Man Crush...

We're watching Piers Morgan right now because Ben recorded it. We fast forwarded until we got to the whole reason Ben recorded the talk show...THE ROCK. Ben has a man crush on him. A big one. Hahaha. Well I can't say I blame him ;)

This Month...

Ben and I had an amazing trip to the Florida Keys and stayed at my Papa Gary and MaryAnne's house. Their house is SO awesome and in the best spot right on the bay. It was such a nice wedding gift from them and it's been so long since I've been able to spend time with them. We had a blast. We were there for 6 days and the weather was perfect the whole time. We went kayaking, snorkeling, deep sea fishing, diving for lobster, and we collected stone crab out of traps. I was so proud of Ben for eating both fish AND crab AND a bite of a tuna sandwich! Haha! He doesn't like fish so it was pretty impressive of him. I on the other hand LOVE fish and was so happy to eat it so fresh. Now that we're back in Provo I really REALLY am sick of the weather. It just doesn't compare to the sunny 80 degrees of Florida.

I can see a light at the end of the tunnel for this school semester and I'm soooo relieved! English has been killing me, but I just finished the rough draft for my research paper and everything should be downhill from here. 2 more tests in both of my art history classes and one more paper for art history. I think I have the nicest husband in the world because he actually wrote one of my art history papers that was due while I was stressing over and writing my research paper. I love him to death.

We are still waiting to here back from the Construction company in San Diego on whether or not the contract for the Canada job goes through. Having things up in there air is not good when you're husband is currently unemployed! At least I'm bringing home the bacon at the moment...haha yeah right. We'd be on the street if we lived off my income alone. Thank goodness Ben has some money saved as well as a back up job plan of installing alarm systems(if for some reason this job doesn't go through).

If things work out, Ben should be working in San Diego for a few weeks and I'm hoping I can make it down for a week or two after schools out before we have to move to Canada. I need some California sun and I need to hang out with my family before we live even farther apart then we are now!

That about sums things up at the moment. Here's a few pics from our trip to Florida:

California turns into Canada. Wait what?!

Well well well let me explain...

Ben and I were so excited when he found out he would be having an interview this past weekend with CW Driver Construction in California. We both drove down on Wednesday to enjoy the weekend with my family and hopefully for Ben to get the job! His interview was early Thursday morning in San Diego and it went really well. He had a second one in Orange county for the same company and that one went well also. The whole weekend we were getting so excited about moving to California. I was so excited thinking about living by my family again! The rest of the weekend we just hung out with my family and I worked a few days. It was a relaxing fun weekend.

Well Monday rolls around and Ben gets the call...He got the job! But here's the catch...

During his interviews they said they had a job in Canada that would be starting soon and asked if that was something he would be opposed to working on. Of course Ben didn't want to look picky and said that would be okay, but he'd have to talk to his wife...haha nice. So we both hoped that he would get put on one of the jobs in San Diego buuuut no such luck. They called on Monday and offered him the job in Canada. Here's the perks though...On top of getting paid way more than he is now, they will also give us $2000 a month for rent and other living expenses and every six weeks Ben will get a week off from work. The job will last about 10-11 months and then we'd be back in San Diego and have a lot of money saved. As much as we are not excited about living in Canada, in the long run it will be really beneficial. And believe me, we will be going on some fun vacations on some of those weeks we get off! I'm excited for that :)

So Ben will be taking off in the middle of April to go work in San Diego for a few weeks and then he'll come back to Utah and we'll pack up and take a reeeally long drive to Canada. The job is in Carberry, Manitoba which is about 2 hours away from Winnipeg, but we'll most likely like in a city called Brandon because it's much bigger(since Cranberry has only 2,000 people! My High School had 3,500! Haha!). It'll be quite the cold adventure, but at least we'll be getting there as it's warming up. I can't believe we were dreaming of California one day and destined for Canada the next. Ha! We are grateful he got the job though, and especially right after he quit his last one! What luck ;)

Sunny California, I'll be with you in a year! Good things are worth waiting for! (like Ben proposing...hahaha)

Impressed!

Last night Ben went grocery shopping for a surprise Sunday dinner he was going to make for us. NICE! last night he began some of the preparations and then when we got home from church yesterday the chef got to work. He told me I COULD NOT look in the kitchen, so I laid on the couch and listened to him cook away. It was hilarious listening to all the noises. I loved it. It took a while so I knew it had to be something pretty impressive. WELL...he made Chille relleno's, lime chicken, and grilled cheesy potato wedges! The really impressive part was the chile relleno's. They were so good! He also bought Sangria, one of my favorite drinks. I think I want Ben to cook every Sunday. It was the best treat ever. Here's his beautiful plate displays...and yes there is avocado slices on the chille relleno's and a swirley lime slice for decoration...amazing.

Just because she's so cute...

I stole some of my favorite pictures of my little niece Brooklynn from my sister-in-laws facebook :) She's just SO CUTE! I need to be in California soon and see my niece and my nephew Aiden!

Valentines Shrine

I made a little conglomeration of all our Valentine's stuff. My mom sent Ben and I cute cards, delicious mint chocolate cookies for Ben, and chocolates for me. She's great. I bought Ben some under-armour briefs that he wears for the gym(I was bad at washing the two pairs he had over and over again so I decided he needed another pair). I also got roses from Ben and we exchanged our Valentine cards :)

So I thought we were celebrating Valentine' day on the Saturday before so I gave him my present that night because I didn't want to wait until Monday. We just went out to dinner with a group of friends which was fun, but it didn't really feel like Valentines Day...maybe because it wasn't! So Monday rolls around and I get a text from Ben asking me if I wanted to go to dinner with him that night. Of course I said yes because I never turn down eating out and then I realized he could only be doing this if it was for Valentines Day. So...I had decided to make snicker-doodles for Ben, but didn't end up doing it on Saturday because I was too busy, so I rushed and made them on my 15 min break since V-day was back on! Haha. Then I wrote in the card I bought for him and ended up getting off work early which was perfect because I was a mess and still needed to get ready. ANYWHO...Ben gets home with a bouquet of roses and a card. I was so surprised because he had just said a few weeks earlier he wasn't going to get me flowers on V-day because their a rip off(how romantic haha, but I agreed it was a rip off) Well I guess Costco has good deals on flowers! Haha. He made me so happy and I was so surprised. I asked him what happened to celebrating V-day on Saturday and he said he thought I seemed sad we weren't doing anything on the real v-day. Haha so cute. We went to dinner and I was so happy and thankful for the sweet hunk I married :) Love him to death.

I am obsessed...

With these two ingredients: Spinach and Artichoke.

If Ben and I go out to eat and something on the menu has these two ingredients...DONE. Decision made. I'm getting it.

Today me, Paige and Shelly went to have lunch at one of my favorite places called Zupas.

They have a DELICIOUS turkey, spinach and artichoke panini and an AMAZING wisconsin cauliflower soup that I get every time I go.(sometimes just one or the other because the place is kindof a rip off) Since I can't eat at Zupas everyday I decided I needed to make the Panini at home for a lot cheaper.

I got the idea to use my fat free spinach dip that I made for the Super Bowl as the spread for the sandwich. It works perfect. I use wheat bread and a layer of spinach dip spread on each slice, a sprinkle of basil, some slices of canned artichoke hearts, tomatoe slices, and turkey. Then I stick in on our little grill thingy to get all toasty and viola!! SO GOOD! I've have literally eaten one every single day this week. (Had to make a trip to the store twice because we ran out of bread and turkey haha)

I know this is probably a REALLY dumb thing to blog about, but hey, maybe someone out there will make one and have it change their life forever, like spinach and artichoke has for me. Haha!