Sushi Night

Just Life

A few months back, before Audrey left on her mission, we had her and her roommate over one night for sushi. It was awesome! Audrey has become quite the sushi connoisseur, and she brought over all the equipment and taught us all how to make sushi rolls. We ate a ton in the end, but it was so good!

Here’s Audrey expertly rolling up some sushi goodness.

We seriously had a sushi feast that night! (Can you believe there were only four of us to eat all that?)

My favorite part was that we all got to create a name for our sushi rolls, adding a nice personalized touch.

Here’s the before shot…

…and here’s after. Notice several things: first we all look so full we could burst (that’s because we are). And notice why? See the sushi platter in the middle of the table? Remember from that “before” shot how full it was? …yeah, and there were only four of us.

And as for an update on Audrey and her mission, she’s doing great! This has been her first week in D.C., and we’re waiting to hear from her, but she had a lot of great preparation at the MTC and we’re proud of her and excited for her!

Paige is a Grown-Up!

Big Events, ,

Hooray for Paige! She has arrived, in the sense of adult achievement: she has graduated from college with a fantastic degree and a minor and has turned that education into a great job at a fast-growing company. “For she’s a jolly good fellow, for she’s a jolly good fellow…” :-)

Paige's Done With School CakeAs of December 18th, Paige finished her very last final at Brigham Young University and completed her Bachelor of Arts in English Language with an Editing minor, and did so with flying colors. (Magna cum laude to be exact!) Congratulations Paige! Even though “official” graduation isn’t until late April, we had fun celebrating her completion with a fun cake, inspired by Cake Wrecks. So now she is a professional editor, writer, and English language expert, whew!

Paige on her first day of work
Paige on her first day of work. Isn't she so professional looking?

What’s better than graduating and getting your degree? Putting your degree to work in an awesome job! After speaking with a couple of representatives of a great children’s software company at a BYU career fair and working through a (slightly lengthy) recruiting and hiring process, she was officially hired just before we left for Christmas vacation, and she started after the New Year. She was hired as a writer, and has already written one children’s story that was illustrated and will be used in the software. She also works with different departments in facilitating language translations, writes blog posts geared towards the education market, and uses her design skills to work in InDesign and more. She really enjoys the job and her co-workers, and keeps busy helping the children of the world learn English!

So there you have it, Paige is all growned up now. I know Paige is awesome, you know Paige is awesome, so way to go Paige!

Pile of Stuff

Here for Another Year

Big Events,

I was browsing through some old pictures today, and I came across this one:

Pile of Stuff

We took it the night that we moved into our house, the one we’ve been renting now for over a year. Josh and I drove in from Colorado that night, with a car and a trailer full of wedding gifts, stuff, and furniture from our parents. That night we unloaded the car and trailer, dumped everything in a pile in the living room, and rolled out sleeping bags in the bedroom to sleep. It was fun to remember that night, and those first few days of being married, and how fun and happy they were. Now we’ve been married for over a year—wow, over a year! We’ve really enjoyed living in this house throughout it all, haunted dungeon and lack of AC included.

Well, we’ve known now for some time that our landlords (who are great and awesome) are planning on selling this house this summer, which has made us vey sad. We tried to be optimistic and look for a new place to live, though. But, happy day, we just found out that they’re actually delaying putting it on the market and want us to sign a contract for another year! Hooray for blessings! Josh and I know we’re so lucky, and we’re looking forward to another year in this great house!

The Silver Lining

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I believe the difference between a good day and a bad day, between an awesome experience and an awful one, can all be in the way you look at it. Take our kitchen cabinets, for example. The house we’re renting (as we’ve discussed) is old, less-than-perfect, and quirky. When we first moved in and saw the kitchen cabinets, I thought, “Wow, they’re all white and made of metal. Taa-cky.” But then, one happy day, I was looking at our refrigerator, which is crowded with magnets and wedding announcements and cards from family, and then I looked at our cabinets…back at the refrigerator…back at the cabinets… “Hey!” I thought. “Those have potential!” And now (after a Christmas present from my sister of lots and lots of new magnets), I’ve turned our kitchen cabinets into more displays of cards, photographs, letters, and family love. Awesome!

So it’s all in the way you look at it, really. About finding the silver lining. Joshua and I were talking tonight, and we want to try to do that more often. Even when our lives are in flux, and we don’t know what changes with internships and jobs and such the next few months will bring, and life is scary and uncertain, we’ve decided we want to be better about looking for the silver lining.