Monday, March 25, 2013

Newly Wed Game

Last night we had a couples potluck/game night. It was a lot of fun! The food was every word you can think of for delicious, (so much so we all took pictures with our iPhones of the recipe) we had Chicken Taco Pie. It might have been the extra chilli powder Rian put in the pot or our growling stomachs that made it taste so yummy.

After dinner we played the Newly Wed Game.

Rules: Everyone gets pieces of paper and a pen. There are questions you will answer either about yourself or about your spouse. For each question you get right there's a point given to the team. NO CHEATING (no eyebrow raising, mouth twitching, or winks to signal answers). This is a game about how well you know your spouse.

Contestants:
1. Wilhite's: 8-9 months of marriage, Rian is loud and Cari is quiet.
2. Seegmiller's: 9-10 months of marriage, Stephen and Megan were once asked, "What kind of nerds are you??"
3. Beck's: 3 years of marriage no kids, Cassandra has "The Look" down pat! John gives her a lot of practice
4. Challis': 7-8 months of marriage, Melissa (me) is the enforcer, Josh is the rebel.

We had about 20 rounds (questions). Here are a few examples:

1. Wife: If you were a Disney Princess who would you be? Beck's guessed correctly (one of the few) CINDERELLA (John says because of her two sister....more info was not given haha)

2. Wife: What is the most annoying habit about your spouse? Wilhite's did NOT guess correctly but Cari said Rian being loud and he said not cleaning up after himself

3. Wife: My husband is the best at ______ and the worst at ______? Challis' got it right CUDDLER, CLEANING

4. Husband: What will your first child's name be (bonus if you get the middle name too?  Seegmiller's agreed on Luke Stephen and Emma Riley (They even know their second son's name! That's teamwork right there)

5. Husband: When was the last time you stayed up past midnight other than going to the ER, pharmacy or grocery store? Seegmiller's went to a concert however the date was not specified and Stephen was holding Megan up most of the time because she was falling asleep (Can't keep a teacher up on a school night!!)

6. Husband: What was your spouse wearing on your first date? Wilhite's couldn't even agree on what was the first date needless to say Cari said work clothes and Rian said a jacket!!!

7. Wife: If there is ONE thing that belongs to your spouse that you could get rid of, what would it be? Challis' wrote down their answer immediately....SCUFFY (aka Josh's cat, I'm still working on my genius plan)

8. Husband: What is your spouse's favorite flower? Beck's got it! John said Gerber Daisies (which are her least favorites and SHE GAVE HIM THE LOOK), he smiled big and responded, "Peonies" and then she smiled in relief.
Final Score:
Seegmiller's WIN IT with a high score of 15
Challis' followed with a close 13
Beck's tried their best and came back from 0 to an impressive 7
Wilhites trailed behind with a 5 (I suggest some practice for the next time we play lol)

We had a great time with some wonderful friends while enjoying getting to know each other a bit more.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

What do YOU do for fun?

Josh and I are in a rush to get everything paid off so that we can enjoy life and as he says "get out of the rat race". So we are paying off his school loans (which shouldn't take more than 4-5 months). We then want to pay off our cars as well. Dave Ramsey calls it the Snowball Effect and it really works. We have already paid a few other things off and are well on our way to enjoying more of our money the way we want to.

POINT IS: We need ideas of what to do around Dallas that is free (or very little cost)!!!

We usually have date night once a week but we run out of ideas. Please help us fill our calendar by giving us ideas on what to do. 

I've listed a few suggestions that came to mind:

1. Work out (I got a free 7 day pass to 24 hour fitness)
2. Picnics (when the weather cooperates, Texas is very fickle one day it's sunny the next it's pouring rain)
3. Walks around our apartment complex (There isn't great scenery around our place, mostly road construction! When will 183 be finished??)
4. Attend the temple (It's a pretty long drive which means a lot of gas but it's one that we try and make at least once a month)
5. Watch movies at home (we are pretty frequent to Redbox, I get weekly texts from them giving me $0.50 off my rentals)


Can you think of any?

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Yeeeehaaaaw!!!

This past weekend Josh (and I) drove down to Houston to spend the weekend with family. (Josh hardly ever likes to be in the passenger seat!) We got tickets to go to the Houston Livestock and Rodeo which also included a concert by Luke Bryan.

We got to Houston right around dinner time (perfect because of course my mom made my favorite: Lasagna).  We sat and talked for an hour or so. Our family conversations usually consist of poking fun at one another (it's how we say I love you). Josh fits in quite nicely, although he hasn't poked at anyone else except me and on occassion, my little sister, Giselle. Later that night my cousing Priscilla aka Prissy and her friend Taleen arrived as well. It was almost midnight when we went to bed and Josh had to be up early the next morning to go play soccer with my dad. (Something he was NOT looking forward to because he's not that great at it). My dad basically wanted to show off because he's great at soccer.

The boys played soccer while we got ready for the rodeo. I did sneak in some kolaches that morning from Kolache Factory (a MUST whenever in Houston). Josh walked in looking like a beat up pinata! He could already feel his aching muscles giving out. So finally around 11AM we headed out to the rodeo. It was a pleasantly sunny day with a light wind to keep us cool. We of course ate as soon as we got there. Who comes to the rodeo for anything but the FOOD?? We ate BBQ of course. I couldn't decide on what desert I wanted afterwards there were so many to pick from (candy apples, fried oreos, fried cookie dough on a stick, shaved ice, etc).

We walked around the expo area where we came across boots, hats, jewlery, purses, mattresses, trucks, tractors, cows, chicks, camels (not sure why they were there??). My dad ended up buying a massage chair which was amazing!! (Can't wait to try that baby out for more than 2 minutes!!) Finally around 3:30 PM we made our way to the top of the Reliant to see the rodeo. My favorite is the bull riding and mutton bustin (little kids ride sheep to see how long they can hold on, it's the sweetest thing).

Luke Bryan was pretty cool during the 3 songs I knew lol The sound guys weren't doing their job so it was hard to understand what he was saying since his band was drowning him out. I enjoyed Brad Paisley a lot more last year. After the concert I was starving so we got a turkey leg for 12 bucks haha soooo delicious!!

It's a great tradition we have started all because Josh wanted to ask for my hand in marriage!! We celebrated one year that he nervously asked my father for my hand in marriage. It was an awesome weekend.

FYI: Josh has been walking with a stick up his butt for about 4 days and counting. Ohhh the joys of discovering your age and that you're out of shape.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Freaky Friday

I woke up this morning hitting the snooze button about 20 times! I have an alarm at 6:45, 7:00 and 7:15 yet somehow I dragged my butt out of bed around 7:38AM. So much for alarms. Anyways as I was getting ready for work I began thinking about the dream I had just had. When all of a sudden Josh interrupted my thoughts as he awoke. SPOILER ALERT -I am crabby in the morning. I hate mornings. Mostly because I'm forced to get out of bed before I want to and because it takes me an hour to adjust to being awake so it's best to stay away from me or.....you get this!!!






We said good morning and I went back to getting ready. (He knows the drill by now). Anyways he starts to ease into conversation and tells me he had a dream about us getting married again! GASP!! (don't worry it's a good gasp). I responded, "I had a dream about us getting married too and we were in Mexico and you got to meet all of my family". Most of my extended maternal relatives have not met just other than through pictures and one quick Skype call. His dream on the other hand included us being out in the ocean. I'm surprised he didn't Ninja attack some giant 10-legged octupus trying to kill us or something, Josh is usually the Hero in his dreams.

This freakiness reminded me of when we first started dating and nine days into it we both were having a conversation on the couch discovering that we had both looked up wedding rings earlier throughout the day(something neither of us had ever done during courtship with anyone else).

"Great minds think alike"

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Star Struck

This past Sunday, Josh and I were able to attend a Church Educational System devotional during which a speaker discusses a religious topic for about an hour. Usually it is attended by youth of our church or young single adults. Seeing as how Josh and I are neither but we still desired to go our bishop gave us tickets.

Elder Bednar and his wife came to Dallas, Texas this past weekend in hopes of enlightening the minds of many young Latter-day Saints. It was held at Texas Hall, University of Texas Arlington as to accommodate the large multitude.

Josh and I were so excited to go that we got ready about an hour and a half before the devotional and headed out the door. Except, we were met with opposition! A FIRE of all things! No, don't worry not in our apartment but one nearby which had fire trucks, hoses, and police officers blocking off our only exit! FRUSTRATED was an understatement. Good thing we have friends that love us and they saved us two seats 7 rows from the front.



We finally got there with enough time to chat and catch up with a few old friends. Some of our friends like Elise Crawford sang in the choir which was amazing to hear. Sister Bednar spoke first and warmed our hearts as Elder Bednar followed with such motivating and kind words. His main message was to not shrink in the face of trials. (you can read the entire Message yourself, I strongly suggest it). My favorite quote states, "strong faith in the Savior is submissively accepting of His will and timing in our lives — even if the outcome is not what we hoped for or wanted". This is exactly what I needed to hear at the time even though I have heard it before, it's a great reminder.

After the devotional we got in line to say hello and shake the hand of one of the apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was an experience I will never forget especially because of how good it made me feel to be part of such a wonderful church.

After the devotional we went to a friends house to hang out and catch up. We rarely get to see our single friends now a days. I guess when you get married that means most of the single's don't think to invite you to come hang out anymore lol

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Run in with the law

I believe it was our second or third date and Josh was pretty excited...I mean so excited that we made it 100 yards out of the apartment complex and he was being pulled over. He claims he was playing with the radio and wasn't paying attention to how fast he was going. I had seen the cop first and didn't say anything figuring he had seen the cop as well. The cop gave him a ticket and we were on our way. It was the kind of experience you can only laugh to get through and so I did. Josh seemed a bit embarrassed but I still liked him.

If my life were a movie, the audience would have realized that those red flashing lights would have foreshadowed what was to come. 1 year and 1 month later we are at 7 speeding tickets and counting....

I have been lucky enough to witness 2 of those tickets. Josh is polite and takes his tickets gracefully, knowing full well he is at fault. He never gets warnings or even asked why he was speeding. They take one look at him ask for license and registration and come back with a ticket. He must have an invisible sign on his car that says "I SPEED FOR A LIVING".

Usually Josh takes a deferment which allows him to pay the ticket and then go 3 months without getting another one (hopefully) in order to keep the ticket off of his record: Another reason why Texas is so cool!

So we were in the middle of one of his deferments (and married by this point I might add) and on our way to church one beautiful Sabbath morning when nothing could go wrong we thought. WRONG! Josh was going about 5 over the speed limit in a residential area. We were about to hit a red light as a cop car slowly approached us going the opposite way. As Josh made it to the red light the cop car about 200 yards away turns around and comes toward our direction. Of course Josh had been watching the cop this entire time because he knew that he was driving over the speed limit. Our hearts began beating wildly fast and Josh began freaking out! "I can't get another ticket! I won't! You have to switch me right now!"

He made a quick right hand turn and sped up to try and get away. In hopes of losing the cop he turned into this Donut shop, he parked and we were out of the car before you could say kolaches! He handed me the keys and we raced inside. There were a few other people waiting in line and they must have thought we were crazy. I mean I had a panicked look on my face and Josh was red and sweaty all over. Josh kept a watchful eye out the window to make sure the cop didn't follow us. We looked at each other and just laughed as we finally inhaled some air and relaxed a little. The cop was gone.

I took the keys from him. Drove the speed limit to church. We were a little late but it was an adventure for sure. There's a folder in our cabinet of important documents specifically named "Josh's Tickets".

He has slowed down his driving quite a bit and isn't as aggressive behind the wheel. We laugh every time we pass the Donut shop on the way to church :)