Reasons Why I Feel Like an Old Person...

Lately I have been having a lot of "when did I get so old?" moments. For example:

1. I sit in traffic for 2 hours a day.

2. While sitting in that traffic, I listen to talk radio - thats right - boring conservative talk radio.

3. As a result of my talk radio exposure I come home and vent to Nathan about things like the federal reserve and graduated income tax.

4. I wear "work" clothes everyday for my 9-5 job. No more jeans for me.

5. Girls at church who are 3 years younger than me call me "Sister Collins".

6. I am now older than the average missionary.

7. I have to worry about things like health insurance and filing for tax returns.

8. I asked Nate for a new set of silverware for my birthday. And I'm excited about it?
(Who else used to think Moms were weird for wanting things like that?)

9. I get tired if I stay up past 10:30pm.

When did all this happen? I keep having to remind myself that I am only 21 years old. I have noticed that Nathan and I do subtely irresponsible things like stay up till midnight watching the Olympics or buy and eat an entire pound of See's Candies in one weekend to relish in the fact that we are so young and cool. But when I really think about it we have definately moved out of the college kid era into the world of real of adults. Aside from the limited number of vacation days, the adult world definitely has upsides - like not having to worry about homework and actually having a savings account. And next week I will be 22! So I guess I am going to start embracing the adult world!

As long as I get my silverware...

"The Seven"

Lately I have been missing my lovely best friends from college. We all met freshman year in Taylor Hall at Helaman Halls. We became really good friends winter of freshman year and have been best friends ever since. Its fun to think back on all we've been through together - parties, late nights at the Harold B. Lee, sonic runs, boy drama, freshman wards, sophomore apartments, weekly dinners, girls trips, and missions/marriages of course. As time has gone on we have all been pulled apart to various places in life.

(From left to right)
Susan (Dusan):Lives in Hawaii with her husband and an adorable 6 month old baby girl.
Me: Working in San Diego with my handsome husband.
Molly: Currently in Provo but graduating and going to India this summer and then moving to D.C.!
Kasee: On an internship with her hubby in L.A. - why have we not hung yet?!
Ellen: On a mission - Spanish speaking D.C. South (the mission I grew up in!) she just sent me a letter with some pressed fall leaves and I just about died.
Jessica : Happy newlywed finishing up school in Provo :)
Caroline: On a mission in Utica, NY

I feel so lucky and blessed to have made such great friends at college! Its fun because I know we will all stay in contact and be friends for years to come. We are all so different, but thats what makes it fun!

Love and miss you girls!!

Dear Life,

Dear Job,
Would you consider moving 30 minutes closer to La Mesa?

Dear ModCloth.com
Why do you have such cute clothes?

Dear Nathan,
I love you.

Dear Weather,
How bout a Southern California snow day?

Dear Whole Foods,
Please stock your shelves with Vanilla Bean Paste.

Dear Friends and Family,
Please move to San Diego.

Dear Sebastein,
You are such a good little car. Thank you for never breaking down.

Dear Future Children,
Please be happy and good at church.

Dear Modern Appliances (washer, dryer, dishwasher),
I miss you and all the time you used to save me.

Dear Party Chip Icing/Fun-Fetti Cake,
I crave you.

Dear Michael Jackson,
I wish I could have seen "This Is It" Live.

Dear Bachelor,
You make my Mondays better. And yes I watch the whole 2 hours.

Dear Ocean,
I want to learn to surf you.

Dear Pioneer Woman,
You have the BEST recipes.

Dear Life,
You are awesome.

Life Updates

This is my attempt at blogging about everyday life. I unfortunately have the bad habit of only writing about things when 1) I'm upset or 2)A big event occurs in my life. Since I wouldn't write about when I'm upset on this blog - I only have entries about big events. But not even really - my entries are usually just really long photo montages about a series of important events I failed to blog about previously. If you think that's bad you should take a look at my journal. I have kept a journal since I was 6 years old and besides birthdays and holidays - 90% of the entries are about something I'm upset/angry/worried about. Writing has always been a good outlet for me. The downside of that is that my posterity will think I was a complete nut case. The other day Nathan (who has also kept a journal his whole life) and I thought it would be cool to gather up our journals and see if we had past entries on the same days. That way we could see what we were doing at the exact same moment years ago! All of his entries were deep, spiritual, and profound. Like seriously, he was one deep kid. While mine were all about a girl I was upset at or the drama with the boy I liked and so forth. I even didn't let Nathan read some of my entries because they were so embarrassing. So needless to say I will keep those heated (yet hilarious) journals tucked away. Probably forever.

But anyways it has been incredibly stormy here in San Diego the past week or so. Its funny how flustered a city can get about a few inches of rain. It did rain really hard at times and there was even some hail - but comon' San Diego - its just RAIN. Not snow, sleet, or ice. My commutes home from work have been awful because nobody knows how to drive when its not sunny and 70 degrees outside. I have been loving my new job at NatureGen though! I like what I do a lot and I love the people I work with. It is more of a business job that is related to food science/nutrition than actual product development or anything. I really love it though and think its an exciting company to be part of. Nathan continues to work really hard at his job. I admire his work ethic so much and am grateful he works hard to ensure the future of our family. Its a tough world out there! Other than work our lives are consumed with activities at our church. I am the 1st counselor in the Young Women's (girls age 12-18) and Nathan is the Young Men's advisor (boys ages 12-18). On Tuesday night I have YW activites, on Wednesday night Nathan has YM activites, and on Thursday we are ordinance workers at the San Diego, CA LDS temple. We love serving at the temple and think it is a valuable experience to have before we have kids and can't work there anymore. I also love the young women in our ward. Last Sunday one of our girls got baptized! It was a very special night and she is a wonderful girl. I got her a journal for her baptism. I think she will write about more important things than I did :)! When we are not at church activities Nathan and I are so content to just hang out and chill. Our Friday nights are sacred and we love that night for just the two of us. I would much rather be busy than bored any day so life is good!

2009 Photo Montage

January

Sailing in the British Virgin Islands!

February

Happy Valentine's Day :)

Goodbye Sister Stewart!

March

The Wives Club

Easter Party!

April

Decorating Easter Eggs

Hiking in Arches National Park

May

John's Graduation

Hiking Angel's Landing

Memorial Day BBQ!

June

Girl's Trip to L.A.!

Goodbye Sister Funch!

July

Wade visits Provo!

Provo Farmer's Market

August

Spanish Fork Rodeo

After fall/winter of 18 credits each and full loads spring/summer...
I graduated from BYU!

Bridesmaid in Wedding #1 - the lovely Kasee Moore's Wedding!

Moved to San Diego - Goodbye Provo (August was a big month!)

September

The Europe Trip extravaganza...

October

Mom came to visit San Diego

Oktoberfest in La Mesa

November

Bridesmaid in Wedding #2 - My childhood best friend Danielle Gustaveson!

Thanksgiving with my family!

December

First day of work at my first real job!

Bridesmaid in Wedding #3 - my dear friend Jessica Veater!

Christmas with the Collins Family

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

Nathan and I have made great strides in the area of decoration classiness since last Christmas. Last year for our Christmas tree Nate grabbed his hatchet and insisted we chop down a tree in the mountains instead of buy one. So we did just that and set up our tree by constructing a makeshift stand out of a a free red bucket and tied it to our swamp cooler. This year we actually bought a tree from home depot and got a real stand to go with it.


For ornaments, I convinced Nate to make old school paper snowflakes with me. Nathan is actually kind of awesome at making paper snowflakes. His were actually better than my own. I struggled with the whole folding thing...




I also made a star out of cardboard and tin foil to top our tree! Classy? Maybe not..




Last night we had a bunch of people over to decorate Christmas cookies with us! Decorating a ton of Christmas cookies with all colors of icing, piping bags, and sprinkles was something my family did every year. I missed having all my Mom's classic Christmas cookie cutters but found a bin of 30 holiday shapes that will have to be my go-to Christmas cutters!










Nathan with some of our neighbors!

The Holidays Begin!

Like so many others, this is my favorite time of year! Nathan and I had a fabulous start to the holiday season with a trip back to Virginia to see my family. I went out early to go to my friend Danielle's wedding. We have been best friends since we were 9 and it was so great to be a part of her big day! I loved her gray bridesmaid dresses and will definitely be wearing mine again. My favorite part of the whole day was getting to drive too and attend the sealing with my Dad. He is just the best and the LDS Washington D.C. temple is beautiful!







I spent the rest of the weekend after the wedding just hanging out with the family. For those of you who don't know swimming in the Northern Virginia area is HUGE! My little brother was in a swim meet that lasted all weekend. I got to see him swim a few events and he is quite the breast stroker. Better than I ever was, that's for sure!


Nathan flew into Virginia on Tuesday. He was really happy to have to weekend to himself because he has been working on classes to get his MSFS (master's in financial services... kind of like a CPA but in the insurance world) and had to study and take a final for one of the classes that weekend. My brother Sam and his wife Erin also came up for Thanksgiving day. It was the first time the whole family has been together since my wedding!

My cousins Brooklin and Brian came over for dessert with their kids!

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we went hiking at Great Falls Park in the Maryland side. It was so beautiful! I am secretly trying to brainwash Nathan into falling in love with Virginia. It think it might be working...







Last weekend I went up to Utah to go to my best friend Jessica's bridal shower. It was so great to see all my old college friends! I have the best friends. Her shower was a ton of fun and I got to be her assistant for taking bridals on Saturday morning! We are looking forward to the wedding on December 19th! Other than that I am starting my new job at a company called NatureGen on December 14th. So I am doing all those little things I need to get done like blog, see the dentist, and send out Christmas gifts this week. Wish me luck!