andrew + meredith

rerouting

2011-12-11T14:26:00.000-08:00

we are no longer the new pickups. we actually lost that title last january...and andrew's other brother is threatening as well (they are engaged...)

i thought it was high time that we get a more permanent blog title. so from now on...you can find us at:

andrewandmeredith.blogspot.com

we aren't going private or anything, but i am just tired of this blog name and now i promise we will never change again ha ha.

there are some new posts over there and i won't post over here any more. so start following that one instead.

well, it's a girl

2011-10-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

sugar, spice, and everything nice.

that's what little girls are made of.

well...if she's anything like me, we might have our hands full.

my parents called me the "general authority baby" because i went bald on top for a while...

[please let my baby girl have hair]

for my 3 yr. old birthday, all i wanted was a batman watch. (my mom made this "watch" out of felt and puff paint, i loved it)

what happened to dolls?

they had to mandate the "11 second rule" when i was a toddler...because i couldn't be left alone for more than 10 seconds without causing havoc.

evidently, sometimes that rule was broken

and i had a bit of an attitude.

when we were kids, if we got grouchy, our parents would call us "ferguson". like, "oh no...what happened to our beautiful daughter meredith? all i can see is ferguson."

we probably developed some type of complex from that. kind of traumatizing ha ha.

but you can't say i lacked enthusiasm (i think i relapsed into this stage during high school, fanny pack included)

and then there was the infamous "jonathan taylor thomas" stage, as andrew calls it....when i was a total tomboy for all of my youth. (this was full blown. all my friends were boys. i was first pick during flag football at recess. i shopped at the boys section of old navy...those convertible pants that zipped off into shorts were my favorite. i even wore boxers for a couple of years.)

things got scary for a while:

i am the #1 stunna on the right.

so with that in mind...here's to our future.

i'm sure it'll be an adventure. and i'll take the "sugar and spice" poem with a grain of salt...

p.s. maybe she will be good at this. she moves and kicks allll day long. andrew has been able to feel it since 21 weeks...you can even see the kicks through my stomach.i feel it on one side of my stomach then on the opposite side a second later. she covers a lot of ground.

i can only imagine what it will be like as she gets bigger. at my last appointment, the doctor asked if i've been feeling movement. i said, yeah i've been feeling a lot. then as he was trying to hear the hearbeat, he was like "wow, this baby does move a lot...i can't get it to stay in one place long enough to listen".

2011-10-08T11:33:00.000-07:00

so now we are wondering.....

which will it be?

we should find out this week!

20 weeks is a long time

2011-10-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

this is what it looks like to grow a baby half-way:

(when it comes to blog content, i say give the people what they want. multiple pictures of my stomach? i'm sure it's what you've been clamoring for).

My Turn

2011-09-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

Meredith has frequently requested that I make some posts to our blog. Through the first two years of marriage, I failed in that endeavor. So, today it's my turn to give an update on our life and a couple of changes we've had.

The first big change was moving to the great state of Texas. After having lived in Utah for the first two years of our marriage, we packed all of our belongings (many items that aren't too valuable) in the back of "old blue" and in a rented uhaul trailer, and made the 1200 mile drive to Allen, Texas. We weren't looking forward to the journey but it ended up not being so bad. I even described the trip as "it's so great" to my Dad when he called to see how things were going. Meredith thought that was a weird way to describe 22 hours spent in a truck, whose seats don't recline.

What helped pass the time the most during the drive was listening to a Harry Potter book on tape. Meredith comes from a family that worships at the alter of Potter. I, on the other hand, had very little exposure to the Potter World until Meredith and I started dating. I had seen 2 or 3 of the movies, but had never read any of the books. To be honest, the whole thing seemed juvenile and a bit nerdy. I have slowly been converted, or corrupted depending on how you look at it, to the series that J.K. Rowling created. I loved the six movie that I watched with Meredith and her family in San Diego a few weeks before we got married. After that, I decided I wasn't anti-Harry Hotter and have since slowly embraced the books and have seen all of the movies. Anyway, we listened to the 4th book, The Goblet of Fire, during our long drive.

I want to back track and post about something we did before we left Utah. A weekend or two before our move, we went to the Tim McGraw concert at USANA amphitheater. It was a lot of fun. He has a great voice and played most of the songs we wanted to hear. Jake and Tierani were there too, as were Travis and Kacie. It got a little rowdy. Luke Bryan opened for him. Meredith and I know him from an episode of the celebrity apprentice, so it was kind of hard to take him serious. He has some catchy songs though.

When we arrived in Texas, we were welcomed by my Parents, Pappy and Nancy, as well as 105 degree heat. Texas was in the middle of a streak of 55 consecutive days over 100 degrees. While unloading the truck and trailer, I sweat about 3 pints worth. We like it though. The heat wave finally broke a few weeks after we got here. The temperature was only in the 80s.

The other change we have undergone, and the reason we moved to Dallas, was starting a new job with PwC. Here's a picture Mer took of me before my first day of work.

I have a whole 2 weeks under my belt and so far, so far good.

Since moving out of Meredith's parents house, and actually needing to make our own dinners, Meredith has gotten in touch with her culinary side. For the past year we lived with Meredith's parents. My mother in law is an amazing cook and made a full dinner almost every night. This was really nice while we were busy with school or work. To be honest, I might have forgotten a little about how good of a cook Meredith is. She'll be mad that I am bragging on her but it's true. She has the genes for being a cook from her mom (sorry Mark). Since we've been in Texas she has made: stuffed shells, wontons, twice baked potatoes, bruschetta, and some amazing pumpkin cookies. It has all been delicious and she is great at trying new recipes so I'm sure there is more to come.

One project we've been working on since we got here was turning Meredith's beloved cart into a usable piece of furniture for our new apartment. We bought this cart about a year ago at a antique store.

Meredith loved it and there was no saying "no" to her. This was something I could tell she really wanted so we bought it, although it wasn't cheap (Meredith will tell you, and she is probably right, that it was a value for the price we paid for it). It sat in the front yard of my in-law's house for a whole year. Luckily, the weather doesn't affect it. Meredith has great vision when it comes to furniture, design, etc. While loading the cart into the truck, Travis asked "why are you taking this to Texas?" He clearly didn't see it's value. I don't blame him. At first glance, it does look like something used in a cotton gin.

Anyway, Mer has a long term plan of turning the cart into a kitchen island, but for now, with our kitchen being only about 150 sq ft, we needed to find another use for it. Mer came up with the idea to use it as a entertainment center for our living room. We planned to buy plywood, stain it, and place it as shelves on the frame of the cart. When we went to Home Depot, they didn't have plywood the right size so we instead decided to use wood boards to create shelves on the cart.

After sanding (meredith)

and staining (me) the boards,

this is the completed product and what will be sitting in our living room for a few years.

spring/summer

2011-08-14T06:49:00.000-07:00

SHE:

had a best friend get married.

completed an art minor.

took a photography class.

learned to sew swimsuits.

finished her last class at BYU.

perfected fresh homemade pasta.

bought a serger.

HE:

studied.

turned 26.

grew out a lumberjack-worthy beard.

studied.

took 3 of 4 CPA exams.

did most of the packing and all of the lifting.

sold my jeep.

played a lot of golf.

is still studying.

WE:

went to california with the bonhams.

swam and BBQ with friends.

went to idaho to see pickups.

hosted a primary party for these rascals (who we are really gonna miss).

celebrated two years.

went to st. george with the harmans.

saw tim mcgraw.

went camping with the goecks [at a very secure campsite].

learned to make grilled pizza with the webers.

are excited to move. and already missing all our utah friends and family.

expiration date

2011-08-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

i was getting breakfast a couple mornings ago....and i noticed something.

before the milk expires, we will be in dallas.

oh my gosh!

power tools and curlers

2011-06-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

this was supposed to be for mother's day, but i figured a month late is not bad. ha.

i took these impromptu photos of my mother. under protest. if she had had her way, she'd be dressed up all cute in a dress that she probably made, with ruffles. which is great.

but to me, these pictures really sum up my mother.

hard worker.

multi-tasker.

a little silly.

not ashamed.

dedicated.

a go-getter.

beautiful.

and those curlers are just the icing on the cake.

graduation weekend

2011-05-04T22:44:00.000-07:00

after our last week of finals, we made it to that pivotal day in april....graduation!

my in-laws, doug and nancy, flew in for a visit. on thursday we went with them and my parents to the big university wide commencement, but opted out of walking in the procession. instead we just sat in the audience with our parents. among others, richard g. scott spoke. since we got to hear the speakers, and missed the pouring rain the graduates walked in, we had no complaints. we went to thai drift in orem/lindon with them afterwards....has anyone ever been there? if you like thai food, go....it's amazing.

on friday, we went got all dressed up and went to the convocation. i went with andrew in the marriot school graduation so we could walk together. it was kinda funny, cause i was one of only a few girls, and one of the only undergrads that walked with the mAcc (masters of accountancy) students. pretty much just me and a few other wives fit both of those categories.

another shining moment for me was during the dean's speech. he was asking the grads to stand if they had served a mission, if they spoke another language, if they had children in the audience, etc. needless to say i remained sitting throughout this part of the ceremony.

it was good though. i got to walk right after andrew, shake some hands, got handed an empty diploma, and looked official.

me, dad, mom

andrew, doug, nancy

me and grandma-- i think i am her second grandkid to graduate.

pickups sr. and jr.

the whole party

lunch at macaroni grill afterwards...so fun!

the masters students had black robes and wore this funny hood thing around the neck and down the back. it looked normal when we got it on right, but andrew, nancy and i had quite the time figuring it out. also, the sleeves were kinda like bat's wings. so all the masters students looked a little like wizards or dementors.

the classic sister shot we always take with us 3.

the not so happy ending to this story is that i'm already back in classes. i could have been done in april, but i wouldn't have finished my minor. so i am going in spring and taking 3 art classes and a sewing swimsuits class. hopefully it'll be fun and not too stressful.

it has been so fun to go to school with my husband for 3 years (he wasn't my husband for 1 of those years yet). which actually means i have had him with me for my whole college career. i have also been with andrew through the entire accounting program, starting with the jr. core. so if you ask me, i deserved to walk with the marriott school.

now that andrew is finishing up his last week working on campus, i will be making the commute alone. i am kind of sad, because that was about an hour each day that we spent together, driving. i'm really excited about the next steps in our adult life together, but transition stages are always different and bittersweet.

also, thanks so much to both of our parents and families who have helped us through our college careers. and they won't let us forget it:

(can you see it well? it's our dads with their empty pockets out--nancy's idea ha ha)

we are [pretty much] done with school! YAAAAAAYYYY!!

double duty

2011-04-30T12:04:00.001-07:00

look familiar to anyone?

ha ha i love this picture.

2011-04-16T07:43:00.001-07:00

turns out andrew and i are both pretty imaginative in our sleep. we try to write it down when the other says something funny. so here are a few...enjoy ha ha.

this morning,

andrew was waking up. i was sitting next to him in bed on my laptop.

A: rolls over towards me, starting to wake up. "watcha doing babe?"

M: "looking at apartments in dallas".

A: "parking in dallas." (not even a question, just an odd statement).

M: "apartments..."

short pause.

A: sounding very sure of himself: "that's a great couch".

M: "couch?"

A: nods. then goes back to sleep.

a week or two ago. andrew had just woken up, and we were talking normal, lucid. then there was a lull in the conversation, and next thing i hear...

A: "you're always banging your mallet".

M: confused, we had just been talking, both awake. so i thought he was still awake. "what? banging my mallet?"

A: "banging your mallet, like a judge. you're always banging your mallet like a judge".

ha ha!

also recently:

i went to wake andrew up. i had already showered and had just been blow drying my wet hair. andrew had his arm around my neck and felt how hot it was (from the blow dryer) but he didn't know that. since he was still half asleep.

he told me:

"you're as hot as a bottle".

"you're as hot as a bottle of warm milk."

a month or two ago, andrew told me that the night before, as i was falling asleep, i started talking crazy (no surprise there). i said:

"they have birdie birdie birdie birdie birdie birdie birdie birdie birdie birdie birdie birdie boots." and then turned and rolled over. 12 birdies. who knew.

another one, soon after we had gotten married. andrew was saying our prayer and i was super tired and falling asleep during it. i think i managed to say amen. then i tried to go the extra mile and say goodnight and i love you to andrew. only, instead of "love you andrew" it came out like this:

"i love you heavenly father"... and i left andrew bewildered. ha ha.

2011-04-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

via

dessert. what a point of controversy around our house.

in most couples i know.....the wife is a little more health conscious than the man. not to overgeneralize, but i know this is the case with more than one man and wife we know. how do i put this?.....this is not the case with us. i am not downright unhealthy or anything, but compared to my husband... i am pathetic! he is extremely dedicated and works out in the gym 3 times a week no matter what, plus basketball usually twice a week. since this is my first semester not playing lacrosse, i am a spotty work out-er. really spotty. i won't discuss the specifics, thank you. ha ha.

along with his work out schedule, andrew has a pretty strict diet/regimen for caloric intake. contrary to the typical woman, andrew is always adding more calories to his diet. but he is fickle about what type of calories--rightly so--which puts some pressure on me to eat right, to keep up [also cooking for him can be intimidating!] but do i keep up? no. not really. i am not awful, but i don't put much thought into calories and specifics. [i let my stomach do the deciding and try to stay away/limit anything reaallly bad.] so far, i can't complain. the scale stays the same and the jeans still fit, so i guess i can enjoy my young metabolism for a little bit longer. but i like to think someday i will be a runner.

back to dessert...i guess what they say about sweet tooths is real. i didn't realize there were truly people out there that aren't crazy about sugar. i always have been, probably always will be, judging by how my mother is*. and the bad thing is, i don't want to change. i love being a sweet tooth.

but not my husband. since we are living with my parents, we are graced with her delicious desserts probably 3 nights a week. no matter how full i am, i just can't pass it up. but andrew almost always passes on dessert. crazy if you ask me. does anybody out there know what this is like? or am i the only wife that is WORSE than her husband? just curious.

oh yeah....did i mention that my crazy mom made me THREE different birthday cakes last month? ha ha. course i ate all three, whereas andrew passed on two out of the three. silly self controlled man.

i wish i had a picture of the homemade asphalt pie my mom made me. it was 3 tiered.

ps. *as long as i can look as good as my mom does, i will continue to embrace my sweet tooth.

madness is right

2011-03-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

i guess you could say that andrew and i are rounding 3rd base and heading home in our third year of acquaintance. so this month is our 3rd time celebrating spring, 3rd of my birthdays together, 3rd st. patrick's day (so sentimental) and 3rd.......MARCH MADNESS!

background: i am a sports fan. a mild fan. kind of a like-to-play-and-watch-live but not really a turn-on-espn-everytime-i-get-home type of fan. but that fateful march, 3 marches ago, andrew came over and told me we should fill out brackets. hmmmmm..... i'm not sure about that. but since we were still just dating, and i would go along with anything at that point, i happily obliged.

and i also realized that i LOVE filling out brackets...

so a new tradition was born. yada yada, i need to skip some random thoughts cause i'm getting tired. so i usually pick duke. they are always a contender. but this year i mixed things up, and picked KU. games start tomorrow, here goes nothing.

and this is really a win-win situation for andrew. he gets to turn on espn every time we get home, and i am at least semi interested in seeing how good my picks were. anyone else getting ready for march madness? MEAGAN i know you are who did you PICK!?!!!

teaser

2011-03-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

last but not least...

a little sneek peak of what better be my next post. [i just need to sit down and do it.]

long lost...

2011-03-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

you know how lots of little kids have a "blankie" that they take everywhere? that they can't sleep without? a security blanket?

i don't remember ever having one of those. i have always been able to fall asleep with the blink of an eye...i didn't need a blanket to help me.

20 years later... (okay, more accurately only 18-19, but that sounds so young...) we innocently register for a nice fuzzy blanket at bed bath and beyond for our wedding. i hardly remember even scanning it with the registry gun. but one day in the mail, what do we find? a nice, fuzzy, gray wedding present sent from a family friend from california.

a funny thing about being married. you start to be aware of a major difference in men and women: temperature. doesn't really matter where we are...winter in utah, driving in the car, even summer in dallas (inside with air conditioning) i am usually cold, and andrew is always hot. women, can you relate? it is a constant struggle for us.

so in our first little apartment, i began needing blankets to keep warm when andrew hijacked control of the AC. and back to my fuzzy gray blanket, i think i developed an attachment. the long lost attachment i never had as a toddler.

andrew started teasing me about always being huddled up in this blanket... so i started teasing him back by calling it my blankie. andrew treats this snuggly blanket like it is the root of all evil. he does not like it to touch him and protests every time i use it. he says it's too hot and mainly i think he just likes to provoke me.

what's the point? well this huge long story all boils down to one of my proudest moments:

wanna know what happened 5 min. before this picture?

[in his defense, i think this was when he was sick.] but my husband, the always blazing hot, was COLD. i told him that i knew what blanket would make him the warmest...he agreed. he agreed! but it came with a price. he had to verbally admit that he loved my blankie.

...you can infer what happened after that, because a picture is worth 1000 words you know.

like i always say,

sharing is caring.

i have always loved the silly side of andrew.

p.s.

happy 8th birthday to our favorite twins...

mackenzie

and mckay

we love them!

2011-02-12T08:58:00.000-08:00

sab.bat.i.cal: a rest from work, or a hiatus, often lasting from two months to a year.

well, how does 7 months sound?

we took an unintentional seven month sabbatical!

but we are back in full force, maybe. at least it is one of my new year's resolutions.

and if not, i guess you can plan on reading a whole year's worth again next new year. kidding.

new year's #3

2011-02-12T08:29:00.001-08:00

[pizza places]

so this is our third new year's together. i want to do a quick recap of all 3. we have a tradition of going to a new pizza place every year. i have been very pleased with all of them so far....

december 31st, 2008 - the pie, salt lake city underground

december 31st, 2009 - settebello, salt lake city

accompanied by doug, nancy, mark, kelly

december 31st, 2010 - the slab, provo

delicious. we tried pepperoni, hawaiian, and thai chicken.

picture i took before i left the camera at home...oops

long live the new year's eve pizza tradition.

fast forward

2011-02-12T08:04:00.000-08:00

okay so i've covered summer... which took a long time.

so i'm gonna fast forward through fall and christmas.

we had a good fall semester. i am doing a visual arts minor and 10.5 of my 18 credits were in art classes. it was so much fun. i will finish my minor if i go spring term, which is what i want to do. but if i'm too burned out, i can graduate in april and just be a few credits short of my minor. we'll see.

anyway, back to fall. andrew's flag football team WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP!! i don't know if you know what a big deal this is to BYU intramural boys. it's a bigggg deal. ha ha. it was a super fun season. andrew even made a highlight reel of their season. i would post it here but it's saved on andrew's computer..

i took art and sewing classes and was very happy doing things i liked. it was my most successful semester of college i'd say. also my busiest.

here is a random sampling of some of my art projects. they may not look that good on the computer, but what do i have to lose? these are all pieces from my 2-D design class, which was my favorite. i am gonna brag now, but just for a second, and it's more just funny than bragging. i had two pieces chosen for the student show. then one got moved down to the first floor which i guess was a special honor or something. then it got a juror's award and i got a $50 gift certificate! the funny part is it was just tons and tons of colored squares of paper arranged in a color study. i think i could have done it when i was 8. but still, i'll take credit.

we spent thanksgiving with the pickups in provo. we were able to see everyone (except the karpowitz family) and even meet brian's brother-in-law's family from spain, who were the cutest. thanksgiving was really fun and it went by super fast, as always.

christmas was here in alpine. we were originally planning on going to texas this year, but our plans changed when brian's wedding was scheduled for january in SPAIN! so we happily traded our christmas plans away. we had a nice christmas break and spent some time relaxing. okay so actually i spent nearly all my time sewing and crafting, but i'd take that over relaxing any day ha ha.

my favorite part of the break was my snow day with andrew. we went across the street to the empty lot lovingly referred to as "lot 9" which is a scary mess of scraggly trees and rocks. but there are some steep hills so andrew and i built a snow "rollercoaster". gosh why didn't i take pictures? it was great. we basically made a bobsledding course and then went down it on sleds.

my family also went up to idaho and got to visit both my aunt kristen's family and also the seables. it was so fun to go christmas shopping with my little cousins and we also got to have a fun night out with aaron and marcia. i always love visiting them in idaho.

okay i think that's it for my catch up. i have lots of january news that hopefully gets documented soon...

there's a first time for everything

2011-02-12T07:50:00.000-08:00

our first anniversary was in august. it was fun, i like anniversaries. it is amazing to reflect on our little marriage. we are closer than ever and we are really learning how to make it work. we are really happy. i'm thankful for our first year of marriage.

andrew pulled a little surprise on me and we got all dressed up to go to dinner at biaggi's, where we had our wedding lunch. that place is sooo good. i love the idea of going back there whenever we can. we had so much fun that night. i don't really remember specifics anymore, i just remember laughing a lot.

kinda a scary picture, ha ha, but at least you can tell we're happy.

oh yeah, as a little surprise of my own, i took andrew to a john mayer concert for our anniversary. he is a weirdo, but at least his music is good.

surprise surprise

2011-02-12T07:46:00.000-08:00

after his internship at ernst & young, andrew was offered a full-time position with them. if you remember this post, andrew had lots of options when deciding where to intern. he felt kinda conflicted when he had to choose and sign to intern at EY. he had also liked PWC (both are "big 4" accounting firms) but chose to go with EY. PWC said that when he was considering full-time opportunities to get in touch with them.

long story short, and with some help from a PWC friend in allen, andrew was given full-time offers from both big 4 firms. that is quite a big deal because it is not the way it usually works in the accounting recruiting biz. he is a real pot stirrer. what can i say, he is the shiz. ha ha. anyway, andrew chose to go with PWC for a few reasons, and so he will be starting with them september 2011 in dallas!

summer

2011-02-12T07:07:00.000-08:00

[playing catch up]

our summer treated us right. we spent most of it in texas, where andrew did his internship with ernst & young in their dallas office. we were so lucky to be able to live with his parents, doug and nancy, in allen, so we could save up some money.

living there has its perks! we got to see brian before he left for spain, travis when he got home from his mission in mexico city, marcia when she visited for melvina's funeral, and mike and malinda with their family when they came for vac

ation! count em, folks, that's the whole family!

makeovers with my two favorite stylists, mckenzie and hailee:

we were there to be at a special funeral for andrew's grandma melvina, there when doug retired!, there when brian announced he was getting married!! and there holding down the fort while doug and nancy spent time at their house in utah. did i mention that they have a beautiful backyard and pool, brand new furniture set, and flat screen? ha ha... needless to say we didn't leave the house much, except to play tennis. we had so much fun relaxing, swimming, running, playing tennis, BBQing, and hanging out with family. i could get used to texas summers.

i also piggybacked my own trip home to utah at the same time doug and nancy left. i got to see one of my best friends get married!!

meagan HARMAN!

ps. while i was back in dallas, another one of my best friends got married, kinzie HANCOCK! i was so sad to miss her wedding. we love her and her husband, brad. (she is the second from the left)

and live like a teenager again. without andrew there, living in my old room, hanging out with my single friends, i thought i was in high school again! it was weird but so much fun..

rafting adventure with tierani

paddling with tennis rackets... works.

the funniest part was when an old man stopped us and very sternly told us that we should be wearing life jackets (a valid point) because if we fell in the water, we could get "the cramps". ha.

then i went back to dallas for the last couple of weeks of andrew's internship. the end of his internship came with a conference in florida at disney world! which i was not invited to :), and since i would be flying home sooner or later anyway, and i didn't want to be home alone, i flew back early. i got to help throw my parents a joint 50th birthday party and surprise andrew by repainting/designing my 13-year-old girl bedroom that we now call home.

with the help of tierani, i textured all the walls with drywall mud and then painted. i did a gray accent wall and a very light green on all the other walls. although in these pictures you can't distinguish the colors, in real life it is much more obvious.

living in one bedroom has its upsides and downsides. we will be extremely happy when we finally have a place of our own (it will be like a year and a half of living with parents when we are through) but it really has been great. we have my bedroom set up like a little studio apartment, with a bed, TV, couch, and desk. luckily we have the walk in closet that connects my room with larken's, that larken has let us have to ourselves. we also have a connected bathroom which helps a lot. it is hilarious because my parents' house is huge, but we spend almost all of our time in our cozy one bedroom.

our new life together

2010-06-14T22:34:00.001-07:00

since andrew has been in dallas for almost 2 weeks without me, this is what our nights now consist of: iChat. i finally finish this term of school on wednesday, so i will fly into Dallas on thursday! I can't wait.

yoohooo

2010-02-17T21:53:00.000-08:00

hello? Remember us? well we are still alive and doin fine. We have been busy busy......

First of all, Andrew broke his nose and got pink eye. Not so fun.... the best part? the pink eye has lasted for almost 6 weeks. It is bewildering. Andrew has become Mr. Disinfectant. It is so funny. today he was wiping down the doorknobs, keys, remotes, everything in his backpack, his laptop, etc., and that was just what I saw out of my peripherals while doing homework. This is no doubt the DOUGLAS in him. ha ha!

The broken nose actually went more smoothly than we thought it might. There was no blood after it happened in his basketball game, but Andrew's nose was all skewed to the left. Brian got a picture that I will have to track down.....

then they set it with "what looked like the back of a butter knife", reported Andrew. They numbed him with needles and jacked it over til it was straight. Add a little surgical sponge and tape, and it was good as new. He had to wear the tape for almost a week, so everyone was drawn to his poor nose.

by the way. what do you think of his haircut? I am an aspiring barber...ha ha.

Anyway, it looks good now. my favorite thing is that now when he plays basketball, he has to wear this little baby:

So now we got his nose and eyes straightened out. what a relief.... not to mention his root canal a few months ago. Poor kid.

So guess what last week was? yeah yeah, Valentine's Day, President's Day, and THE PICKUPS' 6 MONTHS! ha ha. it is amazing how fast time flies.

For a celebration, we took a trip to Santa Barbara. It worked out good because I had a lacrosse tournament that weekend too! what a coincidence. ha ha.

So we left on Friday morning and flew with the team to LAX , and drove up to UCSB. what a drive it was. gotta love LA traffic. We had a game that night, 3 the next day, and then got to rest on Sunday. One more game on Monday morning and we were outta there. It was a really fun tournament and PERFECT weather. I was sad to leave the 70 degree sunny days. I did leave with a tan, but without a voice. Andrew calls me raspy. Andrew was invited to accompany the team whenever he wanted--they loved him. how could they not? Lacrosse trips always include lots of loud music, pizza, sore bodies, and more pizza. this tournament was no exception...

a little lacrosse in action, if it suits your fancy. #8 is yours truly.

When you are a middie (like me) you run , run, and run some more. i think that's why we can eat so much pizza :)

the team at the sunny Santa Barbara.

Happy Valentines Day!!!

we had such a fun trip. Andrew was such a good sport to ride around in a van with 20 girls for 4 days. He even managed to have some fun. the beach was so nice and I think

Andrew was the MVP in the beach ultimate frisbee game.

well well well.......

Andrew has had some good intramural basketball games and their team is just climbing the rankings. Tonight I told him to score a 3 and Mr. Obedient did as told, 5 seconds later...I was adding 3 points to their score. What a sweetheart. Also i have to say I'm a pretty good scorekeeper. But with the way they played tonight, it's an aerobic exercise. the end score was 65 to 34.... what a blowout.

This one's going in the photo album.

What sentence will you hear often in our house these days?

usually, something like this:

"Today, at preschool..."

No, we don't have children...but I do spend lots of time in the preschool. I have been working in the BYU preschool for a class this semester and it has been so fun. For the first time today a kid called me "Miss Meredith" instead of "hey teacher!". That's instant gratification, ha ha.

Since it's a block class, my time in the preschool is about to come to an end. It has been a lot of fun and I have learned a lot about teaching.

See ya later alligator.

playing catch up

2010-01-18T10:08:00.000-08:00

oops. i'm a little late, but I found lots of pictures I've never posted from last semester.

in october, we went to go visit the Seables right in time for Marcia's birthday.

we had so much fun visiting and playing with the kids.

jake rode with us in the truck. he is so cute.

jake playing air guitar

jake flexing

Aaron and Marci made the best pizza for us...

In November, we took a short trip to November for Andrew's interview with Ernst & Young. I got to hang with the in-laws, and Andrew got to hang with the big corporate yoo-hoos. Here's a little view of the hotel they put us in in downtown Dallas (doesn't show how nice the hotel was) and then a picture of Andrew before he head out for his interview. Looks like a working man huh?

Also I have some of Andrew in his intramural football season. so fun! now its time for basketball...

touchdown. he averaged 2 per game, i think.

the funny thing about flag football season is that Andrew's pants and shirts get ripped almost every game. seriously, we need a budget for new shorts and workout shirts during the seaon.

our happy holidays

2010-01-17T13:01:00.001-08:00

our holidays were so fun. our top ten moments, in no particular order:

1. cutting down our own tree

2. gingerbread houses

3. snowmobiling

4. christmas at the cabin

5. rummikub

6. new years with doug and nancy

7. sherlock holmes (my favorite) and avatar (andrew's favorite)

8. family date

9. RockBand with Brian and the Pickups -- I can really pound the skins. ha ha

10. and, of course, presents (andrew has great taste, which means I'm lucky. and so do his parents!)

and I think Andrew would add on, Cowboys win their wildcard game --- that is, over the break. not today.

We are in a new semester and it is going well. I like many things about it, mostly that Andrew and I get to go on campus together pretty often and I have a class 12 hours a week in the BYU preschool which is so precious. Andrew is excited about his classes and had his first intramural game. they won. He is still in the elder's quorum presidency and plays basketball with the quorum too. I also started lacrosse and it is good to get back in shape.