SPRING! :D

"In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours." Did Mark Twain live in Salt Lake? Because the weather in April, May, and June this year has been alllll over the place! Geez, Utah, make up your mind! It is June 19th. I wore a coat today. Not cool.

Anyway.

APRIL

Started off with a visit from my dad (from Hong Kong) and my brother, sister-in-law, and niece (from Indiana) for Conference weekend! We schooled my dad repeatedly at card games, ate lots of good food, and I personally spent most of my time drooling over cute Minnie! Minnie also met her cousin Elliot for the first time, and in true Minnie fashion just sat there and stared at her while Elliot poked and kicked and played with her.

April also hosted one of our only double dates EVER. We are hermits sort of so this is a big deal. It was with our friends Julie and Leo. Julie and I are in the same semester in nursing school and met that way, and Nelson and Leo graduated from the business school at the same time and they knew each other that way. It took us forever to figure out the connection. The best part is that they will be moving to San Jose with us when Julie and I graduate in December since Leo and Nelson somehow ended up working for the same company, in the same office even, after graduation. SO nice to know someone before we even get there! Love them.

We made each other out of candy - here is everyone with their candy selves. Notice that Leo apparently thinks Nelson has a huge muffin top! (This continues to haunt him. Paranoia.)

We spent Easter with Nelson's family. Love them! I got to join in the tradition of lining up in order of ascending height to run into the living room for the Easter egg hunt. Although actually Preston totally squirmed his way in front of me! Maybe it's order of ascending age... ?? And I think Josh got in front of the line too (he's definitely not the shortest or the youngest)... BOYS. Meanwhile, Nelson had a grand ol' time making up his OWN tradition... THE EASTER PIRATE. We still don't know what the Easter Pirate does... but here's a picture. ? :)

The winter semester FINALLY came to a close, and my nursing semester had a huge sleepover in one of the girls' cabin in Midway to commemorate our last real didactic semester! In the fall we'll all be doing capstone at different hospitals and hardly see each other, so it was a much needed celebration. We played pin the needle in the bootie, guess which faculty member was taped on your back, which was HILARIOUS in many cases (thus the name tags... we didn't wear actual name tags...), and beat a pinata representing all the things we hate about nursing school. Oh, and also I was introduced to Wii dancing and I don't know how I lived my whole life without it. *If you own this game, please invite me over.*

And last but certainly not least, we celebrated Wendy's wedding! (Nelson's sister) So exciting! We spent the day before the wedding making sure everything was in order.

Last minute touch ups on the dress. Beautiful!

Brooke, Julie, and I waited and chatted outside. Fun to get some girl time in.

Then we had the immediate family wedding dinner that night and Wendy asked Nelson to make her a cake for the occasion. I guess as kids they would always make each other extravagant cakes out of funfetti mix... SO we did our best to make a Lake Powell cake! It turned out SO well...

Despite our preventative measures, the cakes wouldn't come out of the pans.

Kennedy and Preston weren't too upset about it.

So we did what any respectable person would do in this situation. Combine the crumbles from both pans, smear the frosting on top with our fingers, and add a lego boat.

Pretty! It says "Happy Wedding" in case you can't tell...

Do you see the Lake Powell resemblance?

Luckily, they laughed. The funny thing was that a lot of people still ate it...

The wedding day itself was perfect!

Aren't they cute?

The rest of the time we just enjoyed being with family!

I love this picture: Liam, Gianna, and Josh are all getting piggy backed to lunch from the temple grounds by Kennedy, Brad, and I. Classic.

And then... we finally bought kitchen chairs, a couch, and a washer and dryer for our apartment (eight months later...) and then April ended. Yippy.

March: The Worst Month Ever and How I Almost Ended Up in Jail

March. March March March. Waaaas the bane of my existence. Which explains why as I was looking through my pictures to make this blog post, I only found two pictures from the entire month (which I will proudly display). Whoops! Let's recap.

1. SO, I decided late in February that I was going to take the LPN test so I could make a little more money and get a little better experience before I get my RN license in December. So I'm sending out resumes like crazy, trying to see what the LPN job market is like whilst I study for the exam, assuming that I wouldn't possibly get an offer before I could pass the test. Fortunately and unfortunately, I was wrong. I got a random interview for a position that I assumed I wouldn't qualify for since I didn't even have my test scheduled yet technically, but I thought I may as well get some interviewing experience in the meantime. Turns out I got the job. So... I found myself with an LPN job with no LPN license. (In my defense, I told them I hadn't passed the test yet.) As great as that was, it meant I had to speed up my study schedule by at least double to pass the test as soon as possible. I ate, drank, and slept LPN study materials while still trying to juggle my normal school assignments. It was DEATH! I stayed up til the wee hours of the morning every single night for 3 weeks straight, and then woke up in the still wee hours of the morning to keep going. I went through over 2,000 practice questions and read three entire text books. FINALLY, I took the darn thing and luckily passed. Yay. But meanwhile....

2. This great job offer that pays really well, would be great experience, is flexible with my school schedule, etc etc is on the line, and they need a background check. No big deal, right? One would think that, but one would be wrong. So I go get my background check for them on Friday. Wellllll Sunday comes along and Nelson and I decide to take a leisurely stroll to our mailbox to see what new wedding announcement and utilities bills are bound to be waiting for us. Nelson gets the letters out and gets a funny look on his face. Turns out I have a strange letter from the government... perhaps it has to do with taxes? NOPE. What else could it be but a WARRANT out for my ARREST with NOOO explanation of what in the world it was about! I was freeeeaking out! Not only was there a warrant out for my arrest, but this job was on the line. Worst timing EVER. I was about to fail my background check AND not have a license yet... not good for business. Plus, it was on a weekend so we had to wait until MONDAY to call and find out what it was for. Turns out it was over a car accident I got in THREE years ago! (I rear ended someone in my mom's minivan a week before my mission... whoops.) So I guess my insurance company never sent them the right paperwork, and noooo one ever thought it would be a good idea to TELL ME THAT. WHAT THE HECK PROVO. No, no, you're right. IT'S A MUCH BETTER IDEA TO TELL ME EVERYTHING IS TAKEN CARE OF, THEN IGNORE IT FOR THREE YEARS, AND THEN ARREST ME. Yeahhhhh. I spent my entire Monday going back and forth between Provo courts and insurance companies and other stupid stupid things. Don't worry about it Provo, it's not like I had a million tests coming up on top of my LPN test that I had to study on overtime for. I toootally had PLNETY of time and energy and mental capacity to deal with this. BAH. In the end everything worked out, but it was probably the most stressful week of 2011 (thus far at least...). So, in honor of how AWESOME Provo is, we decided to frame my arrest warrant and hang it up in our room next to Nelson's diploma. I think it looks classy, don't you?

Well, there is much much more about March to complain about, like the fact that they held our state tax refund back as bail and didn't give it back for two months and when they did finally give it back they mailed it to the wrong address even though they seemed to know our address perfectly well when they wanted to ARREST me and I had to go to some random person's BYU apartment and ask if they had a letter from the government for Lauren Hillam OR the fact that I had 5 MAJOR tests in two weeks for school while all the rest of this was going on, BUT... I can be done being a Debbie Downer for now I suppose. Luckily, I have the best husband in the world who was amazing and supportive and made me dinner every night and let our apartment get dirty without complaining. Thanks, Nels.

There was ONE saving grace in March's defense: my bestest buddy Tiffany came to Utah for a wedding and I got to spend an entire weekend reminiscing about the good ole' days, eating BBQ, shopping at the outlets, and swooning over her adorable child. And that is my one, single legitimate picture for the whole month. Touche.

(Nelson and I, Tiff and her hubs Danny and their cute daughter Ava. Yay for old friends!)

Goodbye, March.

February: People Don't Notice Whether It's Winter or Summer When They're Happy

Since I'm still in catch up mode, I didn't feel like making a million posts for February... so here is our February in a nutshell! It started out with a celebration of our 6 month month-aversary. I would say anniversary, but Jeff and Alisha have nicely pointed out that anniversary denotes years, so that actually doesn't make any sense, and I don't know a better word for a celebration of six months. Anyone know one? Well, we went to The Roof in downtown SLC on February 6 because the Joseph Smith Memorial Building gave us two vouchers for two meals each for having our wedding reception there. I think it was a mistake - they probably only meant to give us one, but since we had two we decided to use them on our 6 month month-aversary and our one year anniversary! Pretty sweet set up. We had a wonderful time drinking mango and raspberry lemonades, devouring the best rolls in the state, eating prime rib, and gazing into each others' eyes and being in love.

Ze Roof

Being in wove

(It's ok, we're married.)

Then came Valentine's Day. It turns out that Valentine's Day is actually a pretty fun holiday when you actually have a Valentine! (Twas a rare occasion for some of us... don't judge.) Sooo I thought it was only appropriate to make pink waffles for breakfast! Yum. Now I just need to get my hands on a heart shaped waffle maker for next year... I know they exist because my freshman roommate Laura had one that we used every Sunday back in the day... maybe I'll just hunt her down and steal it in her sleep. She'll never suspect me.

DON'T I HAVE THE CUTEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD???????

Look at that face... all dressed up in his little work clothes... with his little fork...

And theeeen... toward the end of the month, we decided it was time to try to make our own bread. I'd never made bread before in my life, or even thought about it, but I did watch a lot of amazing Croatian women do it and found a fool-proof recipe on allrecipes.com which made it pretty easy.

Look, it wasn't a total disaster. Miracles do happen, after all.

And it was about time, because I was getting really tired of trying every brand of

whole wheat bread in the grocery store and never being pleasantly surprised with it.

So now we just make it and freeze it.

And this is my laptop with my dad in Hong Kong - we were torturing him with our fresh-out-of-the-oven bread during our Sunday chat. He was not too happy about that. Heh heh heh. Sucker.

We made a Croatian creation out of it: stuffed sandwiches. Well, I'm sure it's not JUST Croatian, but that's where I first ate one! Just pull out the inside of the loaf, mix it with whatever's in your fridge, and stuff it back in with some lettuce and tomatoes. We used cottage cheese, feta cheese, mustard, green peppers, olives, salt and pepper, tomatoes... and I don't remember what else. Nuts maybe. So good. You should try it.

And, of course, we had to join in the Jimmer-mania.

I think my favorite poster from the season said, "Upstate New York changes the world... again!"

Go Cougars!

Jordan's Farewell

In January, Nelson's little brother Jordan left on a mission to Germany! We were sad to see him go, but SO happy too! We are so proud of him! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the night he was set apart - and the last time we'll see him for two years!

OK, actually, this is a picture from November when Jordan received his endowments in the Salt Lake Temple. I forgot to put them in my November blogging so I though this was a good place to add them in. :) Ya know... mission prep. Anyway, as Nelson would say, this is a picture of "the first litter."

And one of the whole fam! Well, everyone who could be there.

We missed Brooke and the boys!

Also, I missed the "YOU ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO WEAR BLACK" memo. Oops...

Nelson and Jordan, lookin' classy.

So it turned out a little blurry, butt I couldn't resist adding this one in.

(Who got my joke? Anyone?)

Brothers don't shake hands. Brothers gotta hug!

In order of ascending height.

And last but not least, here is some brotherly advice that Nelson and Preston had for Jordan. They were being really funny and then got all camera shy when they realized I was filming... OF COURSE. If you can't understand them, Preston told him to wear clean socks everyday even though sometimes he won't want to. :) Nelson told him "3%... you'll figure it out later." I have no idea what that means.... ANYWAY! Bye Elder Wittwer!

I Love To See The Temple

The best thing to happen to us in January was our new church calling to be temple workers! Because of our work schedules, we have to work different shifts (disappointing), but we are both loving it. We feel pretty lucky at the opportunity and know that so many good things have come into our lives as a direct result. In fact, it seems like EVERY good thing in our lives is a direct result of the temple. So, here's a tribute to a few of our favorite temples:

Hong Kong Temple

This is the temple I went through before I left on my mission in 2008.

And a picture of me and my mom at the temple together for the first time!

Salt Lake Temple

Obviously our favorite because we got married and sealed here for time and allllll eternity. Also the temple Nelson went through before his mission in 2005.

Rome, Italy Temple

This is just a picture of the plans for this temple - it's still under construction. It made the list of favorites because it is the temple that will serve Croatia! (Mission-land) I am so excited to have a temple that much more accessible to those amazing people.

For example, these people :)

Preston, England Temple

This was the temple in Nelson's mission - it was right next to the MTC he went to.

They only got to go once a year and Nelson has a lot of great memories there.

Jordan River, Utah Temple

Last but not least, this is the temple we get to work at nowadays.

And this is us outside of it on a snowy Saturday morning! Joy :)