A Utah Man sir, will be 'til I die. KI-YI!!!

We spent Saturday night at the Utah vs. Wyoming football game. The first have half was unremarkable...just field goal after field goal.

(It was Halloween and all the crazies came out. Check the girl on the right whose hair, yes hair, is blocking the 25 yard line.)

It was the blackout game, hence the excessive black clothing...

The second quarter yeilded a better game and Utah finally pulled their heads out and won it for us!

Way to go UTES!!!

I picked a winner

No, really.

I married a winning fool.

I think he bought a special phone that makes him win every. single. radio. contest. For reals. To date he has won:

• Lagoon season passport/one day pass
• Tickets to the RV show. Why did he call to win these you ask? No one knows. I don't think he even knew what he was winning. He just hears, call now! and he does. And he wins.
• Tickets to a concert that we couldn't go to because I'm not 21. That's what he gets for robbin' the cradle.
• A Newfoundglory CD and an entry to win a trip to Orlando. We didn't win the trip :(
• 2 tickets to the Thriller dance show Halloween night.

And this is just in the 7 months that we've been married. I can't account for the 23 years of his life before we met. I've never won ANYTHING! He's ruh.dic.u.lous.

At least I'm benefitting from his awesomeness...

HAMSTUH RACE!

Oh the adventure of the hamster race....

As per the hamster race "training schedule" (real, not fake), I let my hamstuh rest the day before the race and he was definitely ready to run when we got to Petco.

Oh yes...I was excited. As were the other contestants. The other 4-9 YEAR OLD CONTESTANTS. That's right, I was competing against little kids. I'm cool like that. Anyways, so we had to sign a liability sheet for our hamsters and there was a line for the participant's signature and a parent's signature (if you're under 16. Which everyone was. But me). Obviously I only signed the one line. I get called back up.

"Amanda?"

"Um, yeah?"

"Uh...how old are you?"

"20. That's right, 20. So back off Petco. I don't need no parent signature."

Well the race is about to start and Mr. Petco announces that "All the kids need to come to the front and sit down on the blue line. Parents have to stand behind."

Awesome.

I'm sitting on a Petco floor, Indian style, next to a 4 year old and his gerbil.

While my loving husband laughed at me with the parents.

And also captured this video of how awesome I am. Enjoy.

And try not to laugh too hard.

Cosmo is in the little green ball....

Needless to say, we did not win. Too little too late Cosmo!

However we did score a 20% off coupon which we used to buy more bedding. The cashier consoled me, "Maybe next year..." Joshua also gave me a whole quarter to use at the quarter machines (I got skittles) and then bought me some new nail polish. Oh! And a new bedspread that was on sale. Soooo....pretty good day, despite the disappointment that is my hamster.

Our growing family...

I would like to make an announcement....

(drum roll)

........

...........

.............

.................

......................

..................................

I am NOT pregnant!!!

Yay!

So for the love stop asking me if I am every time I have a tummyache.

In other news.....

Meet Victoria and Jerry.

(please excuse the cloudy water, Joshua hasn't cleaned their bowl yet)

And innntttrrrrouuuuuuuuducing....

Cosmoooo and Gizmooooo!!!!!!!

Yeah that's right, we made a maze for our hamsters. And they could kick your hamster's TRASH at it. Boo yah.

Winnuh winnuh chickun dinnuh! This little fellow won the right to be entered into the Petco Hamster Ball Derby on October 3rd. Where he will bring home the gold. Awww yeah.

Don't judge me

Hi. My name is Amanda and I'm addicted to Days of our Lives.

Hi Amanda.

Seriously, Don't judge me.

What's not to love? You've got family feuds, love triangles, love squares, baby swapping, murders, drug smugglers, teenage HS drama, back stabbing mother-in-laws, hunky guys, the mob, affairs, twins who have different fathers (?!), blackmailing, kidnapping, everyone sleeping with everyone, etc, etc.

My favorite plot line thus far includes some good ol' fashioned baby swapping. See if you can keep up. So Sami and Nicole are both pregnant. By the same guy (but that's another story). Nicole ends up having a miscarriage but doesn't want anyone to know so she pretends to continue her pregnancy and finds a pregnant teenager, Mia, who wants to get rid of her baby secretly. Meanwhile Sami has her baby, baby Grace, the same day as Mia has hers (of course). Nicole takes Mia's baby, baby Sydney, and for some unknown reason, switches baby Sydney and baby Grace. This all happened before I started watching and I can't quite figure out why she did it. Anywho, fast forward a couple months and baby Grace dies. DIES. Yeah. Pretty heavy stuff. Sami is dating this ex-FBI agent, Raef, and Nicole is super parinoid about him finding out her secret. Which she should be because Raef is hot on the trail of Dr. Baker, the doctor who switched the babies and has been blackmailing Sami ever since. Raef finally tracks Dr. Baker in the Dominican Republic but he's DEAD. Dead by the hand of Nicole's mafia father-in-law. Unbeknownst to Stefano that when that happened, a note was to be sent to the police telling them EVERYTHING about Nicole.

How will this story end? Will Sami get her real baby back? Will Mia find out that her baby really died? Dun dun duuuuuuun. Tune into NBC at 2:00 weekdays to join Days of our Lives Anonymous!

This one's for you Grandma :)

So I've delayed posting pictures of our new apartment mainly because it's been too dirty to take pictures of...but I cleaned up real quick and here it is! (disregard the blindingly white walls, there's nothing I can do about those) (also the pictures don't do the apartment justice, it's waaay cuter in person. so come visit :) )

update: ARRGGGG I can't figure out how to make the pictures format all cute and I've wasted too much time with this dang blog so deal with it. I'll fix it later. Maybe.

First day of school...

First two days of school completed? Check. Now hopefully I'll be able to continue my education at the fine institution known as the University of Utah...apparently there has been some issues with my scholarship which will be resolved soon. Hopefully.
My schedule this semester consists of....

Pediatric Speech Pathology. One of my favorite professors teaches this class so it should be pretty interesting. We'll basically be learning about pediatric speech development and disorders. Eh, not exactly what I want to go in to but useful anyways.
Portuguese. Why am I taking Portuguese? Who knows. Mainly so I can pretend I know what's been said at Papoo's. And also mainly because my husband can do my homework. Meu nome e Amanda. Ciao.
Anatomy and Physiology of Speech and Hearing. Bleh. I took this class last fall and dropped it after like 2 classes. Let's just say it's in-tense. Unfortunately it's a prereq for like everything else. Looks like I'm staying put this time around.
Language Science. Ok I'm not going to lie I had no idea what this class was going to be about but I'm pretty sure it's going to be one of my favorites. We watched a video about language and how cuh-RAZY it is. Like how you would never say 'red big balloon' it's always 'big red balloon.' Why? No one knows. And how when you construct a sentence of 20+ words it's very likely that it's never been spoken before. Blows my mind.
American Sign Language. So it's been a year since my last ASL class. I'm a liiiittle rusty. But I love love LOVE sign language classes. There's no talking. Like at all. It makes for a very peaceful class.

I'm shootin for straight A's this time around, so wish me luck. I'm not getting married in the middle of the semester so that should help. Like a lot....

It's Official

I'm shaking the dust of Nevada off my heels and embracing Utah! The license plate was the last thing to go, following my drivers license, voter registration, and my non resident status for school. I am a Utah (wo)man, sir! Holla!

Good times at the Red Cross...

I had better have saved at least a dozen lives today. Apparently I can't donate blood without at least a little drama. Today takes the cake though. So I showed up last week to donate blood with my hubby and they turned me away (I can't seem to pass the stinkin finger prick test) but today I loaded up on my iron and headed to Murray to drain my arm of some life saving blood. I passed the finger prick in only one try, went straight to a donor chair, the nice lady stuck my arm with no trouble, and I set a new record for my donating time (5:30, thank you very much). Things were going great. I shimmied out of the chair, made a beeline for the juice and cookies, sat down, and that's when the greatness ceased. I had about two minutes of thinking that I would get out of there in a half hour before I started feeling not so hot.

My head hit the table and I shook my head no when asked if I was ok. Two little helpful workers started to try to get me back to the donor chair when I blacked out and started puking. And puking. AND puking. Things I hurled on include (but are not limited to): my hair, my face, my hand, my shirt, my skirt (more on the skirt later), my shoes, my purse, AAND of course, the floor. Because no one was able to reach over 3 feet and grab me the trash can.

So then they decide to try to get me back to a chair, when I decide to clear my stomach one last time. They make the decision that I can't make it and put me on the floor. Right in front of the snacks so I'm RIGHT in everyone's way. If any of you have experienced something like this, you know that the next step is for you to put your feet up on a chair. And like I said, I was in a skirt and I may or may not have flashed all of the Red Cross my g's. They fixed this problem (or so they thought) with a lab coat draped over my legs. Unfortunately my skirt was still showing off my lovely bum. THIS problem was fixed with a roll of paper towels wrapped around my legs several times and then tied in a loose knot. And this was how they made me stay for the better part of an hour. I was quite the spectacle, let me tell you. All the while the cute little phlembotimist was telling me that she didn't mind cleaning up my throw up, yeah right.

Thankfully my hubby was working close by and came to my rescue. Of course I forgot my phone but the nice little superviser let me borrow her cell phone. I was deemed unfit to drive the half hour home, so now we have to go BACK to get my car sometime tonight. After America's Got Talent. Of course.

CAN. NOT. WAIT.

We move in to an apartment with a dishwasher in 17 DAYS.

Words can not describe my happiness.

Joshua almost ate cereal out of tupperware this morning. Instead opted for toast, using the same butter knife he used yesterday. Not joking.

I went with a week old muffin.

Considering buying paper plates and packing dirty dishes to wash with our new dishwasher.

In 17 DAYS.

And counting.

We must be livin' right

So I've gotten into the habit of religiously checking craigslist and ksl at least 2 or 3 times a day for free stuff. Usually I come up with free dirt, or free rocks, or even less appealing, free kittens/cats. But this weekend, my luck changed. I logged on to good ol' craigslist and saw FREE ENTERTAINMENT CENTER. It had only been on for 9 mintues. I thought for sure it was mine. Joshua called and...someone beat us to it. Blast. So we go about our lives and I continue searching ads for treasures. The next day, as we were out and about, we get a call telling us that the FREE ENTERTAINMENT CENTER was never picked up and was ours for the taking if we still wanted it. Joshua consulted me and I said YES!!!! We then proceeded to frantically search for a truck to borrow to be able to pick it up and haul it home, which eventually we did, and then we set off on our quest to find the good man's house, which was an adventure in its own. The whole process took about 3 hours of driving and hauling, BUT IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT!!! Check out our brand new (well new to us) FREE ENTERTAINMENT CENTER! Don't be jealous.

If you couldn't tell, I'm a little excited about the whole thing. Can you blame me? Anywho, the free things have continued and we spent this evening picking free apricots that I found on ksl classifieds. Let's just say that we picked puh-lenty.

And this is after the 20 minute drive home, in which we consumed entirely too many apriocots. But they were sooo delicious and I'll probably have a continuous bellyache for the next week or two (if they last that long). MMM MMM. Anyone have any apriocot recipes?

Home means Nevada

Home means Nevada, home means the hills,

Home means the sage and the piiiiine....

Out by the Truckee's silvery rills,

Out where the sun always shiiiines...

There is a land that I love the best,

Fairer than ALLLL I can seeeee.....

Out in the heart of the golden west,

Home means Nevada to me!!!!

We're going to Panaca tomorrow!!! Yay for sagebrush and unbearable heat and of course, 4th of July fireworks!!! So excited!!

Dirty rotten no good mumble mumble dog....

Exibit A:

(this used to be a tennis ball)



Exibit B:

(her rope that has definitely had better days)



Exibit C:

(my poor Crocs that I found hidden under the table)

Exibit D:

(my favorite flip flops that were ravaged the second I took them off my feet)

Oh Mia....what am I going to do with you?!

Change is good....right?

A lot of changes are going to be happening in the Orfanos household coming soon! The first change is definitely good...I finally found a job! I am now the newest member of.......

New job=money. Money=less stress about bills. Less stress about bills=happy Orfanos family! It's not the most glamorous job, but it pays decent and my next door neighbor works for them and basically hired me on the spot. After a month of looking for a job, let's just say that I'm grateful for whatever I can get! So now my days are filled with cleaning other people's huge dirty houses and having allergy attacks from the small animal's worth of cat/dog hair that I get to clean up! Yay!

The second change that will be occuring in the near future is that we are moving! We love our apartment and our ward but it's just a little out of our price range and while having 2 bedrooms is nice for storage, we'd much rather save some money and live in a 1 bedroom. So we put down a deposit on a super cute, AFFORDABLE, 1 bedroom apartment in Bountiful and we'll be moving at the end of July when our lease is up!

My goal for the rest of June and July is to find a nice, good looking couch to replace this monstrosity

that Joshua and his former roommate thought was a good buy from the local DI. Yes that's right, it's orange and puke green plaid and while extremely comfortable, not exactly my style. So if anyone knows of someone getting rid of a nice couch or any furniture sales in the near future, give me a holler! Otherwise I will be religiously checking craigslist and ksl for something slightly less plaid.

3 Months!

That's right, we've been married for 3 MONTHS!! Yesterday was our 3 month anniversary and we celebrated by doing, well, nothing. We both had to teach at church, Joshua the teenage priesthood class, and me 2 junior primary classes (1 class we couldn't find a sub for and the other got sprung on us literally minutes before church). Joshua's went well....mine was a mass chaos of 5, 6, and 7 year olds. We ended up playing tic-tac-toe and pictionary :)

After church we came home for some grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, a nap, and some Office before heading off to visit Papoo (Joshua's very Greek/Brazilian grandpa), which is always an interesting visit. Most of the conversation was in Portuguese, while I stared off into space. However, the English that was spoken might as well have been a foreign language.... All in all, a good visit and an interesting anniversary!

Fo' freeee?!

So today is free Spoon Me day if your name is Amanda! Aw yeah! I'd never been there before but thanks to Candice I raced over to the nearest Spoon Me and partook of delicious frozen yogurt with lots of yummy fruit! My hubby even met me over there on his lunch break, too bad it wasn't Joshua day...

Unfortunately I don't know how to drive and eat yogurt and ended up spilling melted yogurt all over my pants...oh well. Totally worth it.

I did it!

Don't ask me how long it took me...but I created a blog for our cute little family!! Stay tuned for exciting updates about what it's like to live as an Orfanos! Hooray!