Busy Busy Busy

No, really. I know that life is always busy, but it feels like we've had some kind of commitment every single weekend for awhile and will every weekend for awhile, not to mention the daily grind of often-stressful projects at work and always stressful school for Sam. I guess it's cool; better to be busy living life than taking it easy and not doing much to improve oneself. Here's a quick summary of some of the things going on:

The last weekend in September we finally celebrated our anniversary! Nothing special, we decided in the long run that we didn't want to spend too much money, so I let go of my inner drama queen that craved something unique and awesome and we just went out to a nice dinner. We went out to a place in Provo that just opened up in the Riverwoods called La Jolla Groves. It's owned by the same folks who own The Chef's Table, so we knew it was going to be good. The ceiling is covered with a "grove" of artificial lemon trees. Cute, no?

Sam enjoying our artisan cheese and fruit.

Good food, great service, beautiful atmosphere, and not too pricey. You should check it out for your next hot date.

We also stopped to buy Sam's present - a pasta roller. He's been dying to make healthy, homemade pasta for months with our own pasta roller and he is so happy to finally have one! He's my little chef. It's just one on a long list of fancy kitchen gadgets that we hope to furnish our fabulous future kitchen with. (That was a lot of f's wasn't it?)

Then, this last weekend Jennifer came to visit with Ethan! It was a bit crowded in our one bedroom apartment, but it was fun to visit with Jennifer and play with Ethan out in our apartment complex playground and try to make sense of his almost-talking.

Friday night we went to Sam's mission reunion for the first time. This one was a big deal, because his old Mission President is finally back, so there was a huge turnout and it was definitely the one to come to. It was so weird to run into some of his old companions and mission friends that I had only seen pictures of or heard about for years. What was also weird, (but mostly fun), was having them remember me as his then-girl-back-home and being excited to see us together and married.

Then, Saturday and Sunday, of course, was General Conference. Wow! What a pick me up at a time when I'm so inclined to mope about being stressed. I love coming away from Conference with a renewed sense of hope and gratitude for all the things I have. The Gospel has such an amazing power to comfort, encourage, chasten, and uplift.

Stuff this week: wrapping up a big design project at work, parents coming to town Friday, helping throw our Ward Luau Friday night, and Homecoming tailgating and football game Saturday. (Too bad it won't be much to watch. Watching the game live will be fun anyway.)