Bigger and better things

A lot has happened since the last time I posted.

• We finished finals successfully!  We finished finals on Tuesday and finished the week with some fun spring activities that we didn't take any pictures of.
• I got in a car accident :( That darn University Avenue is a killer.  I have sworn not to drive on that road during any busy time of day.  I'm almost too embarrassed to put a picture up but I'm sure you are all dying to see what I did to our lovely, reliable, wonderful car. Before and after.

• Doesn't that just tear your heart out?  Well, everything worked out great, the car was considered a total loss and we received a lovely check from Geico a few short days later.  
• It took us almost a month to find a new car, but last week we finally bought one!  It is an 04 white Toyota Camry.  We are hoping it lasts us a long. LONG. time.  And I'm sure it will if we treat it nicely! (sorry we don't have pictures, but I promise it isn't very exciting)
• On April 23rd we celebrated our ONE YEAR anniversary!  Cool, huh?  My little brother told me that he never thought we'd make it this far.  We celebrated the day with a lovely walk, Costa Vida and a trip to the Riverwoods where we wasted $4 trying to win an iPad and then watched the Hunger Games!  Which we were both quite disturbed by.  Nonetheless, it was a great day!  We've had a really awesome year. Some of our favorite memories include our wedding (of course!), fun trips to Manti, Las Vegas, St. George, Logan and our honeymoon cruise, kayaking with my parents, the cabin with the Wilson's, rafting, hanging out with family, celebrating Christmas, dreaming about an iPad, getting an iPad(!!!! still the coolest thing either of us has ever owned), walking to school together every morning, date nights, dinners, me suggesting we go out for pizza but instead Riley makes one (happened at least once a week), fun parties, meeting new people in our  super cool ward, getting locked out of our apartment on several occasions, and many, many more!  
• Last weekend we went up to Logan to visit Brandon and Chelsie.  They showed us a pretty awesome hike that I may, or may not, have been extremely sore from the next day.  Pass the Popcorn is a really awesome game!
• Riley and I attempted a dutch oven pizza at Bridal Veil falls... after forgetting our lighter and trying to use a car cigarette lighter, riley drove down the canyon to get a lighter (talk about dedication).  Unfortunately not even that would make our two year old coals light...  we ended up cooking it in our oven at home and renting War Horse. 
• Riley took the GRE and did aawwessome!  We will keep you all informed when we figure out where we are going!  Which we won't know till.... next spring! Until then, folks!  (ok, I will most likely update before then...)

February...

Last week and this week have been veeeeeerrryy busy! Let me tell you why. 

Let’s start with Riley’s birthday!  We had the entire Wilson clan (minus J&E&B—sorry guys!) over for dinner.  It was so fun to have everyone over, despite how tired everyone was. 

Then on Sunday I spoke in church.  It was good and I am hoping I don’t have to do that again for several years….

Monday was President’s day but I don’t remember doing anything fun.  Oh wait! Merrill and LouJean took us out to dinner for Riley’s birthday

Tuesday we found out that Grandpa Schramm had cancer.  He was admitted the hospital to rehydrate. 

Wednesday, Riley and I visited Grandpa in the hospital and spent some time with LouJean.

Thursday was Copsicus!  We spent the day studying for exams. Riley took his big Econ test that day!  He hasn’t gotten his score back, but I bet it went well!

Friday Grandpa was moved home.  We went to visit him and spent a lot of time with family. 

Saturday, Riley and I bought a LOT of donuts.  Thankfully we didn’t eat too many.  I made an apple pie and Riley made a smoothie (if you can call it that) with strawberries, lime and ice.   Then we went to the temple where I got to do my Great Grandma Jean (Eugenia)’s temple work.  I am named after her and it was a really neat experience!  Afterwards my parents, and K&J came over for pie and Riley opened a few presents.   We had tickets to the BYU game but Riley and I bailed so we could go to Payson to visit with Grandpa.  Justin had flown into town that day and we got to hang with him and everyone else.  Then we rushed back for Stake Conference where we learned a lot of great stuff!!

Sunday we went to Stake conference and then back down to Payson.  Grandpa wasn’t doing so great. I am so glad that we got to spend some time with him. 

Monday we went back to school. Riley Serafine graciously helped me study for 3 hours!  What a champ.  Then we found out that Grandpa had passed away.  Riley and I are so grateful for the plan of salvation.  We know Grandpa is so happy to be with his wives and other family members.   Grandpa is one more person I look forward to meeting again after this life!

Tuesday, I took my Adolescent Development test.  100 multiple choice and 5 essays later I nearly fainted as I was leaving!  It went well though, so that’s a relief! 

Today is the 29^th!  Riley and I decided that today should be skipped all together.  Tomorrow should be Wednesday and today just doesn’t count!  We could sleep in and do something fun.  Then tomorrow would be March 1^st as usual.  Wouldn’t that be nice.  I guess though, that all the people with Birthdays and anniversaries would never get to celebrate. 

Hope you are all enjoying this wintery weather (finally) and hope it doesn’t last long! 

FHE

I feel like a lot has happened since a few weeks ago.... let's see. School is hard and long! But that's not new, I guess. We finally got some snow, I was wondering what happened to Utah, "The Greatest Snow on Earth".  As much as I don't like walking in the snow it sure is pretty to look at. But now I feel like we should have a Christmas re-do. Who's with me! Another 3 weeks off school....

Last night for FHE we made valentine boxes.  We used to make them in Elementary school and I loved it!  I am glad we did it.  They are the only Valentine decorations we have and I think they are great.  Riley made his, but didn't want to claim the sparkly letters.  I think they are cute.  You are all welcome to stop by and put a valentine in there :) (Kidding, they are mostly for us)

On February 13th Riley will be taking the GRE.  This determines our fate for the next several years of our lives! No pressure or anything.  Needless to say Riley has been using every spare minute to study. His practice tests have gone pretty well so I have great confidence in him!! Someone the other day told me that the GRE is easy. I definitely don't believe that person.  I think it is hard and stressful- it takes a lot of work!

Can you believe January is coming to a close? Me either.  A month has past since Christmas.  A whole month! We celebrated Copsicus again yesterday and ate delicious cake waffles and ice cream in traditional Copsicus style.  Even though it wasn't a great day at school or work for either of us, the evening was great! FHE, box making and treats. Copsicus  is great!

three weeks in...

Remember how a few weeks ago I blogged about how I wasn't excited to start school this year and so sad that summer is ending? Well, as school started I actually did get excited about it! See, look how happy we were on the first day of school!

No... we are not on our way to church! We just have to dress up. Every. Single. Day.

Anyway. We are now into school 3 weeks and I wish we had never started! Suddenly we have math tests. In fact, last night Riley and I were both tossing and turning. He couldn't stop thinking about equations and I couldn't stop thinking about how I will never understand statistics. See! Our lives have been turned upside down.
Here is another example to prove my point. You all know (and remember, I'm sure) that we got married on April 23rd, AKA Copsicus. Well, even before we got married we celebrated this holiday each month. Over the summer it was just an excuse to have even more fun than normal! Now it is just a way that we can stay sane!! It's tomorrow, by the way, and I can't wait another second. For some reason Copsicus just makes the day better. It's something to look forward to all month because we both know that we HAVE to make time to celebrate.

Now, I'm sure you are all wondering, "Allison, if you are so busy, how do you have time to blog?" Well, folks, I just finished a practice test for my stats test tomorrow and have to stay on campus for a review that won't end until 9. I left home at 7:30 this morning. AND it's an 'I didn't wash my hair and regret it' day. So I decided I could take 15 minutes and write about whatever I want!


On the bright side, the mountains are turning colors! (even though it's a sign of winter approaching, it sure is pretty) and I made this little beauty for our bed! If you zoom in you can see that I stitched on the big flower and bird and then outlined everything else. It was a kit my mom found on ebay! So fun to work on.

 Let's hope BYU does well tomorrow.... Maybe it will be a Copsicus miracle!