~ZuMbA~

So I decided to try zumba tonight with a couple of the girls from my work and I invited my sister in law to come with us too. So much fun!! I'm not really into dancing but I seriously need to start working out so figured why not? I would definitely recommend it to everybody. You don't have to be good which was definitely a plus for me. Funnily enough, the Latin type dances came a lot more easily to me than the stupid line dance one. I could not figure that one out! I ended up just spinning in circles and jumping around now and again. Other than that . . . Loved it!!

P.S. - Is anyone else as super excited about the super cute new fonts you can use on here as I am?! About time!

It's My Party . . .

Had a great birthday!! Even though I still had to work that day, it wasn't too bad. My awesome sister in law brought in the nieces as well as some delicious chocolate covered strawberries for me. I also have some pretty awesome co-workers so it wasn't too bad. Earlier in the week we went to Firehouse to get some dinner.

And my boss bought a cake. I also took the kids donuts to get them to be extra extra nice for the day. Ha!

Jared took me to Ogden and we went to dinner at Rooster's. The food there was so good! Jared got the salmon and I ordered the rack of lamb. I was worried about ordering something new but it was very yummy. After dinner we went to the theater and watched The Green Hornet. I didn't have super high hopes for it going in, but it was hilarious! I laughed so hard I cried a little bit.

Jared bought me a new camera (since I was kind of stupid and broke my last one) and I love it! It's tiny and still has 14 mp. It also has a lot of fun features that I've been playing with. I can get it to highlight one color in the picture and it will turn everything else black and white. It's awesome!

We'll get to celebrate Jared's birthday soon and I'm trying to think of super fun things to do . . . Can't wait!

Fall, Fall, Fall!

Autumn is my most favorite time of the year! I love the colors, and the smells, and the weather and just everything about it. I have been loving the weather that we have had so far this fall. I've noticed that everyone has been posting what they're grateful for on FB everyday and I love seeing how many of us are truly blessed. I decided that I wanted to write my gratitudes here.

Nov. 1 - I am so incredibly grateful for Jared! I could never have asked for a better guy to have for forever. He is so kind and patient. He is so willing to watch all the crappy shows that I for some reason just love to watch. He always gets those dishes washed (eventually)! And I know that all he wants is to make me happy. - Sap done.
Nov. 2 - My parents are the greatest!
Nov. 3 - I have a job that (for the most part) I love, and helps us pay for the bills. Those kids crack me up pretty much every single day.
Nov. 4 - I have some pretty amazing and fantastic friends who have stuck by me through thick and thin! There are those that I know I can go to with anything and they'll be there for me.
Nov. 5 - The gospel!! Where in the world would I be without it!
Nov. 6 - A place to live. (Even with it's yucky couch. I'm grateful to have something to sit on besides the floor.)
Nov. 7 - Food to eat. And boy do I.
Nov. 8 - The opportunity to have an education and to (hopefully!)continue with my schooling.
Nov. 9 - I am so incredibly grateful to have in-laws that I absolutely love. There are no terrible, horrible, no good, very bad in-law stories from me! (And thank goodness!) They are always so supportive of us and completely and totally loving.
Nov. 10 - This is going to sound really weird but birth control. Holy cow. I look at it as a miracle drug! I look forward to the day when we will have kids, but that day is not today.
Nov. 11 - Just the time period I live in, in general. Look at all the technology that we have! I don't know about you, but I am feeling super pampered today what with my car, and my microwave, and my movies. . . Yup. Technology is the best!
Nov. 12 - Blankets!!! If you know me, you know that I love blankets! I don't know what it is exactly about them but I love just wrapping myself up in any one of my many blankets at any time of day and just feeling that happy warmness. And the funny thing . . . Jared is the exact same way! If you've never seen anyone get giddy about blankets, you are missing out.
Nov. 13 - Books, books, books. I can never get enough of them. I love to read and I am so grateful to have so many talented people out there who can just reel me in and keep me for hours. Books are my escape and there is nothing I would love more than to win a ten thousand dollars just to spend on books.
Nov. 14 - Jared wanted to include something he was grateful for. "I am grateful for my wife. I am grateful for Emilie. I love her." Awww!
Nov. 15 - Jared's too! "I am so grateful for both of our families."
Nov. 16 - I have got some really good visiting teachers. Sometimes I get really annoyed because I feel that they're just trying to get it done and that's it. But mine don't seem like that. I got a text from one of them asking how I was feeling because of my brother heading to the MTC. To me, that is sincerity at it's best. Love them.
Nov. 17 - I am so grateful to have a younger brother who is someone that I can completely look up to. We took him to the MTC today and I could not be prouder of him! He is going to do such a great job!
Nov. 18 - So grateful to have a husband who holds the priesthood and can give me blessing when I need them. Today was definitely that day and it helped me so much! I love my Jared!
Nov. 19 - All I can is . . . HALLELUJAH!! I am so grateful today that the GRE is done and done! I'm very grateful that we had the means to be able to pay for it and that my studying seems to have paid off.

I'm pretty sure 30 days won't be enough to contain all that I am grateful for, but another reason I love autumn is because this is when gratitude comes to the forefront of our minds. Thanksgiving is a time for thanks then we get Christmas where we focus our gratitude on Christ. I love it!

~*~Reliving the Honeymoon!~*~

"Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone." - Anonymous

For the Madsen family reunion, my grandma rented some houses on the beach in Newport, Oregon and we all got to go and spend a week on the coast. Jared and I were extra excited because it's the same area we went to on our honeymoon and we got to back and see and do some of the things we didn't get to while we were there the first time. We also got to do a lot of things we did get to do but loved so much it was worth doing again! What made it special for us as well was not only was it the same area we went on our honeymoon, but we got to be there on our 2 year anniversary as well.

We headed out a little bit later than my family did since Jared still had to work that Saturday. Our first night we spent in Winnemucca, Nevada which really wasn't all that exciting except for getting to park next to a camaro at the hotel. The next day we made it to our first stop in Klamath, California. We got to go through the Trees of Mystery which are the trees that are in the Guinness Book of World Records for being huge awesome redwood trees. While there we got to ride the sky trail which is a little box you sit in and ride up over the trees. This was Jared's favorite part. He loves how humongous the trees are.

Riding in the Sky Trail

Jared standing next to the trunk of a tree that had fallen over. It's huge!!

As we headed north we stopped at a zoo that we played at on our honeymoon. We really like it a lot because the animals wander around and we get to play with some cool baby animals. This time we got to play with lion and tiger cubs. They were adorable!

5 week old lion cubs

3 week old tiger cubs

We made it to Newport and then spent a lot of our time going to the different lighthouses in the area, going to the beach, and getting shopping. One of my favorite activities though was when we went deep sea fishing. I've done it before but it was Jared's first time . . . that's when we found out Jared gets seasick apparently. Poor Jared spent a lot of the time in the cabin keeping his head down. In the meantime I caught 5 big sea bass! The crew we were with is going to be on an episode of Big World Little People. They were hilarious. I also got to be the hooker while on board. (I got to hook the crab pots and hand the rope off to the strong men to pull them up.)

Our beach house. The inside was gorgeous as well. It's what I want to do with my house one day.

On the Misty, getting ready to set sail.

Heceta Head Lighthouse

It was such a fun trip and we loved getting the chance to spend a week away from the real world together. I'm ready for the next trip!

Graduated!

Well, on Saturday I graduated from Utah State with my degree in Psychology! Unfortunately, I woke up incredibly sick that morning and was worried that I wouldn't be able to make it to the ceremony, but I decided to tough it out and just go. How often does one get a bachelor's degree? So my plans for life now are to just work and start applying for graduate school this year. I want to get into the school psychology program and then we'll see where I go from there. Now we're going to work on getting Jared graduated asap!Savannah giving me a big hug after the ceremony!

I'm graduated!