Pretty Laid Back...

I haven't posted anything for the last week and 1/2 because to be honest with you, there hasn't been much excitement in the Anderson's lives. :) The last two weekends have been very relaxing as Nick and I have taken each Saturday to lay around and relax and just spend time with one another. This has been very nice and fun for both of us. We're also just counting down the days until the end of this semester. It has been a very boring one for me. I register for next semesters classes this Friday, so I'm hoping that I can get some more interesting ones. :)
This semester was nick's first. He loves going to school to get his paramedic classes out of the way. It's just the first step in the right direction to becoming a professional firefighter. Along with his paramedic classes, he's also required to do 6 clinical's. Two of them were in the E.R. at one of the hospitals, one of them was in the Delivery room... yes... Nick saw 6 babies born that day. I told him by the time he was done witnessing that and being a part of it, we'd be able to have home deliveries when the time came. LOL! One was in the crazy person home... which was a pretty pointless day for Nick because he didn't really perform any medical procedures at all. It was more like babysitting? And the last two clinical's are ride-a-longs with different fire departments. His last clinical is a ride-a-long and it's Wednesday. His first ride-a-long with one of the fire departments was a blast for him. He LOVED every second of it. Even though Nick has loved his first semester at school, is has also been very competitive and demanding. He's learned a lot and is looking forward to moving onto next semester.
We also went to the first UNLV basketball game of the season. We met some of Nick's cousins there and that's always a blast. That has been one really good thing about living here in Vegas... we've gotten to know them very well and it has been really fun. Nick says that we're becoming UNLV BASKETBALL fans... LOL!... their first game was very fun to watch and we're excited to see them play more.
We also found out that we'll be moving out of the house that we're currently house-sitting in March. We've been very blessed to be able to live in this house for awhile and to be able to save a lot of money by doing so. However, I'm getting very excited about moving into our own place and making it "our home." We've been apartment/condo searching the past couple of weeks also. We've been able to find some pretty good deals... even though this economy is a very difficult time for many, it does have it's up's (lower rent prices). We've also been keeping our eyes peeled for good furniture sales. We went to Ashley Furniture on Friday as they were having a 1/2 off 1/2 the store sell. We found some GREAT deals on a love seat and ottoman. I know that we're not moving out until March, but we have the room to store it and it was a deal we could not pass up. So... as Nick puts it... "We bought our FIRST couch!! That's a pretty big deal!" :) You know Nick... he had to tell the lady at check out that too! :)
So... like I said, we've been pretty boring and quiet around here lately. With both of us always running 100 mph it has been just what we needed! :)

One Nation Under God

This semester at UNLV, I'm enrolled in 2 Political Science classes. Yes I know, what a time to be enrolled in these kind of classes. I have learned more about our government and politics this year than I ever have. I'm glad for "having" to take these classes because of the knowledge I have obtained. However; with this years very competitive election, it can be very overwhelming at times to constantly hear about it in class, on the radio, on the tv, on billboards, and in the newspaper. I honestly have to say that it has been a very eye opening experience for me. I've also learned the level of debate that can go on when discussing this topic, so please understand right now that my intentions of this post are NOT to affend anyones beliefs or thoughts about this years election. Many of the discussions in my classes have addressed the legalization of gay marriages, abortion, and mariguana. Some topics like these are VERY heartbreaking to me and it blows my mind that people even have these thoughts.
Last weekend our stake had Stake Conference and we had the privilage of hearing from Edler Harry Coleman. His main concern was the state that our country is in and asked us to continue to do as we know is right and have faith. He also talked about being prepared for the worst... having a "shelter from the storm." This was very informative and also a comfort for me to hear. I also recieved this email from my mom today which also gave me a comforting feeling. This email and past weekends conference is the reason why I finally decided to post about this topic. Here is the email I recieved...

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, 'The Rest of the Story,' and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.
Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Nation: 'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it p olitics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!'
With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called 'One nation under God.'

Halloween Happenings

Our Ward's Trunk r' Treat was Thursday night. Our ward is pretty fun and we've made a lot of great friends so it was really fun. We're also primary teachers and have a class of nine 5 year olds...SO I was super excited to see all the kids in their costumes. Along with the trunk r' treating, we also had a chili/corn bread diner. :) I made chili using my sisters recipe and it turned out pretty good. :) I was looking forward to having some left overs to take home, but it was GONE!

Nick and I had been thinking about what we should be for Halloween for the last month. We thought about Woody and Buzz, Beast and Bell, Tinker bell and Peter Pan, Wizard of Oz characters? None of them were working out so the other night after watching The Best of Will Ferrell, it hit us... THE SPARTAN CHEERLEADERS!!! :) If you have no idea what I'm talking about, this is a clip from the video. (p.s. I have NO idea why 2 of them show up? When I tried to edit them, none of them even showed up? only watch one!)

Well, we found the costumes and it was classic. We were so excited and once we got to the trunk r' treat we started to wonder if ANYONE would even know who we were? Well we were a HIT!! Everyone LOVED it!! We decorated our Trunk with streamers and candy and sayings from the video. We also had a little dvd playing of the video clip in case no one knew who we were. It was a blast.

Friday night Nick and I just wanted to hang out at home and have a quiet night together. So we watched Hocus Pocus which is absolutely the best Halloween movie EVER!! :) And then we made the BIGGEST sugar cookies and decorated them. :) It was pretty hilarious. They turned out the size of a plate. It was fun though!! We also had quite the amount of trick r' treaters come to our door too. It was fun just relaxing and getting to see all the kids' costumes.

That night Nick had to work. Of course he had to wear his uniform, but this is how he went to work! :)

Our LOVEly Weekend

This friday Kate Jones, one of my best friends, flew into Vegas for the weekend. Kate and I first met while attending college in Wyoming. We graduated together in May and the last time I saw her was at our wedding. Nick also got to know Kate very well and we've always had a BLAST together.

We told Kate that we had a surprise for her and she would find out when she got here. While Nick and I were waiting for Kate to come down the escalator at the airport, Nick was talking to a couple of LAX escorts. LAX is a club at Mandalay Bay. The escorts were waiting for Reggie Bush and they told Nick he would see him later at work that night if he didn't see him coming down the escalator. So I while Nick and I were supposed to be looking for KATE, he was TOO busy looking for Reggie! ;) I found Kate first, so Nick had to wait until he went to work. lol!

Once we left the airport, we went to eat diner at Stripburger. We told Kate we had to get her surprise before we could get diner. We pulled up to the Mirage and walked to the concierge desk where we picked up 2 FREE tickets for the LOVE show and purchased one. The LOVE show is a Cirque du Soleil show featuring The Beatles. As some of you know this show is pretty expensive. The only reason we went was because one of Nick's classmates works at the Mirage and got us 2 free tickets. The show ended up costing each of us $46 which is amazing compared to a total of $420. You can see we would have NOT gone if we didn't get any free tickets.

The TICKETS!

Hangin' with The Beatles After the show

We went to the show Saturday night after a full day of shopping and going to the temple. It was great to do baptisms together. Nick and I haven't done them for a very long time and Kate actually couldn't make it to her wards temple day so it was perfect for us all. What a great experience it was too. That day while Kate and I went shopping, Nick went to an Elder's Quorum activity where they watched the UNLV v. BYU game. And I do have to say that BYU didn't KICK our butts this time. :) It was tied the whole game until the very end where we ended up loosing. And of course the LOVE show was the highlight of the weekend. For anyone who has the chance and money to see this show and is a BEATLES fan... it's totally to die for. It was amazing! Check out this clip from youtube...

Sunday we went to church and Kate got to meet our cute primary class. :) They LOVED the Halloween treat bags we made for them too. After church we had a great diner of potatoes, steak, salad, and corn on the cob. :) When Nick and I got married, Kate got us this CUTE Caramel Apple set. So... since it is the Halloween season we decided that making caramel apples would be a blast. Check it out...

And then we TRIED to eat them.... YUMMY MESS!!

We also decided that carving pumpkins was A MUST....

Here is the finished product...

A sister missionary that was in Nick's area while he served his mission was also in town this weekend. She dropped by to visit him and meet Kate and I. She was a such a sweet girl. It was fun to hear their stories and get to know her. Another friend of ours, Bruno, also stopped by on Sunday and dipped an apple while we finished our pumpkins. It was so fun to be with them all.

Kate had to be to the airport by 6:00pm on monday so we made the best of our last day together. Nick missed out unfortunately and had to get some sleep and studying in for school. Kate went to work with me for a few hours and then I had one class I had to go to. After that we hit the strip and visiting M&M world and the Coca-Cola store. I've never really done the whole "trourist" thing, so it was all new and fun to me. We also walked down to the Mirage to check out the LOVE show gift shop where Kate found a coupld of souviners for her family. It was sad taking her to the airport :( But we were SOOO GLAD that she made time to come to Vegas to see us and we couldn't have had a better time. :) Thanks Kate!! We love you!

Bite of Las Vegas

This weekend Nick and I went to Bite of Las Vegas at Desert Breeze Park. For those of you who don't know it's a food and music festival. There were over 40 different GOOD resturants there as well as the bands Puddle of Mudd, Secondhand Serenade, Lifehouse, and Metrostation. It gets even better... it was only $8 a piece to get in. It was a very fun and relaxing family atmosphere where you could just enjoy the food and listen to the music from a distance OR try to make your way to front of the crowd. We did both and it was very fun! We went a little later in the evening so we only got to hear Lifehouse, but they did a GREAT job. Nick was laughing at me because it was my SECOND concert... yes, in my whole life. The first concert I went to was Garth Brooks in Montana. My Grandma took all of her grandaughters and what a sweet memory it is to us. :)

There was a photographer at the park that was randomly taking peoples pictures and then handing out cards with a website where we could get our free picture. Here it is! Not the best picture, but my camera wouldn't download the vidoes we took or the pictures last night? So it's the best I can do. The other picture is the lead singer of Lifehouse.

Before we went to the concert, we also went to the temple which truly made our week. I'm SO glad that we've set a goal together to attend the temple each week. It really is the best thing for both of us and a great way to spend our time together. When we were there I told Nick that it would be awesome if we could attend EVERY temple in the world just once. I don't know if that'll happen, but I do know we're going to try and attend every temple that we're near at that specific time.

Just to catch up on a couple of other things... Nick has a phone now. :) AND it's the same number so that makes it easier for everyone. So if you need to get ahold of him, now you can. :)

You know that I'm really into scrapbooking and digital scarpbooking is the new thing; however, I haven't really gotten into that until recently. I'm just learning, but I've found that I love it just as much as regular scrapbooking. I've been experimenting with designing my own blogger layouts and headers. The one you can see right now is my FIRST. Yes... I know it's a little rough but I'm excited to see how much I can learn and see what different things I can create. It's a fun new hobbie for me esepically when I need something to distract me from homework! ;)

Making Tips and Getting Jipped!!

As most of you know Nick is working at Mandalay Bay. He's working the graveyard shift full-time as well as attending school full-time. Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming for a couple of different reasons...
1. It seems like he's ALWAYS going, going, going and never sleeping;
2. I know it's life, but we don't get enough time together; and
3. the atmosphere at work is NOT the best, if you know what I'm saying.
But there are also some good things about working there. The people that own this Valet Company are such great people and treat Nick so well. In fact he was just moved to graveyard Supervisor. He continues to move up and up! :) We are blessed because of these good people and Nick's hard work.
Nick also has made some great friends who have just gotten off their missions. I always ask him how work was and what happened and so on. He always gets the most random tips and meets a lot of different celebrities. SO... we sat down the other day and wrote up a list of all the people he's meet and random tips. Check it out...

Famous people:
Mike Tyson
Shug Knight
Rob N' Big
Ja Rule
Nikki Hilton
Jermain Oneal - He gave Nick a $100 tip :)
Michael Jordan
Zab Juda
George Bush - saw him in a limo- didn't actually meet him.

If you don't know who some of those people are, don't worry I'm the same way. He always has to explain to me what show, or music group they're in.

Random Tips:
4 different hats
Corn beef sandwich
In n' Out Burger-Double Double
2 Ties - Nice ones too!! :)
Cases of water - the whole crew... not a personal tip
Cases of Monsters - energy drink
$20 in poker chips - no he didn't go inside the casino to use them :)
Pizza
McDonald's Gift Certificates
CD's
Hot Chocolate
Krispy Kreme
Disneyland Key Chain
$100 tip from some drunk dude!

AND OF COURSE... a Prostitute stole his phone... yes it's a long story. :) So when he's not getting tipped he's getting jipped. So if any of you have tried to call his phone and it says "out of service", that's why. And his favorite is when people from Wyoming come through. :)

Our Weekend

Our weekend began Friday night as Nick took me to the movie, Nights in Rodanthe.

This is a must see for all you ladies. ;) Nick made fun of me throughout the movie because I cried more than once. I have to be honest, I was wondering what we got ourselves into in the beginning of the movie. It was very slow moving and kind of lame. But as it went on it got better and better. So if you have the chance, go see it.

We watched General Conference on Saturday and then we had the opportunity to have the Crosby's stay with us the rest of the weekend. Brett and Des came and only brought their youngest, Matthew, and I told them they were in trouble for not bringing the rest of their kids. This is the Crosby family. :)

Cute family huh? They are from Wyoming and my family and I are very good friends with them. I worked for them for 3 years as a secretary/nanny/run the errands/clean the office/work on their new house/my pickup needs washed... You get the idea! :) and I also got to travel with them to New York, Nashville, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Brett travels a lot due to his job and sometimes the family got to go along, so I would be the nanny. It was such a great opportunity to go with them and learn so much from their great kids. Brett sang at my Wedding reception and Des was one of my friends who threw a Bridal Shower for me. As you can see, they're pretty close friends and we were very excited to see them again.
Brett enjoys to run Marathons... yes those things that are 26 DREADFUL miles long where you have to run the whole time... he likes to do this, and so he ran the Saint George Marathon on Saturday morning. And yes he could walk afterwards, but not very easily. ;) I have to give him props for running those things. We all know I'd rather jump off a bridge than RUN at all. :) Anyways... They arrived at our house Saturday night. We enjoyed some diner and dessert and then due to everyone being so tried, we went to bed. :) Sunday we had breakfast, watched conference, had lunch, and then took them to the airport. I don't have any pictures from our fun weekend and yes their visit was short, but it was so good getting to see them and visit with them. I love getting visitors from home. :) Thanks for taking time to see us Brett and Des!! See you in December! :)

I've been tagged!!

The rules of the game. Go to your pictures folder and take the fourth picture from the fourth file and post it. That's it. Then tag four friends:)

LOL!! I was tagged by my mom and I'm sure that some of you have seen the ridiculous picture posted on her blog. I'm not so sure I'm that embarrassed now... LOL!! Katie's face is PRICELESS!! I think it's HILARIOUS!! I'm pretty sure we were taking a "gangsta face" pic. So there she is as a gangster. HAHA!! I love you Katie!!
I TAG: Dani, Kara Beth, Aubri, and Shannon!! HAVE FUN... and NO BREAKING THE RULES!! :)

Funny Females and Foul Football

While I was writing this post, I asked Nick to come up with a title... It describes our weekend PERFECTLY!!

We'd ALL been planning and looking forward to this weekend and what a BLAST it was!! On Friday morning I picked up Nick at 9 am from work at Mandalay Place. We planned to wash the car, get gas, and a few snacks for the road. We were headed to Logan, Utah for the weekend. We stayed with my oldest sister Dani and her husband Bob. My little sister Katie also made the drive from Powell, Wyoming that day too. Her and I planned to meet at Dani and Bob's at approximately the "same time"; However, when Nick and I were 45 mins out of Logan Katie text us and said she would be little late because she took a wrong turn. If any of you have driven from Lovell to Logan you know how many tricky turns have to be made and this was Katie's first time driving there. Well... poor Katie took a wrong turn to EVANSTON from Kemmerer and ended up being an hour behind schedule. We all had to laugh pretty hard about this because she didn't call until she was already an hour in the wrong direction. This little event started our weekend off JUST the right way!! Thanks Katie! ;) After Katie arrived we went to diner at Firehouse Pizza. We had a BLAST. My sisters and I are VERY close and we haven't ALL been together since my wedding, so we were SUPER excited. :)

Saturday's event was the main reason we made the trip to Logan. As some of you know it was the BYU vs. WYO game in Provo. And YES... Wyoming got their butts KICKED!!! ALL of us were proud to support our home-state team and went dressed in head to toe in WYO colors. We were VERY out numbered by Cougar fans as you can imagine. And even though Wyoming looked pretty pathetic the entire game, we still cheered for everything that they did right. The highlight of the game was meeting up with Nick's parents and youngest brother. They made the trip from Wyoming also. Jerry and Terri were the only two of our group who wore blue and white, so at least some of us weren't losers! ;) On our way to our seats I ran into my roommate from Northwest College in Wyoming. It was such an ironic thing to see her there and so fun too. As always... there seems to never be enough time to do everything you want or spend enough time with everyone that you want, but it was nice to see everyone. The game was very HOT and kinda of boring for us Wyoming fans. In fact it was a little embarrassing. :( After the game, we ALL went to t.g.i Friday's. It was a good food and fun time all visiting with one another. I was coming out of the bathroom and heard someone say "Lindi?" I turned around and there was one of our cousins Kelly. It was SOO crazy to run-into two people that I knew and had NO idea they were in the area. After dinner Nick's family went to Nick's aunt house in Provo and the rest of us headed back to Logan. Even though we were VERY tired from SUCH an EXCITING game, we decided to go to the movie WallE that night. I was told it was a very cute movie as I fell asleep on Nick's shoulder half way through the movie. :) I saw the very beginning and the very end and from what I saw, it was a good show. :) We all went home and straight to bed.
Sunday morning we slept in a little and then had a GOOD breakfast made by Bob. Katie headed for home and after going to Sacrament meeting with Dani and Bob, Nick and I headed back to Vegas. We couldn't of had a better time. We're SO glad that we went even if it was a short trip. I've missed my sisters SOO much and it was JUST what I needed to hold me over until Christmas when we're together again! ;)

To explain the title a little better... when my sisters and I get together, it is very loud with laughter as we are SOO excited to see one another and talk about everything. And I'm pretty sure the last part of the title is obvious!! Thanks for such a great weekend Dani and Bob and for letting us stay with you!! We love you and will see you at Christmas in WYOMING!! :)

Husbands are the BEST!!

Even though almost everyone one the UNLV campus doesn't believe in marriage espically at such a young age, I am SOO glad to be married. I know I've told you all this before, but lately it's been a little crazy with adjusting to school and work schedules and also being able to spend enough time with each other. This summer I got really used to staying at home and cooking and cleaning while Nick went to work. Once he got home, we would have all the time in the world to do those things that we wanted it seemed. Once we both get home at the end of the day we're both tired and worn out. We both usually have homework and so we do that and then go to sleep. I still try to always have breakfast and diner cooked everyday. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the amount of "things to do TODAY", but Nick, even though he has worked so hard with school and work, ALWAYS helps me even when I don't ask. I'm so thankful for his hard work around the house and yard. For example, Monday I left the house at 7 am knowing that by the end of the day I needed to do laundry, clean the kitchen, bathroom, and office, and when I got home from work and school that day Nick had it ALL done. We always do something little and simple to celebrate our Monthly anniversary and yesterday when I walked out of work, my car was covered in streamers, Oreo's, and window paint(yes, I know the 20th isn't for a few more days, but we'll be in Utah this weekend so we're celebrating early this month). He wrote all over the windows with sayings such as "Your hubby loves you". I could go on and on about everything that he does, but to sum it up....He's just always doing such sweet things and always making my day better. I'm grateful for his good attitude about everything when mine isn't so great. I know I am blessed to have him as my husband and I couldn't ask for a better person to spend the rest of my life with. Thanks sweety!!