Pioneer Day

I was really excited to go hiking on the 24th to celebrate the holiday. We were all set to go up to Stewart Falls when we found out we could get an appointment to go look at a house and so we switched our plan to go up the short walk to Bridal Veil. I had to work hard to convince Richard to climb straight up the waterfall with me, but when I finally did, it was worth it! I wish we would have had more time to hike, but it was a beautiful waterfall and it was fun to be with Richard. The best news of the day was when we finally signed the contract to an apartment just four houses down the street from where we are now. We finished off the day with a great BBQ at Richard's dad's house with the family complete with water balloon volleyball and fireworks in the driveway. The kids had a lot of fun playing the kiddy pool and running around with squirt guns, especially when they would hit one of us that didn't want to get soaked! All in all, it was a very good holiday.

Test Master

Sometimes it still amazes me how smart Richard is and how hard he works at school. Even though he would never brag about being in the top 10% of BYU, I feel that I have the priviledge to do so as his wife :) He has been taking M Com 320 (business writing) this summer and it is EXTREMELY competitive because a lot of people need it to get into their majors. That in itself might make it competitive, but then they have to throw in the fact that they put a cap on the number of students who can get A's in the class. In fact, in Richard's class of about 30, probably only 5 people will get A's. How they get away with this, I'll never know. Richard was very nervous about his midterm for the class which he took last Saturday morning. I knew he had no reason to be worried because he ALWAYS does well, but I was shocked when he came home and told me he had received 100% on his grammar test! I love that he never gives me a reason NOT to be proud of him and this was no exception. Great job babe, you're amazing!

New Friend

Working at the front desk of a place that does registrations for every camp between Vocal Beauty Boot Camp to Education Week brings a huge variety of people here. Most are relatively normal and do their registrations and then go on their way. But every once in a while we get a lonely old lady or a cute old man who like to stay and chat until we know about their entire life. Today I was the lucky one to encounter such a woman. I was on my way to fill up my water bottle and made the mistake of saying hello to a woman sitting in the lobby. She immediately jumped on my friendliness and proceeded to tell me every detail she could think of about her life. I know pretty much everything between her winning Miss Provo in 1961 to her husband's recent retirement to the mountains of Provo. She gave me some "great" advice such as I should have gone on a mission instead of getting married and that I shouldn't wear my wedding ring around Provo because people might think I'm trying to be too glitzy (which is her reasoning for not wearing hers). At first I was slightly irritated that this stranger was going on about nothing, but it was pretty funny after a while. My coworker finally faked a phone call for me to give me a chance to escape but I quite enjoyed the whole experience. She thanked me for being so kind (which then made me feel guilty for being so irritated!) and then said she would be back and that she hoped to see me again. I've had a hard time making friends since I've been married but I guess I just needed to wait for a friend to come to me! That is, if I don't mind my new friend being at least 70 years old and the fact that she won't let me get a word in edgewise! :)

Summer is for Softball

Richard LOVES baseball. So when summer rolls around, he can't wait to get on an intramural softball team to continue playing the sport he loves. This semester, he managed to get on two softball teams, which makes for a LOT of games. He usually has about 3 games a week, which means I have 3 games a week... to watch. While baseball has never been my favorite sport, I love watching Richard play because he is so darn good!

Mini Triumph

Yesterday was a slight accomplishment for me, who is so out of shape. I went running for the second time in three days! Now to some this might seem like it's nothing, or to some it might seem like a lot, but for where I am right now it's a good thing. Around this time last year I would have been running in a bunch of 5 and 10k's with my roommate but ever since I got engaged to Richard, I've fallen out of the habit that I love. Since Richard has been so busy with homework lately, I've been able to go running more frequently and remembering how much I love the feeling of being in shape and running all over Provo. Yesterday I ran up into the mountains to my favorite lookout point. The sun was still setting but the city lights were all on and it was a breathtaking view. The house behind me had a mini waterfall so I could hear rushing water and I just sat up there forever, enjoying the view. To complete this perfect picture, a deer wandered out into the grass in front of me. I scared the poor thing to death when it saw me, but it was fun to watch it for a little bit and enjoy being outside. What a nice break from being stuck in an office 5 days a week!

Great Daddy....one day

I have always thought it was very attractive when guys were good with kids. However, all the guys I dated before Richard were only halfway good with kids and had a hard time connecting with my nieces and nephews. I knew it was a good sign when I took Richard to my sister's house for the first time and my niece fell in love with him. She even started praying that we would get married!!! I'm glad she got an answer to her prayers :) Richard is going to be the best dad in the whole world because he is SO great with kids and is the favorite uncle of all of his nieces and nephews. We're not going to have kids right away, but I am excited for the day that we will because our kids will have such a great example in their daddy to look up to, just like I did.

My new favorite picture! Richard with my niece, Rachel

Ignorant People

Working in a customer service position has made me realize that there are so many people out there who have no idea how to deal with people! At work, we often talk about how unfair it is that those who whine and complain and act like they are a three year old with a tantrum are those who usually get their way because nobody wants to deal with them anymore. Most of these are just incredibly childish, immature, ignorant people. Richard got a call the other day from someone who clearly had never heard any real information about our Church. This man had sent repeated emails to the instructor of his son's independent study class, and had never received an answer. Instead of putting the blame where it should be, on the neglectant teacher, this man continued to yell at Richard, calling him incompetent and just a little "peon". People are ridiculous! Richard has always been able to take those kind of calls without getting upset (which is why he is a supervisor and I never could be!), but this time the man went too far. He started insluting our religion, calling us a stupid cult and threatening Richard against brainwashing his child. He also accused the teacher of not answered his emails because she was probably out doing some "naked cult dance" or whatever it is us Mormons do for fun. I have never seen Richard so upset over a call!!! People who are ignorant need to just keep their mouth shut, especially when it is personally insulting! I was also pretty upset over this call until I told my coworkers about it and one of them lightened the situation by jokingly saying, "How do they find out about our naked cult dances anyway?!?" That definitely put me in a better mood and got my mind off the unintelligent man who insulted my husband. However, I do need to repent of my bitter feelings toward him, realizing that he has just been kept in the dark about our Church. Maybe I can find out his address and send him a pass-along card :)

Quick Update

Since it's been a few days since I've written and a lot of things have happened, I thought I would just do a quick recap of what's been going on.

Last Thursday was the year anniversary of the 1st date for Richard and I. We decided to recreate what we did on our 1st date so we went to Kneader's and got yummy sandwiches to take to the park for a picnic and walked around the park and played frisbee for a little while. It was so much fun to talk about what we were thinking on the 1st date and the fun we had when we first started dating. This was also the park he proposed in so I have a lot of good memories there.

Saturday we got up early and I gave Richard a haircut (which was my 2nd time ever cutting hair). As I tried to blend in the back my hand slipped and his hair ended up a little higher up than I planned to make it in the back :) But by some miracle the rest of it turned out pretty good. We picked up our wedding book from the photographer and were very pleased with the results. If you want to go check it out, go to http://mardelphotography,com and click on view my photos here and then type in kelliandrichard as the password. The first 20 or so pages are from our book. In the afternoon we took my Grandma on a "date" to finish up her Christmas present. (All of my sibs took a different month out of the year and took her out to spend some one-on-one time with her). We had a great time eating at Applebee's, playing games, and getting caught up on each other's lives. That night, we went with Kristi, Tony, and Logan to watch the fireworks for Taylorsville Dayzz. I'm very impressed with my little city, the finale especially was great!

Sunday was our monthly FHE with the fam. I was in charge of treats and decided to kill two birds with one stone and make the last two things I had been assigned for my cooking class, which were caramels and apple pie. I was too scared to make the crust so I bought a frozen crust and made the rest. The caramels turned out very well but I'm not so sure about the pies. Just know I don't plan on making pies very often in my lifetime!!! Cooking is definitely not for me. Grandma gave a good lesson that fit right in for the 4th of July coming up this weekend and then we stayed after and played soccer in the backyard, which of course made me extremely happy.

After getting back to Provo on Sunday night, we went over to Richard's brothers house to pick up our wedding video. He did SUCH a great job and it was a lot of fun to watch. I guess it's a good thing to have around too, because I wasn't in a great mood on Monday night but I watched our video and it put a smile on my face again.

Monday we went to Ruby River (my favorite restaurant) to get a free dinner. The only catch was that we had to listen to a two hour presentation about fire safety. While the information and dinner were both very good, it went on way too long. Especially because over the phone they promised Richard it would be a very brief presentation (although I knew that wasn't going to be true. Somehow Richard always talks me into going to these things with him!) It wasn't really worth it to me for a free dinner but the food was good and at least it got us out of the house!

The only exciting thing that really happened yesterday was that Richard's intramural softball game was cancelled so we decided to go to the park to play soccer. One great thing about our house is that we only have to walk 5 mins to be in the park, so it's been a good motivation to get out and moving. We didn't stay long but I think I could play soccer forever. I miss it so much!

So, that's my life right now in a nutshell and I'm sure I'll have a lot more to report after another busy weekend coming up. I can't wait for the 4th of July!!