The Summer of the Millers

Finding inspiration is not a typical goal of mine while watching television. I mean, I've learned some really valuable things, like how to cook chicken feet in twenty minutes, what Hutterites are, or that nerds can actually be really funny. Inspiration for how to live my life is not usually one of those lessons, however.

But luckily for me, I have found a show that teaches valuable life lessons on one of the twenty channels we get on Cougar Cable! For years Seinfeld has been a fond part of my television viewing experience: from watching with my dad so I could stay up just a little bit later, to it becoming a nightly relaxation routine for me and Nate. The gang has brought me some great laughs, good dance moves, and instruction on mostly how not to act when I am an adult. Surprisingly though, George Costanza has brought to my attention a wonderful philosophy I have decided to incorporate into my life:

"This is going to be my time. Time to taste the fruits and let the juices drip down my chin. I proclaim this, the summer of George!!"

I think, what did I do last summer? Did I even do anything fun? When am I going to do the little things that I want to do, that I never actually get around to? Well, my friends, that time is now. Let's do fun things, go on fun adventures, explore while we're here and not bogged down by grades and school and blah. This summer is the summer of us! Why not, right?

Let's play catch up!

It has been 9 entire months since we updated last... and basically an eternity since we've posted anything important or significant. So, we are going to start over and do better at this updating thing.

But first, let's start with a review of the last few months:

September: we started school at BYU for another semester. Nate is studying Public Relations and Lyndsey is studying Public Health (yes, we love the public). Over Labor Day weekend we hung out with my family for a few days before we got back into the grind.

October: We headed to the Cornbellies Festival with our friends for the third year in a row! This was our first "official" date back in October 2009, so it's pretty special to us. It is a great tradition that I love! It always starts with yummmy burgers at Red Robin with a big ol' group of friends. We gorge ourselves until we are stuffed, and then chase each other through the corn maze until we get lost or until we get shooed out by the festival workers.

The first Corbellies 2009... You can't tell here, but we matched almost perfectly that night

We're so excited to go!

November: At this point we're eyeball deep in papers, homework, projects and tests. We took 10 days off for a much needed Thanksgiving break, which was fantastic. We spent time with Nate's family in Boise playing games, going out to delicious restaurants, seeing movies, looking at Christmas trees, eating ourselves into food comas, hanging out with siblings, ya know. All that fun family stuff!

December: It was cold. We finished finals, and it all turned out pretty good! We went to my (Lyndsey's) house in California for Christmas. We did so many fun things over the break! We all went to a Bethlehem program, I guess you could say. A church in the valley always puts on this great event where they turn their big lawn into Bethlehem for a week or so. When you walk in, you get coins made of clay to use as money in the town. While you're there, you can buy food or spices, participate in a traditional dance, barter for goods, and even see the baby Jesus (which is actually a real child). It is a fun way to really learn and experience what Jerusalem was like when Christ was born.

To celebrate our first anniversary, we went to Disneyland! It was soo much fun. We went with Nate's brother Ben and his wife Lindsey and had a blast. Lindsey's family lives just 15 minutes from Disneyland so we were able to spend the night without having to drive too far. Thank goodness, we were so tired from literally running from ride to ride all day. Lindsey is a Disneyland Master! It was great to spend time with them, we wished they lived closer!

During our break, we also went to the beach and enjoyed the nice warm weather, played lots of Just Dance, had yummy dinners with great friends, and of course, OPENED PRESENTS!! Jillian and Alyssa were given two Hermann tortoises, so it was fun to play with them! Dad, Ryan and I went indoor skydiving... SUCH a cool experience! I was a little flail-ish, but managed not to ram myself into the glass wall too much.

The beach on Christmas Eve

Dad, Ry and me. I don't know why I'm frowning...

January: We started school and work again, which isn't as fun as playing all the time but it is nice to be home. We also visited both of our grandparents in St. George over the 3 day weekend. It was great to be warm and spend time with them. Nate started his LSAT preparation course! He takes classes twice a week and has a mock LSAT test every Saturday. He is planning on taking the LSAT in June, so he has about 5 months to prepare for it. His friend Trent is also taking the class, which is great because it gives them some motivation to study and work together, but it also fosters a little bit of competition.

February: My 21st birthday! It was a great day. The day before we ate ourselves sick at Tucano's Brazilian Grill with all the meat, pineapple, fruit, salad, rolls, rice and beans, veggies we could get our hans on. Nate had his LSAT test that morning, so my friends took me out to lunch at Zupa's, which is one of my favorite places in town. Yum!

Me and my friends 

 Then Nate took me to Color Me Mine (another one of my favorite places) where we painted a few masterpieces. Nate painted a monkey mug and I decorated a plate for our kitchen. We came home and opened presents and had homemade ice cream cake (another favorite of mine). Nate bought me beautiful flowers and some shoes I really wanted. I was amazed that he remembered! He is so thoughtful.

March: This was a busy month for us! March 4th was Nate's 24th birthday... he's getting so old! His grandparents took us to Olive Garden for lunch, and then we saw "We Bought A Zoo"-- a great movie that everyone should see at least once. Then they treated us to milkshakes at Arctic Circle- yum. We also went to the Nickelcade, a happening date night found in Orem. It is one of the classic Friday/Saturday night activities in the college town. Sunday was Nate's actual birthday, so we had church, but then had a birthday celebration. He opened the shirt I bought him that he mentioned he had wanted, and had a delicious birthday meal.

I was able to fly out to California for a weekend to see my dad and surprise him for his 50th birthday! He didn't know I was coming and was really taken aback to see me pop in his room and yell at him. I had a good weekend just hanging out with the family, but had to leave after only three days to get back to school.

Three days after I came back, we headed to Boise to see Nate's family for a long weekend. Nate's sister Andrea and her hubby Tyler and their three chilluns live in North Carolina and can't make it out to visit very often. So, when their Christmas present to the kids was to visit Nana and Papa, the family made an affair out of it. All of the siblings and their spouses were able to come visit, and it was great! February and March hold 6 birthdays of the extended Miller Family, so we had a big celebration!   After going out to lunch, we had a fun birthday activity where each birthday person had a team and was given $5 to buy a present for another birthday person. We then had a luau complete with leis, hawaiian haystacks, and a tropical cake for dessert. We exchanged presents and lots of laughs at the silly gifts we found.

Super-Peewee's his royal pose

Trips to the Miller home are always filled with lots of games and lots of yummy treats! Jason taught us how to play Ripple, which is probably my new favorite game!

YUMMMM

April: We finished up school, barely survived through finals, and totally freed up our schedule. Nate had a rough week before finals with several presentations and group projects to finish up. I, on the other hand, had smooth sailing until the last day of class when it felt like I was trying to run through cement. A million test reviews, presentations, and test prep sessions left me exhausted and with only about a day to study for each test. Alas, we survived, and it ended up being my best semester at BYU yet!

After about three days of being done with finals I got really, really bored. I am working 30 hours a week, which still keeps all of my evenings wide open. I made a "Summer Checklist" of things to do before the summer is over. I've made good progress so far!

May: Now that he is done with school, Nate is working and spending nearly all of his free time studying for the LSAT. He is taking it June 11th and trying to absorb everything he can in the last few weeks. He is a trooper! It is seriously not fun to shut yourself in a small room (he goes to the church and studies in an empty classroom) and take tests for hours on end, but he doesn't complain. He actually kind of enjoys studying, which makes it a bit easier. Let's see how he feels come the test day, however.

Chop Chop

I loved having my long hair! It was fun to play with and style such long hair-- it allowed for a lot of experimenting! The time was fast approaching that it needed a trim, and I was putting off making the hair appointment. Getting your haircut in a nice salon is SO expensive! And I wasn't quite ready to splurge for that just yet.

 But, as the summer months got hotter and hotter, I decided I needed a real change...

Change:

a. To cause to be different

b. To give a completely different form or appearance to; transform:

Yep, that's a big change! I chopped it all off! I decided to donate it to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program. They take hair from donations to make wigs for cancer patients.  They give the wigs to the American Cancer Society, who then gives them for free to women who suffer from cancer. It takes about 6 ponytails (at a minimum of 8 inches EACH) to make each wig. It also takes three to four months to make one wig. There is so much put into each wig, I feel like I should donate hair whenever I can to help out.

This is the fourth time I've done the chop-half-my-hair off, and I LOVE doing it. It is so nice to get a fresh start, a new style, and change things up a bit. 

Excuse the wrinkled shirt... I was in the process of getting ready for work when these pictures were being taken.

But I love the new change, Nate loves it, and its great. The summer heat is so much more bearable!

Alterations

When I was in California, my grandma Lynn bought me two super cute dresses, for $10 each! It was a steal and I was really excited to get them. I loved this blue one because I've been looking for a dress with the elastic band connecting the top and skirt. I can never find them that are long enough though! So even though I thought it would be a great one to wear to work because it was modest on top and a light dress, but it was just barely too short. 

I couldn't wear it without altering it, so I needed to change it. I found this great fabric at Joanne's that matched almost exactly! It was not the same type of fabric, but it was pretty stretchy like the rest of the skirt, so it would be restrictive. 

To add length to the skirt:

1. I matched the ends and ironed it so everything would lay flat and even. 

2. I figured I needed another 2 inches at least, so I added another one for good measure (haha sewing humor). I used this ruler to make sure I pinned at the 3 inch mark all the way down.

3. I pinned it down the length of the fabric and matched it to the hem of my dress. 

4. I sewed right above the hem so it would be even and the previous hem wouldn't be seen. And viola! My new dress:

Yay! I love it. And I was so proud of it, I just twirled around the apartment the night I finished it. I love that I have my sewing machine (that my wonderful husband got me for my birthday) and that I can do useful things with it! 

I want to learn more about sewing so I can make clothes for my family and fix modest dresses for my girls! It is such a good skill I can use for the rest of my life. I really like getting something basic, like fabric, and putting it together to make something useful. I feel so accomplished! Hopefully there is more in the future. 

Yogurtland

I work at Yogurtland! I helped open the Orem, Utah store in March of 2011, so I've been working there for just over 4 months. It is actually pretty fun, but I get a little tired of it. I'm a shift leader there, meaning I take the place of the manager when he is gone. I like it for the most part.... I just work long shifts till 1 in the morning, which is pretty rough when I have to get up to work at the Missionary Training Center the next morning. But, it is a good job and I get along with the people I work with. 

Usually Saturday nights are pretty busy, crowded with families out for a treat, teenagers with their friends, and adults out with their dates. Last Saturday was surprisingly busy, without any real break from 6 to 11:30 or so. But what made it extra exciting was our special guest who popped in...

Yep. That's Steve Young, the one and only. Of all 100000 yogurt places in the Provo/Orem area, he and his family came to ours! And I got a picture. Wooo! I felt like such a dweeb asking for a picture, but 1. I had to, and 2. my manager told me we had to get one (we have a picture with Jimmer on our wall, so we're starting a celebrity wall of sorts I suppose). But he was super nice about it and had his mom take the picture for us! 

And, the stinky part- I forgot to wear makeup that day. Oops! But at least I didn't have my visor on.... Then I don't even think I would post this. 

Adventures in B-town

Nate and I were able to go to visit his family in Boise over the 4th of July weekend. It was really fun being able to get away for a few days and hang out with them! It is only the two of them and their youngest, Logan, at home so it is much calmer than my house. We got there after about 6 hours of driving on the middle-of-nowhere roads between Utah and Idaho. 

We entertained ourselves with chatting and talking about whatever popped into our heads. I like road trips for that very reason! I love that we had lots to talk about for hours, on random subjects, just because we can. We're serious, we laugh, speculate, sing, dance, and joke. It's a great ride! But also another great part-- silence isn't awkward. I feel okay not talking sometimes. It's great to have someone to be with and even though you're not talking, you still love being with them. When I was younger I was always afraid I'd get bored of my husband because we'd run out of things to talk about. Granted, we've only been married six months, but I'm glad that I can stop worrying about getting bored with Nate for the next, oh, eternity. Phew! 

Pretty flowers in Idaho City!

We had lots of fun adventures in B-town. Thursday we went to Idaho City. It is an old, rundown mining town with museums, antique shops, historic homes and landmarks, speciality stores. There are probably a total of 300 people in the entire town. It was easy to tell the town is not the hopping place it used to be: every time we walked into a store, the store owners were super excited to see us, talk about their store, show us around, ask us about ourselves, etc. Even though we learned a lot about the mining history of Idaho City, my favorite was this old house we stopped by! 

It was so cool! At first it looked like a junkyard, there were just piles and piles of old stuff! And then we figured out there was some sort of a structure, so we tried to find the door to the store. Wrong. Finally we figured out it was a house that was no longer occupado. So we could only marvel at the doo-dads collected and take some pictures. 

Imagine trying to clean this place!

Awe cute!

 On our way out we stopped at a delicious ice cream shop. They were making homemade waffle cones, the scent just caught me so I couldn't think of any other kind of food. So we had waffle cone ice creams for lunch. Yum!

Friday we went to Municipal Park and played all day! Jason and Chantelle came with us, which was super fun! I was glad they joined us for the day. We put up a badminton net and played with this huge birdie and tennis rackets. Thankfully, it was less embarrassing than it could have been for me. We also played football and frisbee and went to the Nature park! We saw some animals, bugs, nature scenes. I got some great pictures! I love taking pictures of things outside, well, mostly flowers and trees. They don't move or make funny faces or run away like other things can.

Jason and Chantelle!

Fish pond at the park

Love daisies!

On Sunday we got to hang out and just played games with Nate's parents. We played Rummikub and a game where you guess everyone's favorite out of a hand of cards dealt to you--kind of like Apples to Apples but you pick their favorite instead of what they would think is funniest. Monday we mostly spent the morning getting ready to leave and hanging out with the family. We got back in Provo around 7ish and were tired of being in the car. We didn't really get see fireworks, mostly because we were tired and didn't care all that much! What a festive 4th of July!

Our Green Thumbs

We have started a little garden on our balcony, and we love it! It is so exciting and fulfilling to see the growth and change that has happened in the five weeks since we planted it. It took us a long time to get started: we wanted to wait until after finals, then after it got warm, then we couldn't decide what to plant, then finally we just found an afternoon where we had time and did it! We started out with strawberries, beets, sweet peppers, and peas.

The first day!

We kind of cheated with a strawberry start, but we have heard it is so hard to get strawberries to grow from seeds. I figure, we are beginners, so its okay to take all the help we can get. When we left for California, we only had a few little sprouts. While we were gone, it seemed that everything woke up from a deep slumber and decided to grow a little bit!

After we got back, we had a Relief Society Activity about self-reliance/the Law of the Harvest and at the end of the lesson we had them plant seeds as an illustration for "that which ye sew ye shall also reap." There I got a green pepper plant and a tomato plant (which, neither of us are crazy about tomatoes, but figured maybe we would eat them if they were home grown?). The green pepper plant was a little sad at first, but then a flower started to form! A good sign! However, all of the leaves whithered and fell off, probably not a good sign. So hopefully they are doing well and will pull through! The tomato plant could not have been more opposite! It is like we flipped a switch and all of a sudden it just sprung out of it's shell and grew to more than 2 feet tall!

the Newbies: green pepper and tomato plants

Our booming strawberry bush

Our sad squished beets

Sweet peppers finally poking out!

Sweet peas are just shooting out!

We're in Boise visiting Nathan's family, so hopefully our little garden doesn't shrivel up at our absence. And I had already started this while at home, don't worry I'm not that obsessed with getting this thing posted on all the time. I just wanted to finish when we had a bit of down time!