1 down... 2 to go!

Well, I am completely finished with one class, and have 2 that I will finish up today and then- VACATION! I can't wait. I had my final presentation for my english class last night. I had to do a 20 minute presentation on a research topic of my choice. I chose to do it on diet aids- pills, supplements and drinks- inspired by Courtney's latest medifast kick. My argument was that there is no quick fix to an unhealthy lifestyle. You have to put the time and effort into it if you want to be healthy. Weight loss is only a side effect of a healthy lifestyle. It was pretty interesting. I found out that a 23 yr old pitcher for the Orioles died of a stroke from some diet pills he was taking, and a 21 yr old air force pilot had a massive heart attack from the same thing. DONT TAKE DIET PILLS! The risks FAR outweigh the benefits!!
Anyway- I have a history paper I have been writing this morning that is due at 5 today. I will probably take that final today too, so I will be finished with that class. Then I have my Short Story final at 1 today. I will be glad to say adios to that teacher. He is very arrogant and close minded. We had to write the first 3 pages of a short story for our final assignment in that class. When we turned them in, he read the title and first word out loud. When he read mine, he said with his arrogant tone- Well that seems obvious...- I played out the scene in my mind of me attacking him, and it seemed to satisfy my emotions :). He drives me nuts!
We are so excited to go to Texas this weekend and see everyone!! WOOHOOO!!! Here we come!!!

The countdown begins...

I am SO ready for this term to be over with. I am taking my last 3 GE credits that I have been putting off for so long. They are killing me! We have 2 weeks left. That means... only about 5 class sessions left for each class!! I think it seems to be dragging on because I am so excited to go to Texas when it is over. We leave the day after finals are over, and I can't wait.
Other than school... life is pretty much the same old stuff. I am thinking about trying out for an A Capella group at BYU called Noteworthy. They have a sample of some of their music on their website y'all should check out. They won the international competition last year, they are amazing. Unfortunately, there are only 9 of them. They have 3 openings this year, and normally have 50+ people audition. I'm not getting my hopes up for anything, but I figure... what the heck!? It's my last year, I might as well give it a try. I am taking voice lessons summer term to hopefully get me ready for the auditions in the fall.
Charles has a birthday coming up!! I think I am more excited about it than he is, I'm not quite sure why, but I am. Anyway, nothing too new going on around here. Just livin the busy student life trying to make it!
Charles has been pretty funny lately. He has recently picked up on Sam's trick to make me laugh and started looking at me and crossing his eyes. He looks hilarious when he does it. Last night, I was crying- shocking... I know, and he said- "oh, hang on, let me get you a tissue. I think I saw that in a movie once. Girls like tissues when they are crying." I guess it helped because he got me laughing!
Anyway, just wanted to take a break from my paper and write something on here. Next time it will be more exciting!

New Ride...

Well, we finally sold our car this week, and found a new one. Pretty exciting!! Here are a few pictures of the car. It should be a good little car for us. Charles keeps finding little things wrong with it, but I just don't look for them, so I think it's great! Last night we got to go to the Jazz game... it was cool to be there, but sad they lost. We were on THE last row of the arena. Pretty funny. You can actually still see pretty good from up there though. I was surprised. They built it well! Anyway, the rest of our memorial day was spent taking pictures. It was pretty fun. I took engagement pictures in the morning and then we just went around taking pictures of everything. Maybe I'll throw in a few of those too. Charles is becoming my model... and I think he likes it. Every time he hears the sound the camera makes when it takes a picture, he strikes a new pose. It's pretty funny, but not all that surprising! Hope y'all had a great memorial day!

Photography fun...

As a lot of you know, I've been trying to figure out some photography stuff lately. It's been a lot of fun so far. We are gonna go up tonight hopefully and take some cool pictures in the canyon and stuff. I have been reading my camera manual and learning a lot, and haven't had a chance to use it yet since I started reading it. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get some better pictures by doing that. Anyway- here are a few of my favorites so far...

Pressure, Pressure...

Ok, I am getting harassed for not updating this enough! I guess I better fill y'all in. We sold our Rodeo this week, woohoo! Now we are on the hunt for a car. We have looked at a few this week, but have been pretty disappointed. We are going to look at an Avalon today that we are pretty excited about, hopefully it goes well and we are no longer car-less. Don't get me wrong... the scooter is great, but the weather hasn't been too great here. I think I got pneumonia this morning riding state street for an hour to go see two cars. Anyway- we had a great trip last week to Washington- we went to Sam's preschool graduation which was exciting. We took him to Tacoma to go to the zoo for a day. That was a lot of fun, but I think it wore him out pretty good, he zonked out in the car on the way home. For a little boy, he can snore pretty loud! We are officially half way done with the term! WOOHOO! That is exciting, I am ready for a change. I am taking Chinese 101 during summer term. Charles is already giving me lessons, I think it'll take some work, but it will be fun to know a little Chinese. Maybe it will make me sound smart or something. Here are a few pictures from our trip...
We bought some food so Sam could feed the goats, and he threw it at them, he didn't want to get their germs on him- haha!

Much Needed Vacation

I am counting down the hours till we get to leave for Washington! We are going to watch the boys while Charles' parents finish up their trip to the Holy Land! We can't wait to get a little bit of a break from our busy schedules and have some fun with the boys. We talked to Sam yesterday and told him we would be there soon and he told us he has drawn us some pictures and wants us to play legos with him. I am really excited! I will take some pictures and tell you all about our adventures in Wa. Woohoo!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Emily got on to me for not posting... so I thought I would catch y'all up real quick. We are finishing our 2nd week of spring term today!! That means we only have 4 weeks left! Right now we are keeping ourselves very busy. We are both working 30-40 hours a week and taking a full load of classes. It keeps us on campus from 745 to 630 everyday. We are excited to get a break next week to go take care of Charles' brothers while his parents are finishing up their Israel trip. We are really excited to get a break from school and work for a few days.

One of the new exciting things we are doing now is... Photography! I have always loved taking pictures, and always wanted to do something with it, just hadn't yet- until now! I decided just to jump into it. I started out offering it for free, just so I can get some experience and have something to show for myself before I start charging, but I think I'm to the point now that from here on I will be charging, but just a little bit. I have about 5 people wanting me to do their weddings this summer, so that's kind of fun. I am taking pictures of a little girl tonight, two families tomorrow, and another on Monday before we head out Tuesday. I'll post some pictures (if they turn out good). Before too long we will probably have a website up... trying to think of a name still. Charles wants us to do "No BULL Photography"... I think he's still a little bitter about a past photographer. Any suggestions for names? We will probably end up with Himmer Photography or something original like that. Anyway- watch out Annie, Chloe, and Logan... you're up when we get to Texas!!

Anyway- thats what is keeping us busy for now! We are still trying to sell the Rodeo- not having much luck though. We dropped the price this week, so maybe that will help- we'll see. I'll try to be better about posting! Hope everyone is doing great!

boot SCOOT'in boogie

Well.... as a few of you may know, Charles and I made an addition to our family this weekend. We bought a brand new, 2007, 150cc, shiny blue, ROCKETA scooter!! That's right folks... we cruise around town on our moped!! We got it Saturday, and I still can't ride it without laughing! Dumb and dumber anyone? It's pretty fun though, and very economical :) We are selling the Rodeo with hopes to find a Honda that gets better gas mileage because the gas on that thing is eating our dinners these days! We should sell it this week, we have gotten one pretty good offer so far, but have someone else lined up to come check it out on Friday, hopefully that goes well! Anyway- I really just had to post the pictures we took posing in front of our apt with the scooter.Some of you might be looking at that sliver of seat behind Charles... thats right... thats where I fit in (kind of) We have to readjust from time to time, due to my caboose, but it works out quite nicely!
By the way... I just HAD to get the white helmet... it just added too much to the whole outfit.

Brad... just so you know, I think of you every time we saddle up on this puppy!

Quotable Quotes from the Himmer Home...

We have decided that we need to start keeping a journal of funny things said... mostly by Charles because they really are just TOO funny sometimes. I thought I would share a few of the highlights from the recent weeks. I have to give a little bit of a description of the situations... but I think y'all will get a kick out of them.

As we were getting ready for bed one night, Charles went to swig some of the Listerine I had just bought. As he started to swish it around he went into the bedroom for a second and then came running back into the bathroom and spit it out in the sink, looked at the bottle of Listerine, and then at me and said in a panicked voice: "ADVANCED LISTERINE HONEY???? We need at least beginning or intermediate!"

We have recently been trying to eat healthier and work out more. After a few weeks of this I was telling Charles that I don't think I have a metabolism and if I do, it must go backwards because I didn't feel like anything was working. I was comparing myself to him... BIG MISTAKE! He accidentally looses weight all the time and I just find it! Anyway... as an attempted comfort he said: "Honey, its just that you are from Texas..." by the look on my face i think he knew he was in trouble so he followed it with... "What? Everything is bigger in Texas!" Again... he could tell he wasn't getting the expected response so he finished it with "I mean the portion sizes, honey, NOT YOU!" We have laughed about that one for a few weeks now!

One that I said that Charles thought was pretty funny and worth putting up here happened as we were eating dinner one night. He said something that made me laugh pretty hard and he said, "You know what I love about you? You have a great sense of humor, and you think I'm funny!" I responded with, "And what I love about you is that you think those two things go together!"

Something my sisters and anyone who has ever had the curse of sharing a bed with me can relate to... I remember Courtney and Lori telling Charles about how cuddly I am at night and how they could never get me off of them, I'd always have a leg or arm or something bugging them while they tried to sleep. I remember Charles saying he was excited for that before we got married because he loves cuddling. Well... its been about 3 and a half months now and he is singin a different song. He told me today that I "box out" in the middle of the night- elbows out and everything. I guess its just the little basketball player in me. He said that he tries to push me over so that he can have some room and I take that as "he wants to get closer, huh?" He has to maneuver around the elbows to the back throughout the night so he can get some sleep. I think its pretty fair actually... I make sure not to take up more than 80% of the bed! He's a skinny boy!

Hope y'all got a little laugh out of that... I know we have!!

FORT NIGHT

Well... there hasn't been a whole lot going on lately, at least not much that was blog worthy. Here is one of our date nights from a few weekends ago. We decided to built a fort like we used to do as kids and make cookies and watch NEWSIES! Andria gave it to us for our wedding and we hadn't watched it yet, so we decided to make an event out of it. There is one picture of Charles with a heart cookie I made for him... what you don't know from the picture is that this is after he dropped it and it crumbled. He spent a few minutes (after laughing hysterically) to patch it up for a picture.

Sportsman's Warehouse

Dad sent us a coupon to the "friends and family" night at Sportsman's Warehouse. We didn't have much to spend, but we decided to go check it out anyway. It was the weirdest thing... as soon as we walked into that store, it was like we were taken into a whole new world. We all the sudden just could not speak normally. We started talkin' funny, and didn't have no good grammar. We just fit right in. The whole time we was in that store we was learning things we ain't never learned before. We's checkin out the hunting gear and I found a few things I liked just fine... this was Charles favorite. I thank the arnge makes the deers come out or somethin.

Now... unfortunately, it was a little out of our price range, but I thank... if i'm REAL good this year, Charles might git it fer me fer Christmas next year ;)

Thanks for the fun FHE Dad!!! We love you!

Party night at work!!

We have had our big tests the past three weeks at work, it is the busiest part of the semester. Andria and I had to go in and work late one night, so Charles came along to do some homework. Our work isn't the most exciting thing. We had to put together about 200 test packets and stuff them in envelopes, make the test rosters, and get listening tapes ready. Now... Charles thinks I made this blog to point out all the funny things he does... and after the camping experience, the bad things he says. This time... I thought I would highlight one of the great things about him! He can make any dull moment a blast. Here he is in the conference room at work with his homemade "party hat" livening up the night and lightening the mood.

Here is his "YAY!! WHOO! WE'RE NUMBER ONE!" face

dead serious doing homework

Rascal Flatts

So... as many of you know, this year I became a proud member of the Rascal Flatts "Dog Pound" fan club. Yes... that's right, I love them. I think our first month of marriage, Charles got a little offended at the frequency of which I told him about my Rascal Flatts dreams. They are my favorite, I have been trying to tone it down since Charles has pointed out the obsession. I realized when I sent in an email to the "Super Fan" contest... things were getting out of hand. We did, however, benefit from the obsession last Friday with awesome seats at their concert. As our Valentine's gifts we got tickets... yes, my husband is a good sport. We didn't know where our seats were until we got there Friday, and ended up on the 17th row. It was a blast!! I think I liked it more than Charles, but it was a lot of fun to be there together. We got our groove on, sang our hearts out, and lost our hearing... but here are some pictures to show the fun we had.

Before they came on... I told Charles to "look excited"

Their entrance... pretty sweet effects!

The marvels themselves... nominated for SIX academy of country music awards this year!!

They had this cool moving platform that moved from the front of the arena to the back, went right over our heads!!

This was their little stage in the back
Sangin...
The encore... Life is a Highway... we snuck up closer!
After it was all over... Charles held back the tears just for this shot :)

We had a lot of fun, the show was really elaborate, they had some pretty sweet effects, like fireworks, confetti at the end in exploded in the whole arena, and the moving platform. They had a huge screen behind them and the stage was surrounded by little screens that went off of each other. I don't know if that made sense, but it was tons of fun!!! Now... time to start my Flatts anonymous program... wish me luck!

Good book!

I just started reading a book written by my Family Life teacher. I LOVE this class and the teacher so thought I would buy his book and see what I thought. The book is called "Everyday Parents Raising Great Kids." I recommend it so far, it is actually a lot like his class. Anyway- I started reading it today and absolutely LOVED this quote from the end of his chapter on Dysfunctional families. He talked about how you shouldn't let anything that has happened in your past determine your future, but here is the quote:
Thomas Paine once said: "The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly."
I thought that quote was SO good. How true is it that the more we are faced with, the more we are blessed with. How glorious it is to be faced with a trial and come out on top. The things that come easily to us, we often take for granted and do not fully appreciate or take advantage of, but the things that we have to fight for and overcome become a part of us that we will never lose. This just made me think about the attitude I should take when I am confronted with trials and hard times- the harder it is, the better it makes me. It's almost like a game... how hard can it get, and how strong can I become. He also says in this chapter that the worst kind of "life pain" is the kind that produces only pain. We have to learn to take it to the next level, and that is when it produces value. Good points Dr. MacArthur... read the book if you get a chance- it really makes ya think!

Moab DOES get cold!

This weekend we decided to take off a couple of days and go camping down in Moab and do some hiking down where it is "warmer." We rounded up some gear and invited Kyle and Alissa along to join in our quest. The plan was to leave right after Kyle's intramural basketball game on Friday night (which he scored a record high 37 points in). We actually pulled out of Provo around 10:00 to start the 3 hour drive to Moab. We pulled into the campground I had very carefully picked out because it had internet, bathrooms, hot tubs, and a heated pool around 1:00 am. It took us a little debating to decide if the campground was open or not, but we decided to pitch our tents anyway. Needless to say... the pool was empty and hot tubs were covered. We picked the spots right by the bathrooms so Alissa and I wouldn't have to travel far. Well, as the guys started putting up the tents, we went to the bathroom... locked. So we helped the guys set up, which was bit of an adventure for Charles and I trying to pump up our air mattress inside our 2 man tent... thats another story in itself though. I held on until I was about to explode and me and Alissa went on a search for another bathroom, we found one that was unlocked, but had no water. So Alissa came to the conclusion that we should just take some toilet paper and go outside. So we went outside and Alissa showed me the proper stance and technique, but I got stage fright. As bad as I had to go, I just couldn't let go. So we aborted that and just went in the empty toilets. I decided that was better than my pants. We got back and explained the situation, not much sympathy from the boys who had already picked and marked their spots on the fence. We finally got settled in an went to bed around 2 am.
Charles and I had sleeping bags that zip up together! We were so excited about it, but after about half an hour of trying to figure out how to get warm with all the extra space, we unzipped and Charles quickly fell asleep. I felt pretty comfortable at first... but that slowly changed. After a few hours of laying there trying to get warm, not anywhere near falling asleep I decided to wake up my husband for some help. Now... I have to explain that this is after about an hour of loud sighs and rolling around on the air mattress making sure to bounce him around a bit so that he would wake up on his own. Finally I shook him and said, "Honey, I am FREEZING" to which, he replied "I'm sorry." I asked what I should do and he rolled over and said he didn't know. Thank you dear... (In his defense, he remembers none of this and was completely out, not just completely insensitive.) So I continued to freeze for a couple more hours until he woke up to go to the bathroom that morning. He came back and made a comment about how annoying it is to have to wake up to go to the bathroom. I replied, well that's nice that you are getting some sleep. FINALLY I got the sympathy I had been wanting. He offered for me to climb in his sleeping bag with him. I told him I didn't want to get out of mine unless he was sure we could both fit in his MUMMY bag (mummy bags... meant to be a tight fit for one person, remember that). He reassured me that there would be PLENTY of room. I think he might have forgotten who he married, but I'm not quite sure. So after some funny maneuvering to get us both in, Charles concluded that I was a "big girl" and couldn't fit. That helped....
It's entertaining to hear him try to dig himself out of that hole. So I climb back in my bag, completely fed up and at my breaking point, started to cry. Charles realized what was happening and after mummying up to me, let out a little snicker and added, "This was your idea." Again... a helpful point of the morning. By this time, it was about 7 am and THEN Charles decides to bust out the handwarmers he had packed in his bag. I finally fell asleep after about another half an hour. Woke up at about 9 and drove off like a mad woman to find a gas station to go to the bathroom. What a night...
The day that followed was great! It took a couple of hours to me get out of my grumpy mood and let Charles off the hook for sleeping, but after that, we all had a blast. We went to Arches and did some fun hiking. Needless to say, our long weekend was cut short and we headed back to Provo around sunset. It was fun to spend the weekend with Kyle and Alissa, we went over to their house tonight and had our tin foil dinners that we had planned on cooking over the campfire. Overall, it was worth it. We listened to some Dr. Lund talks on communication and I think we all learned a lot about each other and how each other's minds work. We were also able to see some of God's BEAUTIFUL creations. It really makes you thankful for the world we are blessed with when you get to get out in nature and really see it all. Here are just a few of the pictures we took.
Tired anyone????






We decided that boys will climb on ANYTHING they can. They shimmied, climbed, jumped... you name it, and these boys did it as they tried to explore Arches... their playground.