date night surprise.

about a month ago, i decided that i wanted to plan a surprise overnight getaway for Tayl for our anniversary.

when I thought about leaving my baby overnight, I panicked. but I was reassured by my beef, Jen, that he would be perfectly fine and there was nothing wrong with leaving him for one night.

So I swallowed all of my worries and booked the hotel, hoping that I would be able to pull this off.

Taylor knew that my dad and step-mom were going to babysit while we went on a date. We decided to go to Color Me Mine and get sushi for dinner and then that was it. It just so happened that Color Me Mine was having a pajama night where if you show up in your PJs the studio fee per person is 2 dollars instead 10. So we agreed that we would do that, because we're always just going to dinner and movie and it would be something different.

So we showed up to that place in our pajamas like a couple of geeky teenagers on a prom date and the girl at the counter is like, "are you guys here to paint?" I was like, "no, we just like to loiter at places of business in pajamas for the hell of it." Okay, I didn't really say that. If I had a dime for the number of times I have to swallow back some mean sarcastic comment because of something stupid a stranger said, I'd have like 50 dollars in dimes.

Anyway, it turns out that they had no available tables for painting. So they said they would put us on a waiting list and call when something opened up. So immediately I'm like, F this. (F as in forget) we walked back to the car, and I looked up what time and where The Grand Budapest Hotel was playing. We had just enough time to get downtown. We changed our clothes in the parking deck like hobos and made it just in time.

After the movie, we went to go get sushi.  When we pulled up to the restaurant I noticed that it was right across from the hotel. Which was really convenient.

Prior to the date I thought about ways I could execute letting Taylor know about the hotel stay. I wasn't sure how I would be able to pull it off and so on the way to dinner I shot from the hip and told him I was buying his anniversary present from a guy on craigslist but the guy wanted to meet in the lobby of this hotel. Tayl was slightly concerned about this, "should I go in with you?" "are you gonna be okay?" "maybe you should talk to me on the phone while you're walking up to him." but I assured him all would be fine and I didn't want him to see what I was getting him. I told him not to pull up to the doors cause I didn't want him to see. So I went inside, checked in, and walked back out to the car. I got inside and handed him the room key and said "Happy Anniversary" he stared at them for like what seemed like forever as though he had no idea what he was holding in his hand. Finally he said, "wait, are we staying here?"

At first he didn't seem like he was very excited. But then I realized that I had about a month to prepare for leaving the baby overnight without one of us, Taylor had none time to mentally prepare so he was just trying to process, that boy loves his baby, like a lot. In the end he was excited and happy.

Then we went up to our hotel room, watched the news, kissed each other goodnight, and went straight to bed.

(I'm lying about that part. But I'll spare you the details.)

i-15 southbound.

the last two weekends we have traveled outside the grasps of potato hell. the first was Easter weekend where we went down to Manti, UT (my hometown). It is typically--- supposedly a 5 hour drive. But for us it turned into a 7 hour drive. On account of the fact that poor Tayl got food poisoning that LUCKILY, kicked in 2 hours into our drive. Barfy McGee had a real rough trip and I was tired and grumpy so I wasn't nice. Until we finally got there and I saw him in the light and his face was actually GRAY and he was shaking like a Polaroid.  He luckily recovered in time for Easter lunch and we had a short little less than 5 hour ride home.
The thing that changed my life Easter weekend: Discovering Dr. Pepper with coconut syrup at Sip It. *DROOL*

NOW this weekend we decided to sneak away for a lovers night getaway to SLC to celebrate our 2 year anniversary a little early. I looked forward to this little trip for two weeks. It's almost all I thought about at work. AND LUCKILY we were able to catch sessions of conference on the radio on the ride down. We decided to eat at Tucano's a Brazilian Steak house (unlimited MEATS) for lunch and then catch an early showing of JURASSIC PARK 3D IN IMAX (WHICH WAS AWWWEEEESSSOOOMMMEEE). Then for dinner we went for sushi at a tasty little place called Simply Sushi. Which has endless sushi for 21 bucks. ANYWAY, We did more than just eat and watch a movie. But for the sake of censorship, I will spare you. But in closing: I love Salt Lake City, and I love my Tayl.

HOW TO COPE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT.

look, I already look kind of homeless and it's not so bad.

sometimes your husband gets laid off, and sometimes you need to do things that keep you from being depressed while taking a break from near constant job hunting.

 here are things we've been doing instead of crying:

well for starters, I've been cooking/baking a lot. Like almost every night. And I'm sure better housewives (and mothers) than me would scoff at that, but I mean I've been going HARD in the kitchen. Like I am getting in trouble because we have too much leftovers.

For example, I've made this (as pictured above). and this. and this to go with these. and this. and these.

And most of it was with the help of my lovely new kitchenaid!

Which I'd like to point out was pretty much free.

We spent almost 5 days straight in the house in attempt to find a job for Taylor and also save money, obviously. BUT yesterday we caved and decided to go see The Dark Knight Rises. DON'T WORRY, it was the super matinee so it was only 5.50 a ticket. And Batman is my favorite so I had to go, finally.

It was sooo grood.


To supplement our income and also to be nice we have been dog sitting for the family that I "nanny" for while they are out of town for the week. It sure is different having  TWO regular sized shedding dogs in our house on top of my sassy little virtually shed free cotton ball. But they are really sweet and Lux likes to boss them around and make sure they don't get on the couch and they think she is an idiot, but strangely, they are also scared of her. Also they are basically in love with Taylor.

the boss

lily and ella

And then today we decided to plant some flowers in our ugly back yard.

IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL I MIGHT NEED TO HAVE A GARDEN PARTY!! and get some G.D. garden lanterns.

If you're wondering how the job search is going, it's going well. I mean not well in the sense that we have any specific leads but there are plenty of jobs for Taylor to apply for. In fact, so far I've compiled a list of about 80. And that was a list I made while being picky about locations. Currently Tayl is thinking about switching to teaching so we're trying to get more information about doing that. So if anyone knows anything about becoming a teacher in the state of Georgia (for someone with a Masters Degree), holla at us.

All of your kind words and prayers and helpfulness and well wishes are GREATLY appreciated. We love you all! We're gonna be okay. Probably. But if not, I think I could find a way to make a cardboard box a home. I'm resourceful.

the almost entire month of April, condensed.

I literally just stopped blogging for a minute. Well, longer than a minute. And I know it's not like i have some sort of crazy following where I ruined people's lives from not blogging, but I am kind of sad that I didn't blog very much in April, because we kind of did a lot. Including celebrated our 1 year anniversary! Holla.

Welp, I'll start from where I left off. [and I apologize if you follow us on instagram, you will have seen most of these, cause that's what we've been doing instead of using a real camera. SORRY]

Taylor adjusted back to American life nicely.

He joined a soccer league:

Then, ALL of my sister-in-laws and their children came to visit for spring break and we went to the beach for a couple days:

Tayl put Lux in his shirt:

I got surprised with an early anniversary gift:

We spent easter weekend in Valdosta:

Pregnant karaoke!

Laney girl.

On Sunday we were basically all playing scramble against each other. TECHNOLOGY!

From Valdosta the Tayl and I headed down to Amelia Island, FL to spend a couple of days celebrated our anniversary:

My poorly timed cell phone short of the Florida state line.

Tayl & his driving glasses

 Once we got settled, we went for a walk on the beach:

Random sunglasses I found with barnacles growing on them.

Tay was trying to take this picture of the ocean when this stranger's dog ran by.

Crab shell

Jelly fish

The view from our Hotel.

 Our actual anniversary was actually what I would consider a perfect day:

We got up and went to play tennis.

After tennis we went to the beach.

If you can't tell, this is my face smashed up against the beach chair.

awwwww yeeeeaaah.

After the beach we went back to the hotel and showered and went out for dinner at MOON RIVER PIZZA:

WHEN THE EFF DID WE GET ICE CREAM?

Then we went to play mini-golf (surprisingly, our first mini-golf date together):

After our lovely little vacay, it was back to normal life:

I had to spend forever at the DMV to update my driver's license.

I finally got my georgia plates. Two years later.

I  ALSO FINALLY FOUND CORAL THROW PILLOWS!

We went fishing on the boat with Taylor's cousin Zack:

We went to the Earth Day festival at Forsyth park and learned about composting:

Later in the week we went back to Forsyth park to watch the Goonies:

And on an unfortunate note, my Grandpa Coffin (my dad's dad) passed away last weekend. I was extremely sad that I couldn't go to Utah to be with my family for the funeral. Here's his obituary, I thought it was really sweet, and I recommend it. And even though death is never easy to deal with, it's good to know that he is in a better place and doesn't have to be sick anymore. 

Hopefully I will blog more in May so that I won't have to do this again.

Landlubbers.

This last weekend, our dear friend Kyle came to visit us. Just for fun!

Kyle.

AND BOY DID WE HAVE FUN. 

Kyle was able to spend our 2 year anniversary with us and accompany us to The Pirates House for dinner. 

The Pirates house is supposedly haunted. Nothing scary happened while we were there, until we got the check (ZING!). Anyway, Pirates used to eat food there. and die there.

Earlier that day we drove over to the beach to take some photos for our Christmas Card (no one get your hopes up, it probably won't top my other Christmas cards but, when you get married you get boring, it's the rules.) 

I thought it would be a fun concept to wear sweaters at the beach, Lux included. It wasn't actually as cool as I had anticipated, BUT we got some good ones (yes, I'll give you a preview, for those of you haven't seen them on facebook already.)

It was crazy windy, which I somehow always forget about that aspect of the beach, but since I am a [plus-size] model, I handled it, and so did my model dog. And my model husband. and our model friend Kyle. 

Also while we were there we saw dolphins all up in the ocean! While I was watching the dolphins I was just thinking, man! it is so cool that we LIVE here. It's really great to live somewhere you love, and to live somewhere that people will enjoy visiting. It makes all the instability up until this point totally worth it.

After we went to dinner that night we walked over and explored River Street and bought bubblegum cigarettes and took pictures of us that looked like we were smoking cause we thought it was funny.

It was.

Since we are all old people and boring Mormons, we went home pretty early and played like a buttload of Halo. Which is just how we roll.

Monday, before Taylor went to work and Kyle went home we went to see Breaking Dawn. I forgot how stupid that storyline was. Wow, really stupid. But I liked the movie, I thought they did an ok job at not making it horribly long and boring like the book. I mean, I think it's really lame that Stephanie Meyer makes a cameos in these movies. It's not necessary. Anyway, as per usual when I see these Twilight movies, I always laugh at inappropriate times. Like when Bella is dying, or when Edward isn't putting out. I think I have offended many a twihards in my day. Also what's this new craze with acting like Harry Potter is cooler than Twilight? Both are for losers. That's an exact case of the pot calling the kettle black. Which in lieu of that saying I'm going to start saying, "The Harry Potter fan calling the Twilight fan gay." Pass it on.