date night

people always advise newlyweds to "find things you both enjoy doing!" ... whatever. i go to scotty's things, scotty goes to my things. we take turns picking movies and restaurants. sure, there are places and hobbies we both enjoy, but a lot is just give and take. we love it. it ensures a wide variety of date nights :) HOWEVER, last week i was thrilled when i happened across something i knew we would both really enjoy: 

a lego art exhibit up in park city! special thanks to katherine rhodes for putting pictures of her visit up on facebook. scotty and i had a great time admiring all of the amazing lego art. take a look! 

(the castle is my favorite) 

(the benjamin is scotty's favorite) (obviously) 

then we headed over to the tanger outlets and i barely made it inside my second store before scotty took my credit card away. i still love him, though. and if you're ever in park city (or downtown slc), check out maxwell's east coast eatery. you won't be disappointed! 

i guess it is possible to find things a husband & wife both enjoy! 

upswing.

although i could hardly believe the saying three days ago, i'm finding now that "things get better." they really do. after the most hellish week of my life (add about 10 more things to the list from my last post), nothing could have felt better than a day date with my sweet husband. we spent the day together and met up with my aunt cathi and uncle kris. love them. we stuffed our faces at brick oven pizza and then cheered the cougars on at a baseball game. their son keaton has been pitching lately!

i guess the remedy for a crappy week is relaxing outdoors with family and soft pretzels. hopefully things are on an upswing in the marx household. hope everyone has a beautiful weekend.

celebrating

every wednesday morning at my practicum elementary school, the principal plays a celebration song over the intercom. he instructs the students to get out of their desks to "celebrate and dance, because the week is halfway over!" the kids love it. i love it. i think life would be so boring if we didn't find reasons to celebrate. 

scotty and i celebrated on friday night because *drumroll* ... i was offered a teaching position for next year! i'll be doing an internship teaching fourth grade at falcon ridge elementary (aka, my practicum school!). i am so freaking excited. i can't wait to shape the minds of little fourth graders. i start in august, i'll be paid half salary, and i'll graduate as a second year teacher... we thought this made for a good reason to celebrate!

i asked the waitress to document this special moment in my life, to which she replied, "of course! i've become quite the photographer since working here!" ... then she produced the following two photos: 

how appropriate was my fortune? 

and finally, my "I'M GOING TO BE A TEACHER!!!" face. 

pure happiness.
can't wait to share all of my fourth grade stories with you all. 

now, go out and celebrate something! you deserve it. 

celtics vs. jazz game

scotty's mom made his wildest dreams come true this past christmas when she bought him tickets to the jazz vs. celtics game. seriously. he was practically jumping for joy haha! but i mean, what kind of mother could resist buying her son tickets after receiving a note such as the following?

HAHAHA! he kills me. so monday night was the big night! we had so much fun! scotty was in heaven. they ended up going into overtime and the celtics won by 3! it was an intense game! 

 here are some other snippets from our night: 

-the couple sitting directly behind us got engaged! we were right there in the middle of the action. 

the cheerleaders walked up from the court with a bouquet of flowers for the girl.

-"justin bieber has been in this very arena"

-seeing a celtics player named chris wilcox and thinking of our singles ward bishop chris wilcox. 

we miss you, bishop!  

-paying $12 for ice cream and a soft pretzel

-"the smell of beer makes me homesick" 

-scotty losing his voice

-wearing the only two green things we own

-taking trax so we weren't stuck in traffic (best idea ever)

-"i'm asking for basketball tickets every christmas!"

thanks ron and kim for the gift! 

valentine's day 2013

we had a wonderful valentine's day this year. and by "valentine's day," i really mean february 15th. because on the actual holiday, i had class until 9:30. YES, 9:30. normally, this wouldn't be a big deal because i would just leave, but this particular class has QUITE the attendance policy. if i miss two classes, i fail. simple as that. so i wasn't taking any chances. we were fine waiting a day to celebrate. 

 

 

i'm so lucky to have this cute man in my life! i love spending time with him and laughing with him. wherever we go, he makes it fun. scotty is perfect for me. and i'm glad he appreciates a good, expensive meal like i do haha. we made breakfast, exchanged cards, baked, ate candy, went out to dinner, shopped around the mall, and then we counted down the minutes until we could see the newest and cutest addition to my side of the family. 

EVA MAE BLYMILLER

sweet little eva entered the world on valentines day. i am obsessed with her. we already have a connection because of the whole holiday-birthday thing. i am so happy for my cousin angela! 

 

i hope all of you enjoyed your valentine's day as well! 

speak to my soul

in my monday morning class, a girl voiced the following opinion: "our (future) students need to learn how to keep the rules before they can break them." wait. what? break rules? i deemed her words thought-provoking, and found myself pondering them throughout the rest of the afternoon. my reaction to her comment kept swaying back and forth from two different thoughts: 1) i hope you never teach my children, and 2) i need to break some rules. and what better rules to break than the new year resolutions i had made just 14 days prior?

so in the spirit of learning, scotty and i participated in a first-hand and rule-breaking experience held at the cocoa bean cupcake cafe in provo. we were surrounded by sweet smells, hot cocoa, and cupcakes galore. 

don't worry, we devoured every crumb. 

i still don't know if i completely agree with the girl's words, but man those cupcakes are delicious. hooray for rebellion and rule breaking!

movie time > school time

scotty and i are really enjoying this break from school.

i fear i'm getting too comfortable with this whole no-responsibility thing!
i mean, during the school year i hardly watch movies... 

and if i do, i usually force myself to sit down and watch them. 

movies just can't make my priority list when school is in session.

so, since i currently have no readings, homework assignments, upcoming tests, etc, we have had a lot of time to watch movies! how sad is my life in which 7 movies in one week is overly exciting to me? here is a list and my humble opinions of the movies we've seen. 

1. Jack Reacher

surprisingly really interesting. ron and kim took us and it was very enjoyable. it's about a shooting and all of the detective work after said shooting.  i liked it way more than i thought i would; i think it's fascinating how people can think so outside of the box and pay such close attention to detail. i didn't really like the main girl, but who doesn't love tom cruise? i'd rate it 3.5/5, only taking points off because of the violence and the lack of a good romance :)

2. Pitch Perfect

i can't believe i waited so long to enjoy this hilarious movie! a lot of good one liners, plus a ton of great songs. i'm a sucker for a cappella and synchronized dance moves. mitchell gave me this for christmas, and i am way excited to own it! i feel like i was laughing the entire time that we watched it. 5/5 stars for sure!

3. Total Recall 

i don't know. maybe this shouldn't be on the list because i fell asleep after four minutes. but scotty liked it! 

4. Dark Knight Rises
a timeless movie. i'll never get sick of watching christian bale and anne hathaway. i mean, bane gives me the freaking creeps, but it's still a good movie.
i give it 4 stars.

5. The Avengers

a classic. scotty and i freaking love this movie, as mentioned in this earlier blog post. a perfect combination of wit, action, humor, and adventure. 5/5 stars. 

6. Breaking Dawn pt. 2

i actually had high hopes for this movie; i heard nothing but positive reviews from a variety of facebook friends. however, i thought it was boring beyond belief... and i think that's saying a lot coming from someone who read all of the books and went to previous midnight showings. i think the "sex scene" in the beginning was so ridiculously stupid that i couldn't take the rest of the movie seriously. plus, the whole plot was just edward and bella gathering friends to touch their baby. weird. and the cheesy recap at the end almost made me gag. i have no desire to watch it ever again. 0/5 stars. to cancel out the negativity, here is a funny picture of robert pattinson:

7. Les Miserables 

i seriously saved the best for last. words cannot describe the emotions i felt while watching this movie. the cast had so much passion, and the whole thing was so real! the storyline, the familiar tunes, the tears, the blood. i could almost smell the dirt when valjean was carrying marius through the sewers. i cried twice, but i guess i shouldn't really call it "crying." i was weeping. sobbing. noises were coming out of my mouth - it wasn't like a few tears silently ran down my face. everything was so powerful. i loved anne hathaway, amanda seyfried and especially eddie redmayne and samantha barks. what a great cast! i walked out of the theater wanting to be a better person, feeling so blessed for all that i have, and wanting to hug and cherish all of my family members. i left feeling inspired to be kind and to serve others. isn't that how every movie should leave you feeling? this movie is an inspiration! 8 out of 5 stars.

i'm already dying to see it again.
hopefully we can squeeze in a few more movies before school starts!
any suggestions? 

celebrating

our actual anniversary is tomorrow.
but with leap year and what not, it's really been 365 days.
plus, tomorrow is sunday. day of rest.
so we began all of the anniversary festivities today!

sidenote: i decided the first anniversary is borderline awkward. it sets the tone for the rest of your anniversaries. if you get each other presents, it would be weird to not get each other presents the next year. right? so we explicitly stated that we will not buy each other anniversary gifts, but instead have a fun day spending quality time together.

and just because i can't buy scotty a gift doesn't mean i can't decorate a little...

i hung "12 favorite memories from 12 months of marriage" all over the apartment. they are still hanging from the ceiling... so our place is feeling a little jungle-ish. but they turned out really cute! it's amazing what a few pieces of card stock can turn into. and scotty was a good husband and bought me the most beautiful assortment of flowers! 

i should also mention that he cleaned the entire apartment while i was out this morning. what a guy! later in the afternoon, we went to the salt lake temple and did sealings. click here. not only was it a great act of service, it was so fun to reminisce and re-live our own sealing that took place a year ago. it was so special to give other people the same blessing that we were celebrating - eternal marriage! i think we might have to make sealings on our anniversary a tradition.

the sealings were scotty's idea, and benihana for dinner was my idea.

we both contribute in this relationship. 

(speaking of contributing, shout out to mom & john for giving us some anniversary loving! if you know what i mean... $$$) 

dinner was a blast. 

benihana is not just dinner, it's an experience. 

i think i ate more food tonight than i have all week: 

sushi, soup, salad, fried rice, shrimp, grilled zucchini & onion

... and that was all BEFORE the main entree came. 

thank heck for to-go boxes.

and to make the night even sweeter, in honor of our anniversary they spoiled us with free ice cream and this ballin picture: 

it was quite the successful night! 

scotty makes me the happiest girl in the world;

i am so blessed to be married to such a great guy. 

here's to one year down!