Fuzz has been really good about not drinking soda hardly ever anymore, so for his birthday he got to splurge on some of his favorites;) It rained here a on his birthday too! Another fun treat for us;)
I conveniently had that day off work so we just got to hang out together all day-- super fun!
We got to listen to General Conference at the end of March--- so amazing, and inspiring as always. I think one of my favorite talks was given by President Uchtdorf-- on how important it is not to judge people, I think the talk was called, "The Merciful Obtain Mercy." We've been replaying conference over and over since it aired--- and it's amazing how many new things I hear and am inspired by each time I listen to it. It's so uplifting and encouraging, and Always makes me want to be that much better of a person.
Here's a link if ever you need a "pick me up" ;)
For Easter our friends the Webbs came to stay with us! We got to go to the temple here with them-- by far one of the most beautiful places in Lubbock ;)
The Easter Bunny found ALL of us;)
We gotta dye Easter eggs together-- we tried something a lil different. . . and it turned out awesome!
We forgot to take the after pic. . .so just imagine these with white stripes all over looking Awesome! ;)
We all got to go to church together. . . on our way we watched people taking their family Easter Sunday pictures. . .so when we got home we decided to take ours too!
We had a super fun weekened with our buddies! Fuzz took em golfing and toured the city and gorgeous campus with them, we took them to some of our favorite restaurants, and gotta see the Hunger Games with them too-- great movie by the way! They're moving to Germany soon-- we will sure miss them!
Fuzz was suppose to be out of town for the weekend of my birthday this year ;( I was super bummed to say goodbye to him last Friday. But then. . . he surprised me late that night at my work when he showed up and said that he no longer needed to go-- they told him and some others that they could stay! Even though they'd still have to play army, they wouldn't have to do it in Oklahoma that weekend. I was so excited that I didn't have to spend my birthday alone anymore;) this was so my most favorite birthday present! Saturday, March 3rd, Fuzz left early for army stuff, I went to the preparedness fair---- which was sponsored by the church but overwhelmingly supported by the entire community--- it was Amazing! They had all kinds of booths with information about everything! Seriously-- there was information on anything from couponing and budgeting tips, to fire safety to canning and food storage with tons of samples of recipes that they were giving away. There were booths on how to plant a garden and grown starters that they were giving away like tomato's, broccoli, lettuce etc. and flower seeds, there were dried food stands with free instruction books, booths on how to create your own emergency 72 hour kits along with information pamphlets on what to do in any type of natural disaster or emergency. It was sooo cool! Anyways, after that I headed over to bountiful baskets-- which is our new favorite thing about Lubbock;) and picked up our produce from the park. Then I went to work from 12- about 9:30 ---- yea I know it sounds lame, but because I worked on my birthday that day counts as a free day so I when we go home later in the spring we'll be able to stay an extra day;) Fuzz had been playing army all day so even though he didn't have to go to Oklahoma I didn't expect him to have time to do anything for my birthday--especially because we'd been celebrating it all week since we thought that he'd be gone. To my surprise, when I arrived home that night I walked in and saw this awesome flower display on our dining room table-- it was so cool!
Beside it were some of my favorite sweets;)
Fuzz started to come out of the kitchen with his hands behind his back implying that there was yet another surprise. . . he slowly pulled his hands around from behind his back and said, "It's a . . . PUPPY!!!" I just about died! I love puppies but I don't feel like I'm ready to be a parent just yet, and then I saw that his hands were really empty--psych! haha lil jokester;) Then he told me to wait there for a sec because he really did have a surprise for me. . . it was a plate of our favorite doughnuts from Krispy Kreme with a candle in the middle;) Brilliant!
This was the best birthday ever! Especially because Fuzz was able to be there for it-- and I didn't have to spend it alone as we'd planned.
So Fuzz's birthday is on the 20th of March so we thought that it would be fun to invite a few of our friends over for our birthday party;) It's spring break next week so we wanted to try to catch a few of our friends before they'd all be gone. Unfortunately this is a week full of lots of tests and papers that need to be turned in, so we knew that we'd be lucky to have very many of our friends at all show. We were pleasantly surprised! We had a great show and had so much fun with our buddies that were able to come. Both Fuzz and I had our own cakes to blow out--
his request was a funfetti, so I played around with the idea a lil bit and came up with this---
I'm just a boring ole chocolate girl so that's what I made for my cake.
It was super fun! Neither of us had ever had a double birthday party before-- but we loved it!
I'm starting to feel old, and Fuzz is really good at reminding me that I'm so much older this month . . . but he'll always be older than I am;)
So this month we both got a lil older, but more important -- we both got a lil bit wiser too--- that makes getting older not seem quite so bad;)
I'm now a quarter of a century and Fuzz'll be . . . almost 30! ha now that sounds old!!! jk he'll be 28! Wow! It's crazy to think that we've known each other since I was 18 and he was 21-- how time flies when you're having fun!
Our friends invited us to be a part of a progressive dinner with them for Valentines Day-- which we thought was a brilliant idea! We went to one house for amazing appetizers, and then another couples house for a tasty salad, and then had our main meal--lasagna-- at another's home. Our house was last-- we were dessert~
Fuzz and I have been trying to be really healthy, and have been doing very well at avoiding sweets. . . we just made sure there weren't any in the house. . . cuz once we've got em, there's no holding back, we just eat em! So we decided to make all of our favorites for our party and then just give away any of the left-overs. We kinda got carried away. . . but all of our favorites were there;) We had tons of leftovers, but no worries, we found homes for em.
We made Rice Crispy treats all hearted up;)
Mini Cheesecakes. . .
Brownies. . .
Chocolate covered strawberries. . .
Lemon Poppy Seed Cake. . . with a pink twist . . .
and my favorite. . . Sugar cookies! Made to look just like (well as close as ya get without mom makin' em) the ones mom made every year for our special valentine treat.
Note, my most recent thrifty creation. . . my $2 cake stand-- it's just a plate and goblet I found at a thrift store that I washed, glued together and spray painted. . . tada!
Progressive dinners are the way to go! No one get's too overwhelmed, because they only have one course to prepare, there's no waiting in lines at restaurants, no rush, and so much fun! Hope y'all had a wonderful Valentines Day too!
We're so excited for what's in store for the Iversons this year of 2012! We'd planned on starting this year out with a half marathon in Dallas, where we were going to meet up with some of our friends, however life happens-- and sometimes doesn't work out just how we might have planned. We decided instead just to run the race here in Lubbock. We chose a different place than where we'd been training, just for fun, and to maybe change up the scenery a little bit. We decided to run around Buffalo Spring's Lake (which is just about 5 min out of Lubbock).
We made our way out there early Saturday morning, and then chalked up our route and mileage-- twice around the lake was just less than 14 miles, and since a half is 13.1 we figured it would work out perfectly. We started our run just as the sun was still coming up-- it was gorgeous-- the entire run was gorgeous, the scenery, the houses around the lake all so creative and unique. We'd trained in Lubbock, where there aren't any hills at all-- and were surprised to find several pretty good sized hills in this run around the lake-- our knee's hadn't received sufficient training for them, so they were kinda sore, but we were able to run out most of the soreness, and just enjoy our run. We were surprisingly not too sore after the run, we'd stretched really well-- that always helps;)
There were random buffalo statues in front of many of the lake houses-- this one was so chubby and cute we had to get a picture with it!
We'd trained for a half last year and then Fuzz and his friends in the army that were going to run with us had a surprise training that they had to leave for -- they were gone for a few weeks, and then we had a funeral in UT, Brittans farewell... etc. needless to say, the race got lost somewhere in there-- We're happy to have finished what we'd trained for this year! It was a great experience for us to do together, and a great way for us to begin our 2012.
It's been quite some time since my last post-- but we've been busy doing lots of good things;) We weren't able to go home for Thanksgiving so we just celebrated it with a few of our friends, it ended up being about 4 couples. We all made sure that our favorite dishes were there. . . needless to say, we had way too much food! We all made several desserts which almost ='d about a pie per person ;) We experienced our first black Friday ever that night--- it was amazing! We kinda went a lil crazy but found some awesome deals-- so worth staying up all night for;)
I experienced my first holiday season in retail--wow that's when all the scaries come out! I loved all the holiday decorations, shipments of new clothes for my department on almost a daily basis, increase in sales-- I dare say I quite liked it;) However, I don't miss working the long holiday schedules, that and seeing the scrooges come out in people- must just be the stress that inevitably comes with that time of year.
We were invited to our first ever Hanukkah party this year.
We have a friend in our ward whom Fuzz has actually been shadowing for physical therapy, who's mother was raised Jewish, but then they were converted to Christianity and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. However, they continued to celebrate the tradition of Hanukkah ever since. I've never known much about this holiday, but it was one of the neatest parties ever! We were invited to bring a Jewish dish, so we googled "Jewish recipe's" and found this yummy looking apple crumb cake--- I took advantage of this great opportunity as a awesome excuse for me to splurge on a funnel pan ;) We had their potato pancakes, essentially glorified hashbrowns--which tasted amazing! And then homemade applesauce, some challah bread---oh I'm so in love!, some soda, chocolate money, and of course our apple crumb cake. We played games, no not dradle;) read the story of Hanukkah and even got a present because that's part of their tradition. Fuzz got a way rad pocket knife which was awesome because his just got stolen when his truck got broken into, and I, ironically for my Hanukkah gift got a beautiful nativity set;) so neat! Super cool experience, we've already rsvp'd for next years party.
We made our very first gingerbread house this year! Super fun;)
We had the opportunity to help out with the Stake's Nativity event. I had no idea what exactly to expect, but it was incredible! It's an exhibit of about 400 Nativity sets that people within the stake donate for this special week. There's a children's room, and an international room and then the main cultural hall with all of the others! It took about a week to decorate for it-- and all year to plan. It's an interfaith event where we invite other choirs etc. to perform at it, and invite everyone we know to come and view it. I was a part of the decorating committee and was just floored at how incredible it all turned out! I was asked to perform with my friend Shelly from my ward, we both play harp;) we were able to perform for about 45 min one night just as background music, and then on Sunday just one song for the sing along, Silent Night. Fuzz filmed us when we were back ground music, here's a little clip:
We were stoked to wake up Christmas morning to a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!! Never before have we been so fortunate;)
And Santa found us!
It was our very first Christmas just together, not with any of our family. However, Grandpa Sevy had suffered a severe stroke just about a week and a half prior to Christmas, and consequently, Christmas Eve right as they had just locked up M & S-- his business-- for the day, they received word that he'd passed. He truly was home for Christmas, he had a white Christmas too, but I'm sure it was even so much better than ours. Because of this, we were now able to go home just after Christmas, as I was given 6 days to go home for the funeral. I know that Grandpa knew what he was doing, He just wanted us all together for the holidays, and that's what he got. My cousin flew in from Afghanistan, another from Japan, and for the week and a half that he lie in his hospital bed, my family all sat together and sang and performed and played their instruments together. What a tremendous blessing that was for them, and for Grandma to be encircled by her loved ones standing by her through that trial. Grandma was a rock, I couldn't believe her strength. What an example to me she is of such courage and endurance.
Plane tickets were insane-- almost quadruple what they'd normally be, so we made the 15 hour drive home. I knew our families were praying for us to have a safe drive and especially for us to stay awake-- just as it was starting to get late, out of nowhere I told Fuzz I was totally going to puke! No-- I'm not pregnant. I couldn't even get anything to come out of me but I felt awful! It was that horrible feeling we've all felt at some point in our life, where ya know you'll feel better if you can just puke your guts out. . . but it won't come out! Oh, I just felt soooo sick, I kept moaning, and whining, and crying. . . but oh what a blessing that was, because now me and Fuzz were SO awake-- eventually it came, and I litterally puked my guts outs-- and felt better for a second then just sick again--- we eventually found a hotel parking lot and fell asleep in our truck for a couple hours-- I felt too sick to sleep, but eventually surrendered. I woke up and Fuzz was just beginning the rest of our drive home, the sleep had worked wonders on my upset stomach-- I felt a trillion times better. As much as I complained about how horrible I had felt-- I knew that it really was one of those blessings in disguise;) We safely made it home early December 28th, Mckenna's 11th Birthday! We were there for her Birthday breakfast-- and we even got to watch her open her birthday present that we'd sent about a month prior in the mail with all the Christmas presents. It was a dress;) and I'm pretty sure she loved it-- it looked ADORABLE on her! We were so happy we were able to be there to share that special day with her. That night was Grandpa's viewing. It was bittersweet-- I looked at him in the casket-- it wasn't him, just his body, without his spirit his body was just a body-- that wasn't my grandpa. It was so neat to see all of my cousins and their new little familes there! It was a special time for us to all be together and catch up on our lives.Viewings and funerals can be so sad, it's sad to know that it will probably be a while before we see our loved ones again, but I know that someday we will! And I take so much comfort in knowing that. I know that I'll see Grandpa again! I know that he's probably riding around in heaven with his race horses, for sure with Whinney-mick. He's been blind for about the past 5-10 years gradually getting worse, but now I know that he can see again! He's wanted to so badly for so long. I use to work for his eye doctor, and I saw sooo many eyes, but his macular degeneration was sooo bad. I just about died when I had to pull up his pictures I'd taken of his macula and whitness the actual bleeding and scar tissue, I knew that there was no treatment available to fix it. He's seen so many doctors, and tried so many different treatments, but just continued to suffer. Whenever I get sad thinking about him, I just remember that now, finally, he can see again! I was asked to play a beautiful arrangement of I Stand All Amazed with Tara and Tiffany at the funeral, it was actually written for voice and piano, and we changed it into a harp, violin, and viola ensemble. It was beautiful. While playing we were all so overcome with emotion we had to just play through our tears, but I know Grandpa liked it. He has always been so supportive of us and our music. I know that I wouldn't be where I am with my music today without his help. At the funeral, my cousin Melissa read all of our favorite memories of Grandpa, what a beautiful celebration of his life! I would have liked to added one of mine, and that is simply that grandpa always called me princess, and made me feel like I was one. He always made us all feel so special, and that he was proud of us.
We met over at the grave site and were all astonished to see what spot had been selected, it was right near the corrals where all the horses were. This was the most perfect place for Grandpa.
Here's Mylee with her second cousin Ryden--they love spending time together.
It was so good to be home with my sisters, and my cousins, funerals can be so sad, but we were so grateful to be together and to cherish the relationships within our family.
My cousin Ryan who films for the Amazing Race-- among other things, has been working on this documentary for the past few years. It's called Goolds Gold-- this has been entered in film festivals all over the United States, and we were fortunate enough to be in UT when his premier in Zion National Park took place. It was on the IMAX screen which is like 6 or 7 stories high! It was awesome! We were so excited for him and that we were fortunate enough to be there for such a neat event!
Here's me with Ryan my cousin, and his sister Melissa and his wife, Jenny. We got our autographed posters, and free CD's from the band that played in it-- super sweet!
We were so blessed to be able to go home for so many days! We enjoyed eating, shopping, and just hanging out together! We spent New years with all of our family, Fuzz's first, then mine.
Santa found Mylee-- even at Grandma's house, and while he left most of her presents at her house in Indiana, she was thrilled at the few he left in St. George--- she loves Hello Kitty!
The best thing about our trip home is always spending time with our family! Especially our brand new lil Ellsie and Kai-- they'd already grown so much since we were home in September!!! They've got the most adorable little personalities, and so know and just love their uncle Fuzz and aunt Channing! Oh, we just love them SOOOO MUCH!!!
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