Wednesday, December 31, 2008

one year anniversary

Its official! We've been married for one year. Its kind of crazy. A year seems like a long time but it has flown by. Im a lucky girl. We went to Spokane for an anniversary trip this weekend. We stayed at the Oxford Suites and went shopping and ate at fabulous restaurants. It was a lot of fun. And a much needed vacation after Christmas with the entire Bowman family (36 for Christmas dinner). We drove back on Monday, our anniversary, and after 8.5 hours of driving through a snowstorm, we finally made it to butte and decided to stay with my Gram. I know that once you hit butte youre only like 77 miles from Bozo, but after 8.5 hours and lots of snow, we just couldn't do it. We got back to Bozo on Tuesday morning at 10. So last night we had our romantic dinner. I bought a replica of the top of our wedding cake, since we didn't get to save it. Get this. Wedding cakes are like $4/slice. We got the double top tier that serves at least 8 people (I think an 8" cake with two layers) for $12. By my calculations, I probably paid $32 for the top at the actual wedding. I know my next career: cake baker! J/K. But it was really nice, and Luke bought me a diamond wedding band to match my engagement ring. It is gorgeous!! I really wanted one but was having trouble finding one when we were ring shopping and I didnt' want to pay for one so I just got a plain band. Luke surprised me with the diamond band. I love it! It looks so good. I got him a pair of sweats, how lame am I? I definitely got the better end of the deal.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

"Family Fun Night" @ FBC

Tonight, instead of regular activities, we had Family Fun Night at church. All the families decorate gingerbread houses (make from graham crackers), and they are judged in three categories. This year's categories were Most Montana, Best Gingerbread House Theme, and Most Creative. Our "Family" consisted of us, Alicia, and Holly. Alicia and Holly are our age and just fun girls to hang out with! I remember Alicia from growing up. She was from Superior, which isn't too far from Thompson Falls, and we used to play sports against eachother. By "we" I mean our schools, because we all know I dont have an athletic bone in my body. Here are a few pictures of our creation.



We were the unofficial winners. We were judges, so we didn't feel like we could win in good conscience. However, several people told us that we should have won, including one of the other judges. I think the elk antlers were what put us over the edge. However, the logs were also a high point. We were just graham cracker house building fools. Yay for our family!

Decorated for Christmas

This year we broke out the christmas decorations again,but it was more exciting because its our first christmas together as a married couple. And its the first year they were set up at the 310. The past two years the decorations were up at Luke's house with Okey and Dwayne and Lizzie. Heres some pictures of the tree, and my artistic use of $2 garland.


Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The Kindness of Strangers

Last night was a rough night. My car wouldn't start and Luke finally had to come rescue me. He does not get excited about coming to rescue me, mostly because he can alwasy start my car and I can't. I can understand how that would be annoying, having to drive across town to start my car. . .

Anyways, after he got the car started I went to get gas. This was not a good experience. I couldn't get the first pump to work (I think due to operator error) and this old lady in the van behind me was laughing at me. {this is not the "kindness of strangers" part} When its -10 and the person in front of you is obviously having problems, wouldn't it be better to help, rather than laugh? Thanks a lot lady! Then I went to another pump, figured out my operator error, but it was broken. It would only pump like .1 gallons per click. So I asked this guy at the pump next to me to help me. He couldn't figure it out either, so when he was done pumping, he pulled up so I could take his pump, since it worked. Then he waited to make sure it worked for me. Yay for nice strangers in black trucks who are helpful in the below freezing cold. Gold star for him.

Dont worry, my adventure continues to Wall-E world for an oil change. I waited for what seemed like forever, but I made friends with a nice girl in the waiting room. We exchanged cards and she's going to call me about some nutrition supplement thing she sells. Poor thing had been there even longer than I had.

Oh, and later I burnt my thumb making caramel corn and had to sit with my thumb in a bag of frozen peas for like an hour and a half before findnig the ice pack in the freezer and going to bed with it. Needless to say, I did not want to get up this morning. Staying in bed seemed like a much better option.

Monday, December 15, 2008

fricken (below) freezin!

As I type this it is -5 degrees in Bozeman. And that is a balmy -5 compared to like -20 this morning. I had a dentist appt at 7 am and I couldn't get my car to start so I ran the 2.5 blocks to the dentist. I ran not because I was late but because it was so cold out that I didn't want to freeze to the sidewalk if I went too slowly. Then I ran the 2.5 blocks home where luke was able to start my car. The suby doesn't like cold weather, so Im going to start parking her in the garage.

Speaking of the garage, We have new neighbors! Its exciting. Kenny and Katie are about our age and have two little kids. Emily and her friend live below them and are like 18 or 19. This is their first apartment. The amazing thing is that I have everyone trained that I get the spot under the carport. But now I'm going to park in the garage and let kenny and katie take the carport and then luke and emily and her friend can fight for the other three spots. With our old neighbors it was a free for all and if you were lucky you got home first and got to park in the carport. The garage was completely out of the question due to all the junk they had stored in there. Now that I'm the top dog I get to make some rules. Or else I'm just getting major respect. Either way, I dig it. I've lived there long enough for some perks.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Winter Wonderland

Winter has arrived in Bozeman. We've had little bits of snow so far, and then last night it snowed 2-3", making all the trees look beautiful. Its supposed to snow again this afternoon.

We have been busy lately (big surprise). Friday was a birthday party for our little buddy Colby. He turned 5 and had a batman birthday party. Luke and I made the top 4 friends list. I know you're all jealous. Saturday I had play practice and quilting and Luke studied. This is the last week of his semester and it will be nice for him to have a few weeks off. Last night we went to a holiday open house for awhile. It ws nice to visit with friends.

This thursday is my work's "4th Annual Charity Open House." We invite all our clients over for food and drink and fun. Its always an adventure, and this year will be no exception. Right now we have 25 people RSVP'd. I dont know how we'll fit them all in the office!

Were looking forward to Christmas at the cabin with my family and Luke's mom. Christmas dinner is in butte with ALL my mom's family. Right now there are 32 people planned for dinner.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

I Passed my Test!!!

Good news! I passed my national massage exam! I am so thankful. I studied so hard for that test. Its such a relief to be done. I almost dont know what to do with myself now that I dont have to study any more. Luke is pretty happy too, because now he has his wife back.

We had a good thanksgiving in Kalispell with Vicki. It was nice. Very relaxing. We stopped in Thompson Falls on the way to see my parents. Its not exactly on the way, but close enough not to pass up the opportunity. My mom knew we were coming but didnt' tell my dad, so he was very suprised and excited to see us. It was nice to be home for just a few hours. And my mom was happy that I brought back some more stuff. Some clothes and lots of fabric. Luke wasn't happy about that after our black friday shopping because it took up lots of room in the truck and we were running low on room.

We had a blast shopping. We got most of our christmas shopping done. We just have a few more things to get/make. We set up our tree on Sunday and I wrapped some presents so it looks really nice in our house.