband that works with me at keeping our love alive. We have the same goals and we work towards them. I fell in "love" with him the minute I met him, but I had NO idea I could honestly feel the way I do for him right now. It is SOMETHING SPECIAL. We have known each other for 10 years now and I still will get butterflies when I see him. I still love getting hugs from him. I still love when he holds my hand. I still love when he cuddles with me. I can't wait to see him after work each day. I love when we go out on dates together. I just love HIM.

I Love you Ryan!

Where is Spring?!

Today it is snowing! WHAT!!!! On Saturday it was beautiful and warm outside. It felt like Spring! You think that I would get used to the whole tease with great weather and then the whole snow storm. I happens EVERY year! Last week Ryan took pictures of flowers that started coming up in our yard. It makes me even more excited for Spring! I think I have mentioned that I love flowers. I love these pictures! Ryan did such a great job!





Two weeks ago I took Friday off just to relax and be with Ryan. I caught up on sleep and we had fun just being with each other! He got me a surprise! He got me bands to go on each side of my wedding ring!

Just my wedding ring

With the bands

I love how different it looks! I love it by itself, but if I want something completely different I love it with the bands! Thanks honey!

I also dyed my hair really dark. It has actually faded a lot since I dyed it. I have enjoyed the change. I also cut bangs. So completely different, but fun! I have been so busy with work the camera has not been out much. However, I went to the Scrapbook expo this last weekend with my mom, cousin, and aunt. We got some really great deals! Yay for good deals! I took pictures because I wanted to show Ryan what goes on INSIDE the expo. So I finally got a picture of me with my new hair.

A booth at the expo. All fragrances inspired by Twilight.

Tables full of people working on scrapbooks

Me showing Ryan that it is not just me that loves scrapbooking.

My hair used to be one to two shades darker. It actually is starting to look kind of red. I did not even put a hint of red in it!

Blogging Slacker

I keep thinking I will do better with the whole blogging thing. I have been working so so so much. Even when I am home I think about work. It has consumed my life. Good thing I love what I do or else that would make life awful. (However, it would be nice to have a break from work and my thoughts of work.) Ryan has been busy doing different projects. Here is what has been going on since my last post.

We went snow shoeing with Michelle, Kerry, Kerry's brother and mom, and my dad. It was a lot of fun. I would do it again for sure. I do not get to see Michelle that much so any chance I get is a wonderful treat! Love ya Miss!
The whole gang

Ryan

Michelle and I

Valentines Day was great. Ryan sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and sent them to me on Friday at work. I love flowers so this just made my day. On Valentines Day we went to the Open House of the Draper Temple. It is a very pretty temple. It is pretty small. That was a lot of fun. I forgot a camera so that made me pretty mad. While we were down in Draper we went to Ikea to pick up some cabinets that we are putting in our living room. (Ryan's current project, pictures coming) Then we came home and decided to build a fire and have takeout by the fire. We had Chinese by a fire that my wonderful husband built for me. Then we had fondue. It was so yummy! I am a chocolate lover! I took pictures of us, but I did not like ANY of them. So you get pictures without us in them.

The flowers Ryan sent to me

Having fondue by the fire!

As you can see the fireplace is being framed around. Ryan is redoing the fireplace. He has his own company doing cultured stone so we are putting his rock on it and putting the TV above it and storage behind it. I am really excited because all of the cords and everything are going to be hidden and we are going to have a nice fireplace. Here are some pictures of the progress. I will put up a picture after it is done.

Before
What we found behind the rock in front

Starting to frame it

The pipes are to keep all the cords together and hidden

Redoing the shelving on the side of the fire place and put up a cabinet

Shelving started behind the fireplace to put media in it
Starting the new shelves off to the side of the fireplace

Since Valentines day we have just been working really hard. Ryan's company is keeping him busy and I have being working over 40 hours since before Christmas. It has been crazy busy at my work and it just does not slow down. So Ryan and I love the time we can have with each other.

Shoes

It has always been sort of a dream to own my own shoe store. It was a dream that I never even thought to go towards, but my husband is not like that. He thinks that if you have an idea/dream you should try it. (No we did not open a shoe store) However, we have started buying wholesale shoes and selling them here and there. I do not have a ton, but we are going to sale one shoe at a time and work towards one day possibly opening a shoe store. I have pictures of the shoes I already purchased. I am working on getting a couple more. If you are interested in any just let me know. They are priced really low. I feel that is what we need in today's world. I am going to be sending out brochure type things as soon as I get a couple more shoes.

Elma

I love this one!


Great


Within

We also have these earrings

Bell

Jodie

The Holidays!

I am so bad at blogging lately. I sit at a computer all day and when I get home the last thing I want to do is touch a computer! So here I am posting on my blog finally. It is long. Sorry!

Visiting Ryan's dad
We started out the Christmas season by going to San Diego and visiting Ryan's dad. We got there at like 5 on Friday. We ate pizza and visited with his dad and Dawn. The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo. This is the first time we had been there. (If I have been there I don't remember.) It was quite cold in San Diego that weekend so we had to bundle up. There were a lot of active animals though. It was really fun. Then we went to Outback Steakhouse! YUM! The next day we went Christmas shopping with them and then we went to Seaport Village. In San Diego they do a Christmas light parade with boats on the water. It was really cold and I completely forgot to bring a blanket. So it was quite cold. However, it was really cool to see all the lights on the boats. There were also people canoeing. They also had lights on their canoes. It was fun. The next morning we left to go home. This is the adventure began.
This weekend was the weekend that the whole US was getting hit with winter storms. It was raining so hard in California. The was standing water all over the freeway. I saw more wrecks while driving in California than I have ever seen in one day. We actually were following a car and it started hydroplaning and flew across the freeway and bounced off the middle barrier and then luckily slid to the side and landed right side up. That was just in California.
As we got closer to home it did not get an better. We went through St. George and there was snow! It was crazy. Then we got to the worst spot of all, in between St. George and Cedar City. It was snowing so bad and the worst part about it was we were in a rear wheel drive car. Basically, it was awful. Remaining in control of the car and keeping up enough speed, but not too much was tricky. Luckily Ryan is the best driver ever! We were planning on just staying in Cedar City that night and just wait out the storm. When we got to Cedar City we asked a few people about what the storm was supposed to do. Everyone told us that it was supposed to get worse and that we more than likely already went through the worst. So we headed out again. There were a few really bad spots again, but we made it. We did not get home until 3:30 in the morning. It was a very long day for us.

Steinfeldt Family Cabin and Anderson Christmas Party
The following weekend we went to my family's cabin. Ryan went sledding with all the guys and my sister braved the cold. I was being a sissy. I liked being warm in the cabin. We played games and just relaxed. On Saturday we all got our presents from grandma and Santa came. It is so fun seeing all the kids get so excited to see Santa. I just love it. That night we went to bed and our family is getting really big so there are not a lot of room for people to sleep. Therefore we went to sleep on an air mattress. By 2 am we were in a V with our heads high, our bums on the floor, and our feet high. It was awful. It was a very long night. So at like 4 in the morning we let all the air out and slept on the floor. We looked at the bright side of things and realized that we did not have to put down our bed in the morning.
Every year on the Sunday we are up at the cabin every family puts together an ornament that reflects that year. It is quite fun to see what everyone comes up with. This year my mom's side of the family had their Christmas party that same Sunday. So we had to leave kind of early to get to that party on time. It was a lot of fun. We played a candy bar game where you pick a candy bar, but it can be stolen from you. Ryan and I ended up doing pretty well. We make such a great team.

San Diego, Cabin, Anderson Christmas Party, and Christmas Eve Pictures

Christmas
We had a great first Christmas as a married couple. It was very busy though, but a ton of fun. On Christmas Eve we went to Ryan's grandma and grandpa's house. We had a wonderful dinner and then Aunt Kim did a little performance to the tune of a country song, but put her own words to it about family traditions. It was so fun. Then the kids did their gift exchange. I love watching kids open gifts. They get so excited. Then the kids went and played with their toys and the parents played a game of White Elephant. It was very exciting. Ryan ended up with a $25 gift card to Home Depot. He was very excited. I got a door gym and an exercise ball with a DVD. I have no excuse for not being in shape now. After all that it was time to go. We went up to my parents real quick to open our Christmas pajamas. We do it every year. This year was a little different because they were from my Grandma and Grandpa Anderson, instead of from mom and dad. Then we went back home.
Ryan's mom always opened presents on Christmas Eve. Both of her parents are German and in Germany Saint Nick comes around on Christmas Eve and gives the gifts to the kids right then and there, instead of leaving them under the tree after they went to bed. So Ryan's family did that when they all grew up. (Of course when they were kids Santa would come during the middle of the night and they would open the presents on Christmas.) So we decided that we would continue that tradition on. While we don't have kids we will open presents on Christmas Eve, then when we have kids Santa will come! We did not go to bed until about 12:30 or 1. It was a long night, but extremely fun!
The next morning we got up at like 8:30 and went to my parents house. We opened presents with my family. It was quite funny because all of the kids bought my mom a digital picture frame and I really wanted one. Well my parents got me one. I was so excited. (Actually I got one from Ryan's dad also. The one he gave me is littler so I am going to bring that to work and leave the other one at home!) Every year on Christmas my family has omelets so of course we had omelets. We just relaxed until we went on base with Ryan's family and had a delicious Christmas lunch. We spent Christmas evening hanging out and relaxing at my parents house.

New Years
On New Years Eve we went to my family's house. We played air hockey, darts, fuss ball, and "Would You Rather?". Would You Rather is pretty funny! Alex (my sister's boyfriend) won. Ryan, Alex, and my dad had to do pretty funny challenges. I took quite of few pictures of them doing the challenges. Ryan's nephew came over also. He liked playing the Wii the best. At midnight we of course gave each other a New Year's kiss.

Christmas and New Year's Eve Pictures