temples to dot the earth.

Sean's brother, Seth, debuted this video about temples today. You can see more of his work here and here. This was such an awesome reminder to me of the growth of our church and the amazing work that has been done since the restoration of the gospel. The video is amazing, Seth. To all of you bloggers: enjoy & pass it on!

not impressed.

I guess the Alpine Slide was not as thrilling as he anticipated.

we're back!

well, it's been a while, hasn't it? this may have been the busiest/craziest/most stressful couple of weeks EVER! even so, we had a lot of fun. this is what we've been up to:

thursday, sean quit his job and will soon be starting a new company. and we're SUPER excited!
friday, preparing like crazy for the Managing Directors conference this week, running to the hospital to get an x-ray, hanging out with our friends and having the best shake that i've had in a long time {article circle's raspberry cheesecake... yum}, hearing sean's story about the fat man & puppies, staying out til 1am when i really should have gone to bed at 10 :).
saturday, shopping/working from 8:30am to noon, choir audition at 1pm, shopping/working from 2ish to 7pm, jamming out to some classic alanis morrisette tunes with heather on our rides to & from the cabin, Sean's friends over palying Halo and watching the "Redeem Team" till 3 in the morning!
monday, chauffeuring/hiking timapanogos/chauffeuring from 11am to midnight, hanging out with our Arbinger friends from mexico, canada, singapore, dubai, the netherlands, the uk, the us, china, japan, south africa, new zealand, france, israel, etc! taking mette to the supermarket and watching her reactions {she was SOO excited!}.
tuesday, had the worst day ever {exhausted from monday's activities, late to work, missing keys, dr pepper all over my pants, flat tire, ripped shirt, generally in a cranky mood and wanting to cry about everything, contemplated quitting the blog... yes THAT is how cranky I was. HA! etc.}
wednesday, working from 9-5, passing out on the couch after work.
thursday, working from 7:30 to 1:30 and 2:30 to 7:00ish, had soooo much fun at park city mountain resort and felt soooo relieved when the night was over!
friday, i have the day off! hooray!

this weekend: i plan to be lazy, go to swiss days, be lazy, be lazy, clean my house, be lazy and have a fun labor day!

oliver needs a new home.

Due to some recent circumstances {involving a new family friend and an allergy issue}, my parents have to say goodbye to their kitty. Oliver is 2 years old and is neutered and declawed. He was pretty feisty for a while {playful biting}, but has really mellowed out. Oliver stays inside for most of the day, but is used to spending a little time outside every day {he stays close to home}. If anyone would like to adopt this cute orange tabby, let me know asap! Obviously sending him to a shelter {where he will most likely spend a few weeks in a kennel and then be put to sleep} is the last resort, but my parents can't keep him anymore.
Comment if you're interested!

it's been so long.

seriously, i used to post about david so often that i added a label for him {see below}. it's been too long! our cute little david's single, crush, debuted at #2 on the billboard charts this week! i like it. kind of more poppy than i usually like... but let's be serious, i love the kid. he could sing anything and i would love it.

finished... finally.

So I finally finished Breaking Dawn. Most of you probably read it the week it came out and this is old news to you, but I really want to know what everyone thought of it. Come visit the reading blog & post your thoughts!

dietary restrictions.

Today I thought I would give you a glimpse into the kitchen of Sean and Ariel. First of all, let me say that I love trying new foods. I love Mexican, American, Chinese, Indian, Italian, Greek, Japanese and on and on. I'm not a great cook, but I like to try new recipes. Now. Sean. Sometimes cooking for the two of us gets a little tricky. Here are some of Sean's self proclaimed dietary restrictions:

- no visible onions, peppers, tomatoes {ironically, he will eat taco soup... so long as all ingredients are chopped so finely that you can't see them}.
- no spaghetti sauce, spinach, lemon, lime, seafood, cucumbers, cilantro, asparagus, oranges, sausage, squash, avacados.
- no leftovers.
- no fruit in dinner-foods {pizza, salads, etc.}.
- no "healthy stuff" {low fat sour cream, light hot dogs, wheat bread/pasta/tortillas, non-sugar cereals}.
- nothing too spicy.
- no green/lima/kidney/garbonzo/black beans {pinto only}.
- no fruity desserts {chocolate only}.
- no salad dressing other than ranch.
- no rice as a side {unless it's from a restaurant}.

As you can see, this slightly hinders my ability to try out new, exciting recipes {unless I want to eat it all by myself and then regret the whole thing}! Usually when I decide to make something new, I can just assume that Sean will be making grilled cheese for himself. Anyway... I still love him {of course!!}. Even if he is set in his bland food ways :) And there is some good news. He does like SOME foods {pizza. hamburgers. meat & potatoes. grilled cheese. watermelon. turkey sandwiches. broccoli. vanilla pudding. alfredo. steak. corn. lasagne.}.

happy happy bday.

to my lovely mother.

i hope you have a wonderful day. i can't wait for you to open your present on sunday :)

{have some cake}

camping gear.

This weekend we are going camping, so we decided it was finally time to buy a tent and sleeping bags! hooray! Sean and I went shopping last night for some camping gear. My selections were all based on cute-ness. Sean kept asking questions like, "what temperature will those sleeping bags keep you warm in?" and "Ariel... do you really want a 2 man tent just because it's the cutest one...?". And speaking of 2 man tents... they should call those 2 midget tents. or 2 children tents. Because there is no way that 2 men are sleeping comfortably in one of those. Anyway... luckily we found a cute orange tent {4 man} that we agreed on. Last night I was so excited that I made Sean put up the tent in the backyard the second we got home. I wanted to hang out in it all night, but he wasn't as excited about it. Here she is, our first tent. Isn't she a beauty?

the vacuum kid.

This is just too weird...

what we've been up to.

I haven't posted much about what we've been up to lately... so here we go! We had a really fun weekend. We drove down to St. George on Friday and went to see The Sound of Music with Jaimie & Josh... which was soooo good. The girl who played Maria was awesome. On Saturday we went out to dinner with Sean's family and then we all drove up to Cedar City to see Fiddler on the Roof... which was also sooooo good! We drove home after Fiddler and got home at 3am. So we were pretty lazy on Sunday :) Last night we went to Mueller Park with my family for a little picnic. We had a bonfire {see above} & made s'mores and played scum! We had lots of fun and then it got dark and cold, so we came home. It made me really want to go camping, and lucky me, we're going camping this weekend with some friends. hooray! August has been sooooooo busy for us, and it's only going to get busier in the next couple of weeks. So you might not hear much from us until September {yeah right... like I could not blog for 2 weeks...}!

reading list.

Maybe making a list will motivate me to read some of the books I own and have yet to read. There are many.

the book thief.
the secret garden.
the kite runner.
the chosen.
gone with the wind.
ella enchanted.
the holy secret.
ever.
the remains of the day.
a countess below stairs.
the memory keeper's daughter.
emma.
standing for something.
persuasion.
daniel deronda.

There are more... but I'm getting embarrassed about the length of this list! What should I start with? Any recommendations {besides the kite runner!}?

p.s. I just noticed that I have been spelling "embarrassed" wrong for as long as I can remember. I thought there was only one "r". I always thought I was a relatively good speller... maybe not!

4 years ago.

Sean and I started dating in August of 2004. We met at a party and about a week later, Sean went on a road trip to Canada with his brothers & dad. He left on the Friday of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Greece. I was in bed at home recovering from my lithotripsy the day before {oh, the joys of kidney stones}. Sean and I had been texting each other every day since the party. He thought I was making up the kidney stones as an excuse to not go out with him, but when he found out from Alicia that they were for real, he was very sweet :) He was leaving that afternoon for the road trip, but he bought some treats and had Alicia bring them to me. So that night, I layed on the couch, watching the openeing ceremonies, enjoying my diet coke & tootsie pops from Sean. After he got home from Canada, we went on our first date and were pretty much inseparable from that point on. We spent a lot of our time together in those early weeks watching the events, especially the swimming and diving. The Summer Olympics will always remind me of our early dating days. I can't believe it's been 4 years! Love you, Sean!

slow thursday mix.

1. movie stars and super models, the rocket summer
2. when did your heart go missing? rooney
3. come home, onerepublic
4. roxanne, the police
5. beautiful world, carolina liar
6. shut up and let me go, the ting tings
7. bend and break, keane
8. do the panic, phantom planet
9. not your concern, the hush sound
10. write you a song, the plain white t's
11. angels in the alleyway, merrick christensen feat. david archuleta
12. kiss me, sixpence none the richer
13. cannon ball, damien rice
14. remember to breathe, dashboard confessional
15. nolita fairytale, vanessa carlton
16. beautiful girls, sean kingston
17. city of love, persephone's bees
18. dream, priscilla ahn
19. jealous of the moon, nickel creek
20. shake it, metro station

loves.

1. peach fresca.
2. reading before bed.
3. dateline.
4. the chicken green chile quesadilla from bajio.
5. scripture study with sean.
6. road trips.
7. the mamma mia! soundtrack.
8. my one ddp per day :)
9. nude fingernail polish.
10. emailing jamie about jacob.
11. watching the news after work.
12. fridays.
13. saturdays.
14. sundays.
15. finally getting my hair done.
16. drooling over this recipe.
17. "write you a song", by the pwt's
18. going to b&n with sean.
19. this random catalog i got in the mail.
20. procrastinating getting ready for the day.

heather.

I had such a fun day with my sister, Heather, today. Before she came in to work, I changed her desktop picture to a lovely photograph of our favorite author/singer/songwriter/coach/keynote speaker/survivor {aka the "Johnny Appleseed of the 21st Century"}. I also set that website as Heather's homepage :) I burned a mix for her and threw in a song from Scout's album, Home on the Ranch, as a surprise {the song was Fly Like an Eagle if any of you want to hear some amazing tunes}. Anyway... enough about Scout! After work, we were going to have a read-a-thon so we could hang out but still do what we REALLY wanted to do... read some Twilight. Somehow we got sidetracked, though. We walked around Smith's Marketplace for a while, had ice-cream from Cold Stone for dinner, and then watched 2 seriously good episodes of Dateline. Our favorite part was when Dennis didn't suspect that his therapist was plotting a murder--even after the therapist asked him to rent a boat under someone else's name and find out where there were some shark infested waters. OH, Dennis.

Most of you are probably thinking, "what in the world is she talking about?". It's a sister thing, I guess. Love you, Heather!

missing.

I can't find my phone charger. My phone has been dead since yesterday morning... so if you have called/texted me and I haven't responded, that's why! Hopefully I find it soon...

DHS Reunion.

So this past month was my 10 year high school reunion. I had the caesar hair cut in high school to prove it! I'm almost embarassed to mention that. I was unable to attend the reunion because Ariel was in Boise that weekend. To make up for it I got together with some of my best friends from high school and went to lunch @ Cafe Rio. It's crazy to think about what all of us were doing 10 years ago. I remember sluffing school, eating breakfast at Doug and Emmy's, watching Rocky IV and playing pool at the Gardner estate. After lunch the thought of sluffing work to hang out like old times crossed our minds but then we remembered, we are 28 not 18 anymore. Let's be serious though, if I had any takers I would have sluffed work.

shhhhh.

No one tell me anything about it! I'm re-reading Eclipse before I start Breaking Dawn. Only 300 pages left... {Eclipse is LONG!}

P.S. I'm totally on team Jacob... just in case you wanted to know :)