Merrill Mayhem

December 19, 2011

Today was my day off of work, so I got to go ice skating with my family! The pond freezes over more than 5 inches thick! My dad has pretty much mastered making the pond incredibly smooth and then he plows it with the four-wheeler. Seriously. We had a great time ice skating!

December 18, 2011

Today was a lot of fun. My family and Macy's boyfriend Brad came up to have dinner with us in our tiny little apartment. They still haven't seen it since we've had everything moved in and put away, plus, it was their turn for Sunday dinner. So instead of going down to their house, we invited them up to our house and packed 9 people into our living room. Haha. Eric and I made shrimp scampi and we all had a lovely dinner together. Then we played games, watched 'It's a Wonderful Life', and made cookie monsters... all in our tiny little house. Haha. We even had seating for everyone! It was a wonderful evening!

December 17, 2011

We make herbal tea fairly often in our fancy red tea kettle. On more than one occasion, Eric has gone to make himself a cup of tea and asked me if I want some. I said no, he made the tea, and then for whatever reason I changed me mind and decided I want some. And what had Eric done? He had already boiled extra water because he knew I'd change my mind. That's love. ;)

December 16, 2011

Family Night! Mom (Chris) bought us this pre-built gingerbread house to decorate! Pre-built. I've never heard of such a thing in my life. Well, we decorated it pretty cute! Eric did that whole tree... which was NOT pre-built. Very skilled, very skilled.

December 15, 2011

Tonight we went to see my dear friend Angela in her play 'Lil Abner'. She was by far the best actress up there. It was a hoot!

December 14, 2011

This handsome hunk of a man works at the Garden Restaurant on the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Ask anyone; he's the most attractive, funniest, most helpful waiter anyone's ever seen on this side of the rocky mountains. And man, look at those guns!!!

December 13, 2011

Family prayer. And have I ever mentioned how much I love it when Eric holds my hand?

December 12, 2011

Our washing machine is... special to say the least. It will wash the load, drain it, fill it with rinse water, slosh it around for a while... and then quit. So the end result is clean clothes in a tank of water. Luckily, Eric figured out early on that if you switch it to another cycle at that point, it will continue on through the spin cycle and most of the time the clothes don't come out dripping wet. But you know what, I'm just really grateful we have a washing machine for free. It came with the apartment and we get to use it until it falls apart. That's pretty great, special washer or normal washer.

December 11, 2011

Aside from 'Hook' these are two of Eric's most quoted movies. They've been favorites since he was little. So of course we watched them since it's Christmas time... and I was cracking up listening to Eric laugh throughout the movie and quote his favorite lines. What a kid. :)

December 10, 2011

My family took Eric and I to 'The Forgotten Carols' play!! I have loved this play since I was young. We had a tradition for many years of my dad reading the book to our family on Christmas Eve. Then we started watching the play on DVD, and this year we got to see the play live! It was wonderful! It was such a wonderful way to bring in the true spirit of Christmas and focus on the Savior. I laughed and cried... and cried a little more. I will always treasure that play with its message and music!

December 9, 2011

Still sick. But armed with daytime and nighttime cold medicine along with a good bag of cough drops, I'm ready to take on the world without sneezing every 3 minutes!

December 8, 2011

Totally sick. Last thing I knew it was just a sore throat. Then when Eric and I went to the temple today, my nose turned into Niagara Falls in the middle of the endowment session. It was so embarassing. I soaked the 4 tissued I had brought with me and then had to accept more tissues from the ladies on either side of me. I wanted to say to them, "I swear it wasn't this bad 30 minutes ago. If i had known I'd be a waterfall I wouldn't have come!" Somehow I survived as it continually got worse and when we got home Eric put me in bed, made me tomato soup and his hot lemon honey water remedy. What a sweetheart.

December 7, 2011

Funny story: last night I sat up in my sleep in the middle of the night, which woke Eric up. He asked what I was doing. I turned to him and moaned "I can't make her smile!!" I wonder if Eric had to try not to laugh as he convinced me I was dreaming and tried to get me to lie down. "It's okay it's just a dream." I laid back down and said, "I know but in my dream I can't get her to smile and I can't stop dreaming it!" Haha. I live, breathe, and dream FotoFly. For those of you who are still confused, I work at a portrait studio called FotoFly down in Draper where I chase kids around and make them laugh all day. Apparently this one was a tough customer. ;)

December 6, 2011

This is our lovely first Christmas setup! So much fun! Only 19 days till CHRISTMAS!!

December 5, 2011

New month. Time to update the budget! I know pride is not a good thing, but man, Eric and I are AMAZING budgeters! We laugh all the time about how fun it is to be poor together, but we're saving so much money and we still let ourselves have a lot of fun. Yay budget! (and I'm telling you... if you haven't heard of 'Rich on Any Income' and you're interested in budgeting... it's the smartest, coolest thing ever. I'll tell you all about it if you want.)

December 4, 2011

Drove home from Rexburg today. I've got to admit, I was a little sad to leave ol' Rexy... until I remembered how the winters are up there... then I wasn't so sad after all. Besides, Macy is moving back to Utah in like 2 weeks!

December 3, 2011

While we were in Rexburg we took a little trip down memory lane by going to the ice caves outside of town! The first time I went to the ice caves was in October... the weekend Eric and I met. So here we are back again with our friends: climbing, sliding, and crawling through the coolest set of ice caves ever. There are amazing crystal ice formations, smooth ice covers almost the entire floor of the cave, and there's a big ice waterfall back at the end of the cave! Awesome adventure!

December 2, 2011

This weekend finds us back in Rexburg, Idaho where Eric and I first met almost 14 months ago! We're up here this weekend with Macy's boyfriend Brad Rhees and our friend Zack Markarian. It's a special occasion! We came to see Macy in BYU-Idaho's production of 'The Drowsy Chaperone'! Macy was FABULOUS. We laughed and laughed and loved watching the talented cast! My sister was the best!! :)

December 1, 2011

There was an INSANE windstorm today. When Eric drove to school this morning there were semi trucks turned on their sides and we learned later that winds were hurricane strength and homes and businesses were torn to shreds. Gigantic trees were uprooted and most of Bountiful was without power for most of the day and into the night. Eric and I decided this would be an excellent opportunity to have an 'emergency preparedness' family home evening. So we broke out our new Coleman stove and made shrimp scampi.
WARNING: Do not try this at home. The now deseased Merrill family was not smart enough to know that you can't use a propane stove indoors. They both died of carbon monoxide poisoning and will never make that mistake again. waste of a perfectly good marriage. oops.

November 30, 2011

Wrapped some of Eric's presents today. Yes, the ones I got on Amazon. We got wrapping paper and ribbon and bows at the dollar store. Cute huh? I can't wait for him to open them already!!!

November 29, 2011

Eric and I love our apartment. Really. The only thing we ever whine about is not having a dishwasher. We are the dishwashers. And fortunately, this is a rather mild load of dishes.

November 28, 2011

My Mom and Dad's early Christmas gift to us. I have always loved Willow Tree figurines, and Eric LOVES nativities. It was a perfect, beautiful gift! We've set it up in our living room and Eric insisted on arranging the animals so that they could all see the baby Jesus... which I got a big kick out of. We love this sweet nativity!

November 27, 2011

This is at my parents' house again. They have set up this lovely Christmas village underneath the grand piano and then built a train track that goes under the piano, around the couch, into the entry, back into the sitting room, under a chair, and back under the piano. It has 3 separate tracks that can all run a train at the same time. Pretty elaborate. I had a lot of fun watching Eric and my dad and my sisters play with it.

November 26, 2011

Today Eric and I decorated our own Christmas tree with these beautiful ornaments that Chris (Eric's mom) gave us. It was so much fun to pick out our tree together and decorate it together in our own home, and then cuddle and look at our pretty tree. Love!

November 25, 2011

Well, it's the day after Thanksgiving which means... CHRISTMAS TIME!!! We got to help decorate the tree at the Hammonds and sleepover that night. Every year my family has a race against the timer to see how fast we can assemble our Christmas tree. The timer doesn't stop until all three tiers are attached, the tree is plugged in, and all of the lights are working. This year they got a new tree... which made us take WAAAY longer than we have in previous years. Don't worry, I'm sure they'll beat the record of 52 seconds next year. :)

November 24, 2011

Alright I guess this is sort of cheating putting up 2 images today... but how could I leave out one of my families on Thanksgiving?! Eric and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving today... and we got to have 2 Thanksgiving dinners! One with the Hammonds, and one with the Merrills. It was a wonderful day! We are so grateful for our incredible, loving and supportive families. They mean everything to us and we love spending time with them.

November 23, 2011

If you ask Eric about Thanksgiving, he'll tell you how it's one of his favorite holidays and how it really gets to him that Chistmas steals Thanksgiving's thunder. So, I decided to make Thanksgiving fun and special this year. Here's the plan: Eric wakes up in the morning and there are a series of post-it notes on his end table that say "Good morning handsome! Today is the big Thanksgiving Thank-your-favorite-husband day!" I've written on about 30 post-it notes to thank Eric for lots of different things. I'm going to put them all over the house, and a lot of them will correlate with what they're stuck on. The lamp will have a post-it note that says "thank you for lighting up my life!" and so on. Some are goofy, and some are more sincere. I'm so grateful for my incredible husband. Hope he likes it!

November 22, 2011

Date night games!

November 21, 2011

This is FotoFly, the awesome photography studio where I work. That's Mike, he's one of our amazing photographers. I've been working at FotoFly for 3 months now and I really love it. We photograph mainly children and a lot of families. We also do bridals, couples, and seniors. Let me tell you, being a photographer at FotoFly is VERY challenging. There's a lot to learn, a lot to keep learning, and a very high standard. Getting the lighting right, the pose natural, and getting a smile out of one or more kids all at once can be tricky. But it has also been one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had. I love working here. I love getting that perfect image that ends up making a mom cry. It's the best.

November 20, 2011

Packers game!! See that jersey? That's the one I mentioned earlier. Yeah, the "one of his most prized possessions" jersey. I'm wearing it. Yep, Eric let me wear... well actually asked me to wear his beloved jersey for the Packers game today. He even trusted me to eat while wearing it... although I think if he had thought that through with my spilling food track record he probably wouldn't have. Haha. It's been fun watching football games with the Merrills. I grew up without brothers and the only football I was exposed to was my BYU fanatic friends talking about games. Needless to say, I have a lot to learn. Lol.

November 19, 2011

Eric and I have set a goal to attend the temple every week. So far we've only missed once! We're doing pretty good. We love going to the temple together. It strengthens us indiviudally and brings so much strength to our marriage. We learn so much, gain so much peace, and always come away a little better. I love the temple.

November 18, 2011

Tonight Eric and I sat in the living room together and shopped for each other's Christmas presents online. We didn't plan it, it just sort of happened that way. I thought it was pretty funny. You can't go wrong with Amazon.

November 17, 2011

We shopped around for quite a while and finally found a screamin deal on a 6.5' pre-lit Christmas tree! Yeah!! $40 at Wal-mart. Get ready for some Christmas cheer!

November 16, 2011

This is one of those stories that's really REALLY irritating and not funny at all at the time... and then later it's kind of funny... but only a little. So being the kind soul that I am, I offered to deliver a CD from my work to a customer who I thought lived close to us. I talked to her on the phone and she said she lived in Layton. I said, "Hey I live in Bountiful, I could just bring it to you if you'd like?" She asked me if I was sure and then thanked me. She gave me directions and I said, "Oh yeah, I know right where that is. I'll bring it by tonight." So I drove home and got off on the highway 89 exit like she had told me. ...okay this is going to turn into a way longer story than it needs to be. Long story short, I thought Layton was right next to us... turns out this lady's house was like 25 miles further than I thought. When I realized what I had done, and that there were 2 different highway 89 exits I was kind of irritated. Then it got worse when I decided I'd go anyway. I spent about an extra hour driving around looking for this address at 10:00 at night. I drove 47 miles out of my way and I didn't even find the stinkin house!! I finally gave up and came home. Eric gave me a big hug and helped me to see that it really was pretty funny in spite of me being mad about wasting gas. The worst part is, Eric looked up where I had been on Mapquest when I got home and when I finally turned around to come home I was less than a mile away from the lady's house. Hmph. Well, Eric delivered her CD to her the next day on his way to school, so I guess it worked out. Haha.

November 15, 2011

A tribute to my OCD! This particular issue has been driving me crazy since we moved in. We don't have much hanging space, so when we moved in I hung things in our storage closet as well as on a movable garment rack I bought, just to get them out of the way and keep them from wrinkling. And Eric has laughed at me as I've been going crazy because half of my shirts are in one place, half of them in the other, and the same with my jackets and skirts. Nothing was organized, and nothing was in the right color category. Talk about a crisis. Lol. So today I finally had the time to organize it all. The shirts are now all on the garment rack, sorted of course by color, and the skirts and jackets have all found their home in the storage room. aaaaahhhh. OCD satisfied at last. ;)

November 14, 2011

This is one of Eric's most prized possesions: His Aaron Rodgers Packers jersey. Eric has been a Packers fan since he was 8 years old. He wore his jersey today because the Packers played. We went over to the Merrill's house for family home evening tonight and watched the game with them. And you should know... the Packers won. Again.

November 13, 2011

Fun basement apartment quirk #2: There is a drain ouside of our front door at the bottom of the stairs... which we discovered today does not actually drain much of anything. And so we, who have only been married for a month now, already have our very own SWIMMING POOL!!! AND, we're very excited for January to come around so that we can go ice skating on it! :D lol

November 12, 2011

I came home from another full day of work to find Eric had taken out all the trash, done all the dishes, cleaned the mirrors, vacuumed, and swept and mopped the floors. No one asked him, he just did it. I thanked him and hugged him and he said, "well I had a bunch of free time!"

"Yeah," I said, "but most husbands probably would have just played video games or watched TV instead." Thanks honey!!!

November 11, 2011

Today Eric made us the most amazing chewy chocolate chip cookies EVER. Seriously, these are my new favorite chocolate chip cookies of all time. And they're like my favorite dessert. My husband is the best!

November 10, 2011

Today on my day off I took an extended trip down to Salt Lake City to get a new drivers license and an updated social security card. I'm now legally identified as Tia Merrill. Yeah baby.
...let's not talk about how the DMV must get a big kick out of shooting people's driver's licence pictures at like 20mm so that everyone's face looks stretched. love that.

November 9, 2011

A comical aspect of our tiny apartment: Our bathroom is so small that Eric and I can barely fit in it at the same time. You could pretty much shower, wash your hands, and use the toilet at the same time. Plus, there's not an outlet anywhere near the bathroom sink. So, naturally the solution is to get ready in the kitchen; which I do every day. :) So we hung a mirror and voila! insta-vanity! I just think it's pretty funny that I do my hair and makeup in the kitchen. ...but then, I'm pretty easily amused.

November 8, 2011

Mommy-daughter date! Tonight my mom picked me up from work and we went out to dinner and saw a movie together. We had a blast talking and laughing. I love spending time with my mom!

November 7, 2011

Grocery Shopping: check. Unpacking: check. Write over 300 thank you notes... uhh... well we're working on it. So if you haven't gotten yours yet, fear not. We haven't forgotten you. Tonight's family home evening activity was writing thank you notes for a few hours.