The Twilight BUZZ

Oh No He Didn't! But yes, he did...Movie Edward cut his hair. What do you think!? Love it, hate it? We need to address this! I've heard that the filmmakers for Twilight have told him when he can and can't cut his hair. Does this mean that we have to wait for Rob's hair to grow back before filming New Moon!?

Wedding Bells

Here is my gorgeous sister-in-law (ya know, the OTHER Ashley Henry) and her new handsome husband Dallin. We had the greatest time at their wedding reception last night and are SO happy for the newlyweds! No more A.Henry "squared," there is now only one Ashley Henry and Ashley Calaway. Congratulations you two, have a wonderful week. We are so happy to have Dallin in the family, and he now brings the Henry total to 26! Crazy, I know...but fun all at the same time. We now are going to rest from the stress, play board games, eat lots of food, and enjoy the rest of our break! Happy Holidays Everyone!

Goodbye Lautner

Two posts, one day, crazy I know. But I had to pay my respects. Can it be true? No official announcement yet, but this news was on Facebook. Goodbye Lautner. I will REALLY miss you (you became my perfect Jacob)...

Hello Michael Copon. I've seen you in all the One Tree Hill episodes and Bring it On part 12 (and you were pretty good in OTH) I hope you know you have BIG shoes to fill...no literally, I'm pretty sure Jacob has big feet.

So what do you guys think of this change in our lovable werewolf Jacob Black? Also, I've heard the tentative release date of New Moon is November 20, 2009...I'm loving the sound of that! And if you don't have any idea what this post is about, go see the movie Twilight already. Go see it right now!

Finals (Dun-Dun-Dunn)

One thing I will be happy about when I finish school is not having to take final exams anymore! For the next two days (Friday and Saturday), all classes have been canceled (Really, who has classes on a Saturday!?) and they become "Reading Days," aka prep days before finals week starts on Monday. I don't know anyone at BYU who actually uses there Saturday reading day, ALL DAY, to prepare for finals (There are probably those out there that do, but most likely not friends of mine.).

I really think this policy should change to Thursday and Friday reading days. (I'm sure BYU will probably track me down and say I have to remove my comments, but I do love this school in SO many ways, but I have to admit that their reading days are rather ridiculous.) Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard Harvard gets a week to 2 weeks off to study before Finals? And BYU-Idaho doesn't even have a finals week. My sister-in-law Ashley is done today, last day of classes is the last day of school. As how it should be! Thanks for letting me get on my soap box, and now I'm going to jump down and start studying. Have a great weekend everyone.

The weather outside is Frightful

It's snowing in Provo today, the first "real" snow. I hate snow, maybe it's because I grew up in a place where when it snows two inches they cancel school. It's cold and wet and when walking up to campus in it, it's no fun. Don't get me wrong, I do like a white Christmas, but I wish it would just come around once a year. I feel just like this bird in the picture, trapped.

Too Hot to Trot

Over Thanksgiving break my friend Wendy and I ran in our first race, The 5th Annual Turkey Trot. It was freezing, it was early, but it was fun! The race was just a 5k but we were proud of ourselves for waking up early on Thanksgiving morning to run in it. Here we are before the race, about to turn into popsicles...

Then we had to wait for the gun shot. It was PACKED, 2400 people!

3.1 Miles in 30 minutes, no stopping! Here we are still smiling after the race, I promise we didn't smile through the whole thing. Thanks Wendy for being such a good partner and allowing me to "woo" at every mile marker, it was so fun to run with you!

P.S. Marilyn we looked out everywhere for you and Brandon, we figured Brandon would be the first one to the finish line but Marcus didn't see him. How did it go for you!?

Just a thought...

Do you ever feel like you just can't catch up? For instance, you get all the way through all the posts of your Google reader and then right when your closing out, there's 5 new posts? I do, and playing catch up is no fun. I can't wait for the week to be over! Hi Movie Edward, how are you doing today?

Twi-Enlightened

Are you wondering what I thought? I loved it of course. Okay, truthfully I didn't "love" it the first time I saw it, but the second time was greatness. I went in expecting it wasn't going to be as good as the book, but two hours of Rob would be enough! The first time I saw it, I kept comparing the movie to the book and when the movie ended WAY too soon, I sat in shock that it was over. I couldn't believe it! I'm not going to go into detail, but you know all of us Twilight-obsessive fans were all thinking the same things: Emotionless Bella, Jasper looked pained, Rob had few facial expressions, and the glittering skin looked like sweat (Did anyone else think so too?) etc, etc.

BUT what made this movie better, was seeing it for the second time. I knew what to expect and could sit back and enjoy it. Now, I feel like I'm going through withdrawals, I can't wait to see it again! Here are some of my favorite things from the movie:
ROSALIE: "How do we know she even likes Italian?"
EMMETT: "Well...her name is Bella."

When Edward and Bella step out of the car together. He looks great in those shades. That scene is perfect.

Jasper's skills with the baseball bat. Did you catch those?

EDWARD: "You better hold on tight, spidermonkey." I almost died laughing.

Overall, I just loved the Cullens and the nonvampires. Eric was hilarious and Mike Newton was adorable. I was so impressed by Rosalie and Emmett too. Loved them both, and Alice of course. So if your wondering why you hated it the first time so much, go see it again. And if that doesn't work, third time's the charm, or so I hear.

P.S. Marcus finally read Twilight, I know right? Finally.

Hawaii Revisited

I've tried to think of the best way to make this post, but no matter what I came up with, it was bound to be one thing: LONG. So because this blog is somewhat like a journal to us, we decided to just post it all in one post. If you want, you could either sit down and read it all the way through, or you can leave halfway through reading it-grab some hot choco, and come back and read some more, or skip this post completely. Whatever you readers decide to do, here it is:

FRIDAY: We had an itinerary. So we did a lot. We left on Friday morning and flew out of SLC on a direct flight to Honolulu. The airline food which consisted of a chicken sandwich and Pringles was expensive, but good. As soon as we got to our hotel, we hit the beach that was about 50 feet away. It was warm and the sun was setting, we were in Hawaii or maybe it was Heaven, I couldn't tell. That night we watched a firework show on the beach and the fireworks echoed off the hotels and made us feel like we were in Pearl Harbor. It was kinda creepy, I'm not gonna lie. But the fireworks were awesome!

SATURDAY: We woke up at 4 in the morning (remember the time change), and we ran on a 3 mile run to Leonard's Bakery (one of the local donut shops you never hear about till after you've gone, luckily we knew about it beforehand). Seems kind of ironic right, running to a donut shop? Yeah it was, but the "malazadas" aka Brazilian donuts were so good (Leonard's was a favorite on the trip, and we must have ate there 10 times)! Later that day after a quick swim in the ocean, we met up with Dave and Tara who flew in. With Emmie too! I could write a whole post on beautiful Emiline but we will have to save that for another time. That afternoon we hit the Aloha Swap Meet and Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was great, I learned so much about it that when I left I had an even greater appreciation for the men that serve our country. Because the harbor is so shallow, many of the boats are still in the harbor. We saw the USS Arizona (about 1,000 bodies are still trapped inside, making it somewhat of burial ground to many).

SUNDAY: We went to church and got kicked out of the singles ward and over to the family ward. The church building was beautiful. I can't even begin to describe it, luckily Bill (Marcus' dad) took lots of pictures. After church we went to the Iolani Palace, where the Queen of Hawaii lived and was imprisoned in her house. Not a bad place to be held, right? She was also believed to be a member of the church, a book of Mormon was on her nightstand. Then we saw the King's place, a really old cemetary, where he was buried, and some mission homes. Then we headed up to the National Memorial Cemetery. It. Was. Sweet. Gorgeous views, very spiritual and all of the names of the MIA soldiers. Then we drove to the Pali lookout where you could see the other half of the island, it was gorgeous to be that far up in the mountains looking down onto Oahu.

MONDAY: We got our Snorkel equipment from Snorkel Bob and headed south to Hanauma Bay. We snorkeled for hours and saw sea turtles, beautiful fish, oh, and a shark. No way, right? But we did, it was about 6 feet. Luckily it was a vegan shark, like on Finding Nemo, but it did scare us at first! Especially, Jen. I think she could rival Olympian Michael Phelps if you told her a shark was behind her. Hanauma Bay was by far one of my favorite places, when you think of Hawaii, this is the place you think of, it was beautiful. After leaving Hanauma, we went to the Valley of the Temples. It was a Japanese garden/cemetery just like one's in Japan, with a Buddha and everything. It was pretty neat but it had way to many mosquitoes. If you consider 19 bites too many! I must have sweet blood, I bet Edward would like it :) That night we went to dinner at Bennihana's (Thanks ash for the recommendation). It's a teppanyaki grill where they cook everything right there in front of you and our chef did fancy tricks and built us a onion volcano. Check out the pics below! Oh, and the food was good too!

TUESDAY: We woke up and hiked to Manoa Falls, the falls were okay, but the hike up to it was beautiful, very lush and green. Perfect for pictures. Then we packed up our snorkel gear and headed up to the North Shore. The North Shore has some of the biggest waves in the world and professional surfers come during the winter to surf pipeline. These waves were cool to see but, Haleiwa, the infamous beach town, has also the greatest burger and shaved ice place ever! The burger joint was called Kua'Aina, and the pineapple burger was about the size of my face. No really, it was. But the best part: Aoki's shaved ice. I love shaved ice, it's probably my favorite food if you can call it that. It was unbelievable. YUM! Then we went to Shark's cove to snorkel. We swam in schools of fish, and saw tons of tropical fish that you could pretty much reach out and touch. The water is so clear in Hawaii that you can see everything. This time though, no sharks, seems kinda ironic though since we were in shark's cove. That night we went to the Cirque De Soleil show, Saltimbanco. I can't explain how amazing these shows are: acrobats, contortionists, and circus to the extreme. The show was fantastic and we even met up with Ashton and Becca at the show. Yes, they were in Hawaii too at the same time! And no we didn't plan it.

WEDNESDAY: We went to the Laie LDS Temple and did a session. It is a beautiful temple and after the session we had lunch on the beach. After lunch we went around BYU-Hawaii and considered transferring there on the spot, trust me, you would have too! After that we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We went to all of the "villages" and saw natives from the islands of Tonga, Samoa, and Aotearoa put out fire with their feet, climb palm trees, bang on drums, and do the haka (if you watch the BYU football team, you might recognize this!). That night we went to a Luau, ate roasted pig, watched some entertainment, and had as much POG (passion orange guava-deliciousness) as we could handle. Then was the Horizon Night Show. I find this really interesting, everyone at the cultural center goes to BYU-Hawaii and in the afternoon students work at the cultural center to help pay for tuition. At night they put on a show of dancing and flame throwing. Unbelievable. These students had SO much talent.

Check out these girls and guys shake it from the PCC-Tahiti, it's unreal.

THURSDAY: As our trip started coming to an end, we went back to the North Shore. More Aoki's and more snorkeling. Although the waves were too big that day so we couldn't snorkel, so instead we rented boogie boards. We saw some sea turtles at Waimea Bay and about a half hour later got called out of the water for a shark spotted in the bay. They said it was about 7 to 8 feet and this was no vegan shark! So for the next hour we watched the crazy surfers and big waves roll in. These waves were unbelievable! After awhile we were adventurous enough to go back in. After we practiced our boogie boarding skills on the smaller waves, Marcus, Cory, Jen and I took our chances on the big waves. We almost died. No really, we were really luckily, we were also really stupid. Crazy. That's what we were. After awhile we went back to our kiddie waves. In the afternoon, we went back to the PCC to see some more of the villages and then that night we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, it was delicious, as always!

FRIDAY: Came too quickly. At sunrise we went to Diamond Head and watched the sunrise, and then during the morning we played on the beach. That afternoon we hit up the Premium Outlets, found TONS of great stuff, and then went back to our hotel to watch the fireworks again on the beach. Our flight was a red eye and didn't leave till 10:30 PM! So we had an uncomfortable sleepless night on the airplane, went to Seattle and had an uncomfortable sleep on the airport floor, and then jumped on the plane to SLC.

I can now say that we've officially recovered from our trip. I'm sorry this was so long, but it IS for memory purposes. We loved every minute of our time spent with family members and want to give a BIG thanks to Bill and Carolyn for everything they did for us. Also, thanks to Marcus for my the early Christmas present (SLR camera!) so that I can finally document our trips like I remember them. As for now, we are still suffering from Hawaii withdrawals and in the market for a Snowie machine.

Aloha

We just got back yesterday from our amazing Hawaiian vacation. And amazing it was, but also very exhausting! We went snorkeling a few times, did the Polynesian Cultural Center, saw a Cirque de Soleil show, and tried our luck on the Hawaiian pipeline. But as for right now, we have to catch up on a lot of missed homework and sleep. As soon as we're caught up though, we'll fill you in on all the details and pictures from our trip! But here's a few to tide you over until then...

Here's the group, minus Tara and Dave. They came along with little Emiline too, but this was our first night in Waikiki and we couldn't wait to test out the waters.

Autumn

It's officially fall now at the Y, and we're going camping tonight with Jen and Cory. Apparently it's suppose to get down to 28 degrees, so we all might come back looking like Snowmen.

We Are Still Alive and Kickin

So, it's been forever since we've posted, I'm sorry for our absence, not abstinence but ABSENCE. Let me catch you up on all of our happenings, we've been busy with Schoolwork...and well, Schoolwork...and, what do ya know, more Schoolwork... See, I told you you haven't missed much. We're trying to get everything done before our trip to Hawaii! I can't wait, and I'm not trying to brag about it, we're just really excited. I'm just sure one day I'm going to come home seeing Marcus with his coconut bra and grass skirt swaying to the Island Beats. He's stoked about it too.

We leave next Friday and already in class my mind is on Hawaii: "Social control theory is...'I wonder how warm the water will be? I cant wait for the cultural center and temple, will it be humid there? Should I really bring my straightener then, oh I can't wait for shaved ice!'...What is social control theory again?"

Last FHE we went over to Jen and Corys and carved pumpkins, it has become sort of a Halloween tradition for Marcus and I. So in honor of our current BYU Football status, say hello to our pumpkin...

For those of you who missed last Thursdays' game (first, you didn't miss much), and second, "The Quest" of BCS Bowl Game dreams was diminished

Here's a group shot of everyone, the other two in the picture are Jen and Cory's friends The Housleys. Not to mention she is also a student in the Sociology Major with me, so just for that she's pretty cool. Have a fantastic day everyone

Run, Ashley, Run

"You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. I've given myself a thousand reasons to quit running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement."

Okay, so I have been frequently asked, if I'm still running? For the record, I'm not a runner, in fact, I've never really enjoyed it. It's hard, kinda boring, and tiring but I have stuck to it AND I even enjoy it now! I anticipate and get little butterfiles about the next time I'm going to run and of course by the end of it, I'm dead tired, but it's getting better. I have finally worked up to 2.5 miles! I know it's not much, but this is coming from the girl that couldn't even run a mile; probably not even a half a mile! My sister in law Jen, pointed me to a great website, MapMyRun and you can figure out your mileage before you go. It's a great way to push yourself to just go a little farther each time.

Me and two of my girlfriends from back home are working towards a Marathon or half Marathon in May...whichever we end up feeling most comfortable with. So if any of you know of any good ones to race in this Spring, let me know! We've all been working really hard, and it's something I've always wanted to do.

So if your thinking about running, JUST DO IT, as Nike would say. One thing I've learned, running is a mental game! Oh and having a good partner (like Marcus) is definately beneficial too! But sorry ladies, he's not for sale!

The Big Day

Marcus takes his LSAT test this morning! I am excited/nervous/and relieved it's finally going to be over and I'm not even the one taking it! I can't imagine what he must be feeling, please keep him in your prayers :)

Luckily we have this to look forward to after it's all said and done, and you can even watch it too!

Tag!

So I was tagged a few weeks ago by my sister-in-law Rachel, and because it was my first tag I couldn't stand her up on it! So the rules are to tell 5 things that are unique about you. It took me awhile to think about it because the things that I do, don't seem that unique to me; however, then I asked Marcus and he seems to think I'm very unique because he came up with a list full!

Here they are in all their glory (don't hate):

1. When I go in to use the bathroom, I have to turn the water facet on. Call it stage fright, nerves, a waste of water, whatever. I just can't go without it, even if I'm in a restroom or at my own home! This has become one of my biggest pet peeves about BYU campus bathrooms, they are SO quiet. I'll go into the restroom to only come out five minutes later not having gone.

2. My freshman year in college I would often tease my roommate about her color coordinated closet. I thought it was pretty funny at first, but then she came and helped me with mine and it has forever changed my closet! I don't know how I got by with 18 years of my life without it. It's the only way I am able to find anything. So if any given day you come over to our apartment, there you can see my clothes in rainbow order. It's one of the only things that's organized all the time!

3. I love random foods. My obsession: frozen gummy bears, cherry pie filling (yes right out of the can) and Jello (preferably raspberry). Marcus loves Jello so much too that when we make it we have to cut a line down the middle and claim our "sides." That way he won't eat out of my side and I can't eat out of his. We're a very politically correct couple.

4. For those of you who know Marcus really well, you may know that he has one of the smallest bladders known to mankind. Even in his youth on family trips, he was often the "butt" (pun intended) of getting picked on for stopping every hour to use the bathroom. I, however, am on the opposite end of the spectrum. I have made the trip from Provo to Pasco (10 hours) many a time without using the bathroom. It's not like I hold it in misery, I just don't have to go! Marcus was proud once when he only had to stop twice on that same trip, (he ain't got nothin on me!)

5. When it comes to bacon, I love it, but not like most people! I love when a bacon is crispy on one side and has the bacon fat along the other. But in my household, we don't call it fat, we call it "the skinny." I don't know when I started calling it that but when my mom would cook bacon I would ask for the Skinny pieces, now my brother does it too...how contradictory is that, skinny bacon? Oh well, whatever makes you eat it with a little less guilt!

Thanks Rach for making me realize just how weird I am! Now I tag: Laurel, Kristina, Brenna, Brianne, & Megan

Is It Christmas Yet?

Well my good friend Megan posted on her blog a great idea that her Stake is currently doing, and she was gracious enough to share it with all of us blogging buddies. From today (Wednesday) there are 100 days till Christmas...
The challenge: For the next 100 days leading up to Christmas you have to give 100% of yourself to the gospel. It's a lot, I know, but it is already things we should be doing. I think it is a great idea to remind us what is really important in our lives. So here is the list of requirements:

Daily
Individual and family prayer
Individual and family scripture study
Acts of love and compassion to spouse (roommates or family)

Weekly
Date with spouse (or girl's night out...for my sassy single friends :)
Family home evening
Sabbath observance at ward of record
Magnify your calling

Monthly
Fast and payment of tithes and offerings
Temple Attendance
Home and Visiting Teaching

So, are you up for the challenge?

Rise and Shout, The Cougars are Out

WE LOVE BYU FOOTBALL!

Now that we're back to the swing of things at school, we have become fully immersed in Cougar Blue fever. Marcus pretends he's a BYU football player on the intramural field while I participate in the First Wives Club along the sidelines, (We rarely watch, and mostly talk, but dedicated to our men nonetheless). Even though they're not really BYU football players they did look a lot like them winning 54-7. Meanwhile, the real Cougars are unstoppable this year, and this weekend was nothing different! After this weekends game, we left with Snowies, Sunburns, and Good Stories. BCS Busters? We think so.
After our controversial win against UofW last week, one look at this weekend's scoreboard should be plenty of proof that we deserved to win, controversy or not.

Back to school, Back to school, To prove to Dad that I'm not a fool

And no, this picture is not of me. Although it is what I feel like at the moment; which definitely counts for something.

One last year! Yes, it is finally here. After many years, Marcus and I are finally at our Super Senior year of BYU. However, Marcus starts Law School next year so he's not quite done, yet. What a past few days we have had. After an enjoyable one week (summer break) back at home, Marcus and I drove to Provo then unpacked into our apartment on Monday.

Yesterday we started classes bright and early and they went much better than expected. In the years past, I would walk up to campus and try to avoid any people (bad roommates, old exes, etc.) that might be lurking on campus. But this year all of them have graduated. Yahoo! So I can now walk around campus in bliss and not be afraid of running into an old foe. (For example, When walking into a grocery store, you see someone from high school, and instead of saying hello, you turn your gaze and walk the other way.) I do it all the time. In fact, me and one of my college roommates, Brianne, would often do this and when we would see someone on campus, we would send out the text message "Code Blue!" to each other. It's not that I don't like to be friendly, it's just that by avoiding those "people-you-don't-want-to-see" you avoid any awkward confrontations. Do any of your do this? It's a terrible habit, but hopefully I'm not alone.

As for our classes, Marcus and I both scheduled all of them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we only go to school two days a week! Sounds like a breeze right? Well, truth is that means we are on campus (in classes) from 8am to 6:30pm which are some LONG DAYS I tell ya. By the end of the day, my brain is fried. Poor Marcus, he is taking the LSAT on October 4th so he goes to classes on Tues and Thurs. and studies all day for the LSAT on Mon, Wed, Fri, and Sat. So again, I am faced with the dilemma of not having a husband around. So what do I do all day? I study a lot, I'm starting a new workout program (Okay so I just started today, but trust me, it's an accomplishment that I even started), and I can now spend my days on campus, avoidance free! I'm excited to see what else this semester will have in store for us.

The Life of a Seller's Wife: Volume 2

If you really want to know, yes, I(Marcus) am finally posting on this blog for the first time. Sure I put in a thing or two here and there when Ashley posts but this one I'm doing on my own. Sorry to dissapoint but there won't be any pictures but I wanted to share some insights into the life of a seller's wife from the seller's point of view. Honestly, I just want everyone to know how amazing Ashley really is, here is what she's been through. We drove 1700 miles out here, she didn't complain. She was immediately thrown into cheap living conditions where she would sit all day, and didn't complain, she just made it work. Most of the conditions, which most of you know, were gross hotel rooms. She was surrounded by guys all summer long without having any girls to spend time with, and she pulled it off with ease. She lived off of food that could be made in a microwave, stored in a mini fridge, or bought at a fast food restaurant (Might not sound too bad but trust me, you get sick of it REAL quick). She had to deal with 15 not-always-pleasant-or-cooperative secretaries at the end of each month, and then got back into the car and drove 1700 miles just to hear 3 days later that her husband was driving 1700 miles back to where they just came from for 2 more weeks. As I sit here in a motel room in Kansas for one more night, I think of what an awesome wife I have and how amazing she really is. I must say that I put her through the ringer this summer and she pulled it off as smooth as can be expected. I know tomorrow will be the longest day as I wait to get back to Washington and to her, who, has to drive 2 hours to Spokane to pick me up:) That is the REAL story of "The Life of a Seller's Wife" that everyone should know about. More than anything, that's the story of my wife who I love so much for everything she has done this summer and who I want to say "Thank you" to.

Top Things We Love About the Olympics:

It's an addiction I tell ya. The Olympics not only bring countries together but us to our television screens as well. I can't stop watching. And now as the Olympics start to come to a close, here is some of our favorite Olympic moments.

10. Countries joining together as one. The opening ceremonies were filled of President Bush checking his watch, never-ending drum solos, and countries, countries, and more countries. But when the earthquake survivor joined Yao Ming around the track, it was priceless. I was excited to see the much anticipated Ralph Lauren Parade outfits and they were clean and classy; however, they did resemble sailors and I would have preferred the women in skirts to pants. But did you know this is a 9 piece ensemble! I could only count 5...
9. United States vs. Brazil..Volleyball! Both the men's and women's volleyball teams are playing Brazil on Saturday and Sunday for the gold. Don't miss it! The men's team is SO fun to watch and a member of the team (Ryan Millar) is a graduate from BYU and has high hopes to coach there one day. I think an Olympic gold medal would look great on a resume, don't you?

8. Lying around watching TV, but not feeling guilty about it. 10-2 is the daily schedule on NBC, then all afternoons on the Oxygen Channel. By 8 o'clock it's back to NBC. I just can't help myself, no matter what the sport.

7. Ryan Lochte (aka Mr. Dimples). He won the gold twice in swimming, but more than that, he is great eye candy (on the right).

6. Men's Basketball. I just couldn't put an image of the team on the blog because they all have a big enough images already. I will admit that I made fun of Lebron for "guaranteeing" that the U.S. basketball team would win the gold; however, Lebron and his teammates are proving themselves right. Who would have thought all of those egos could play together so well and actually win! Final game is this weekend.

5. Beach Bums...Did you see these two (Rogers/Dalhausser)? To put it simply: Amazing, and oh so fun to watch. I thought this picture fit perfectly to sum up all of their games. He's huge! They went for the gold and got it too, along with the girls team as well! 4. It's just a Marathon. Okay, so she's not from the U.S. but she is inspirational. She's from Romania and ran the marathon in 2 hours and 26 minutes. I couldn't help but cheer for her. Oh yea, and she's 38. Incredible, right?

3. Women's Gymnastics. I loved every single minute of drama from this years women's Olympics. From debatable scoring to age requirements, its been quite the event. Overall though, I couldn't help myself but to cheer on this adorable gymnast, Shawn Johnson. It's always hard to come in second to a great gymnast like Nastia Liukin but when she finally won the gold on the balance beam I couldn't have been happier for her. What amazing teammates and friends these girls are.

2. Seeing dreams come true. Although we were robbed of the gold a few times, Nastia Liukin finally accomplished her dreams of winning the Women's All Around competition in a tight race with China. She also walked away with a total of 5 medals tying the most ever in gymnastics. Her father (who was also an Olympic gymnast) was so proud of his daughter that it could make anyone shed a tear.1. Michael Phelps. Eight gold medals. It was just a walk in the park, or history in the making, Hello! Phelps is the epitome of the American dream-With hard work and discipline you can accomplish anything. Look at his arm span. It's basically, as long as my body...

We are so proud as Americans for all our athletes have accomplished.
So have you been keeping up with the Olympics and what are some of your favorite Olympic moments?

There's no place like...Kansas?

The Life of A Seller's Wife. Volume I.

Yep, Portland sure didn't last long, a whooping 3 days to be exact. All of you who doubted us staying in Portland for long... well,... you were right.

So what now? Let me tell ya, Marcus and a few other guys are going BACK to Kansas for 3 more weeks. Shocking, I know.

I couldn't believe it either, which is why I'll be working from home until he gets back. I've been a very dedicated wife this summer, but I'll be honest, I couldn't bear the thought of driving back to Kansas either! Now I am all alone while my other half is all the way across the country. How lame.

There was one good thing though that came out of going to Portland. After her post about these cupcake delights, I just couldn't help myself. They. Are. Divine. I tell ya. If you have a chance to stop, do it. And then take some to go too! They don't disappoint!

Team Marcus

I'm sorry for the recent blogging absence, but I have been a bit preoccupied with reading Breaking Dawn. I made a promise to myself to slowly read every chapter, every small detail and take in all Bella and Edward moments by savoring it! I also didn't want to read any spoilers so I have restrained myself for the past few weeks to not just jump on the internet and read them all. I have now finally finished and have enjoyed every minute of Bellward Bliss! It was all I hoped for and more!


Now to my delight...I get to share these pictures with you from the Breaking Dawn Release Party at midnight that I went to. (For reals though, was there any doubt that I wouldn't go?) I went to the local Barnes and Noble's party in support of Breaking Dawn, and of course, they were having a costume contest.
The contest was based upon who could be the best bridesmaid and groomsmen for Edward and Bella. I, personally, thought we were the best dressed. Did I say "we"? Oh yes, my amazing, I can't believe my wife is making me do this , talented and loving husband even dressed up as a groomsmen. The winners received Twilight t-shirts and got to receive their books first at midnight. Before I get all of your hopes up, we didn't win. We lost to the Satanic groomsmen and the bridesmaid "who looked like she stepped out of the 80's" but it was still fun to think of us as Cullen's for the night. Team Edward or Team Jacob? Puh-leez,...I had my very own Marcus Cullen! (Kinda has a nice ring to it.)
Here we are crouching ready to spring on the nearby humans. What can I say? It's a newborn thing.My mom, she's such a great Twilight fan, as well as a fellow Team Edward Member. We love her dedication to such a great cause. Here we are with my younger cousin Jennae (a beautiful bridesmaid, who I think would make a great Rosalie) and my Aunt Caryle. My aunt is a Twi-hard. She started the book and finished it on Saturday...and, oh yeah, did I mention that she almost had it finished again by Sunday!? Definite Twi-hard material.
With my great newborn eyesight and sense of smell, I was able to find another member of the Cullen clan. Here's a picture of me and fellow twilighter, Alicia. We have gone through every Breaking dawn quote, every aching countdown minute and more to finally get our books. Here we are FINALLY with our prized possessions. This final picture was all of my excitement in one. Being number 45 in line never felt so good. We were out the doors reading by 12:13am. What a fantastic night! Hope you all enjoyed the book as much as I did!