Catch 22

In my lifetime, I have been blessed in so many ways. 

I have a loving and supporting family.

I have always had food to eat, clothes to wear, and a roof overhead.

I have associated with many wonderful people and am honored to call these people dear friends.

I belong to a church that is based on charity, love and faith.

I live in a great country full of opportunity and freedom.

I am in good health.

My list is simple and modest, but I think it encompasses all that truly matters.

To my list, I add one more thing: A loving husband who enjoys making birthdays a big deal <3

I had a great 22nd birthday. My birthday fell on a Sunday this year. Since Happy Valley tends to shut down on Sundays, we celebrated my birthday on Saturday instead. I was able to take off work. Since I've been working retail, getting any Saturday off is treated as a treasure. Brian and I simply enjoyed each other's company while relaxing. I got my hair trimmed and styled. Brian made me a delicious pineapple, mango and strawberry smoothie for breakfast. 

I was truly impressed with Brian's present picking skills. I really didn't give him much help to his dismay. I told him to take advantage of technology and go through my pinterest account and look at my "my style" and "OMG!I WANT THIS" albums to get some ideas. He did super well. I am very spoiled.

There is an asian market in provo that Brian and I have been going to since we began dating by the bowling alley in Provo. We love going there because they always have super funny candy and treats. For my birthday Brian truly found the funniest and beautiful thing my eyes have ever beheld...

take a few moments to prepare for this...

your life will truly never be the same...

you will forever be in a constant hunt and search for this magnificent treat...


................




................


...................

Oh my goodness! I seriously almost peed from laughing so hard. I just love what it says in the upper right hand corner of the box and I love how "questionable" the actual candies look. I was so pleased.

Later on that night, Brian and I went to the Hale Center Theatre to see a play called, "Old Lace and Arsenic." Neither Brian or myself had ever heard of it or read anything about. (We like it better that way, add some spice to our newlywed life. haha!)

It was AMAZING! I seriously couldn't stop laughing the whole time!

Afterwards, it was quite late. But Brian knew I had my heart set on going to Tucanos for my birthday, so he made a reservation for 10:15. A bit late, no one was there besides us and a family of four. So again spoiled.. or in other words they were treating us like garbage disposals and were trying to get us to eat as much food as possible so they wouldn't have to throw much away. However, still delicious. We were so full afterwards, but Brian wanted to make sure I had some cake for my birthday so we got a huge chocolate cake slice to go. Seriously, that thing was bigger than two of my heads. We did NOT eat it that night! I would have died.

The next day we went to my in-laws. Kara (my mother in law) and Emily (my sister in law) were terribly sweet and prepared a super yummy meal for me. Emily made some delicious Brazilian lemonade. Seriously, it was way better than Tucanos! I have to get that recipe.

All in all, I had a great birthday weekend. 

School started the very next day *sigh*

It honestly won't be too bad. My classes seem chill and low stress. My teachers are cool and down to Earth. I only had to buy two textbooks. Brian is taking on a course load of 18 credits. Bless him.

My dad and possibly my mom may be coming to visit us in mid-October. I really hope so because I miss them so much. Sometimes, I'll talk to them on the phone and, afterwards, get really quiet. Brian is the best and always knows just what I'm thinking about and stops whatever he is doing to give me a hug. It would be nice to see them in October, considering the next scheduled time I'll see them isn't until next August. (Yeah, that would be a whole year away... not cool.) Anyways....

I hope life is treating you well. I hope you are all happy and healthy. In the meantime, I'll be enjoying the exquisite delicacies of a certain chef that you all may have heard of....

;p

The Nucleus & All Things Pink

I truly cannot believe how quickly the summer has just breezed by. It seems like only yesterday I was taking finals and getting married. (Yeah, most stressful thing ever.) Now, my birthday is coming up, which is awesome but with my birthday comes the heartbreaking news that school is upon me once again. I'm trying to look on the brightside.. unfortunately none can be found! So I guess I'll just have to have the best, most eventful, unimaginable, time of my life adventures within the next 13 days to get me through the fall semester blues.

We've been doing a bit of home design here and there since we've moved into our place. I wouldn't say that we are completely finished but, in the past week we've improved things tremendously. Within the first month of our marriage, we bought some shelves to put up in our living room and this last Thursday, we finally took them out of the box and onto the walls! It was a big accomplishment for our little house. We promptly filled it with knick knacks to match our red, white and black decor. We also got a black ottoman and a decent looking laundry basket. No more ugly plastic hamper for us!!

But our decorating skills didn't just end at the living room. Oh no! We continued it into other parts of our house as well! In our bedroom there was a big open space on the wall and we were determined to fill it. So on Thursday night, we headed to the craft store and purchased a canvas and some acrylic paint and went to town! What we created.. I don't have words to describe.

Literally

I have no idea what it is that we made.

But it doesn't matter. We made it. It was fun and, if I do say so myself, it isn't bad for our very first attempt at something artistic. I call it:

"The Nucleus"

(But it has also been referred to as "the fish" or "the abstract cookie monster.")

Our Mission: Fill the void on our bedroom wall

Mission: Accomplished!

You could say that our interior decorating juices were catapulted by a bachelorette party I threw for one of my very best friends this past weekend. It was a lot of fun to plan and prepare for this event for Karissa Lees! I had some food catered since homemaking isn't super my thing quite yet. But it worked out great because I got caught up at work and got out late the day of her party and would have been absolutely freaking if it hadn't been for my caterer Cecilia. Bless her!

I had Cecilia make her infamous tomato basil soup. I quickly threw together the punch of spiked pink lemonade and some air popped pop corn lightly drizzled with butter and sea salt. I had also gotten some pink and white M&M's to match the theme I had set for the party. I think it turned out really well, and I'd like to think that everyone had a good time catching up, and torturing our dear friend with scandalous gifts!

                                                                   The table of Pink

                                                           



                                                  Karissa's moo moo and her "lei of lays" lol!

We also played some games. One was a game I had played at a friend's bachelorette party called Pin the Smooch on the Stud. I drew a picture of kenny on a poster board and then made little smooches for all the girls. I'm sure you can figure out what happened next!

We also played a game to know how much she knew about her man. I asked her 26 ABC questions about Kenny. Everytime she guessed an answer incorrectly, she had to put a peice of gum in her mouth. Needless to say, by the end of the game she could have blown a pretty big bubble!

I'm so glad that everything went smoothly and that we had a good turn out. It was a lot of fun catching up with these girls who have become my friends throughout the time I have known Karissa.

I don't know whether to be embarrassed or proud of this last peice of news. You guys will have to tell me!

Since Brian and I moved into our home about 4 months ago, we started watching Lost, from the begginning. Both of us had watched it when it had first began but he stopped on his two year sebatacle to Washington state, and I had stopped watching it when I came out here for school. We knew that if we were going to watch it, we couldn't simply start where we left off because Lost is confusing enough as is.

Anyways, as for the news.

Yesterday, we finished the series. I don't quite know how I feel about the ending. I'm not sure if I like it or hate it. I'll have to marinate on it.

I hope life finds you happy and well. Until next time. :)





Joie de vivre

Getting ready in the morning is by far the worst part of my day.

It's an incredibley long and tedious procedure and the final result always seems to depend on variables and is therefore unpredictable.

Which is why on days off, such as today, I am avoiding it as long as possible. Which leads to this blog post.

On Sunday, my in laws and myself said farewell to Brian's sister and her family. They haved moved to

Paris, France

for a course of 10 months. We will miss them dearly. I am scared that the little ones will hardly remember me when they get back, and that they will have grown out of their precious little baby faces...

However, I know without a doubt, that they are going to have a remarkable time filled with incredible experiences. Brian and I are toying around with the idea of going to visit them sometime next spring. I would absolutely love to go, as neither Brian or myself have ever been to Europe. But, I suppose only time will tell. You can bet your bottom dollar that I am crossing my fingers, toes, legs, eyes, arms and everything else "crossable" that everything works out so we can go!!!

I'm sure in an earlier post, I have mentioned that Brian and I are teaching in Sunday School with children ages 4-5. Last Sunday, we did a lesson on service. In order to demonstrate the principle, we told them the story of the Good Samaritan. Afterwards, we had them put on costumes and act out the story we had just told them. Brian was the unfortunate fellow who was robbed by the robber (Matt). Katie and Emily and Aaron were the people who walked by without helping, and Taka was the good samaritan who gave Brian water, band aids and "lollipop medicine." I took a picture of them dressed in their costumes, and just had to post it because it's too funny.

I'm really glad we have this calling. It's a blast and it makes church just fly by.

:D

Yesterday, I got off work early and Brian and I were actually able to hang out at night. It has been a while since we have been able to do so with my late schedule. So, we drove up to Salt Lake and went to a few DownEast Home locations to find a small black end table or hutch for our living room. We weren't able to find what we were looking for, however Brian did make a friend.

The beautiful union between foul and man brings warmth and love to every inch of my heart and soul.

Jealousy begins to stir when Brian's heart is torn in two different directions...

nothing will ever tear them apart again.

Afterwards, we went to a delicious Greek place in Holladay called Yannis. If you are ever in the area I would highly recommend going there and getting a chicken gyro with white sauce. It will literally be the best decision you will ever make.

Oh! We also found an old man chair that we may just have to purchase when my parents and brother decide to visit us again. It literally has my dad's name written all over it. However, now that Brian has sat in it... Dad you better be ready to fight to the death!

Alright, I suppose I have procrastinated long enough..

Time to get back to cleaning our house and then getting ready for the day, which seems pointless now considering the day is more than halfway over. Oh well!

Au Revoir!



Back to my roots

Not too much has been happening around our house as of late..

Odds & Ends 

news is all.

I got a new job, which is super exciting. I like it a lot.

Brian is still trying to get used to my schedule as before I was only working 20 hours a week and got home at noon. Now I am working 32-40 hours. I'd like to think he misses me.. But honestly I think he is happy he can go rock climbing and work out whenever he wants.

You may not believe your eyes when you read this next piece of news!

Anyone who knows Brian and myself knows that we do not really consider ourselves Country Music Lovers of any degree, but we hadn't seen our friends Kenny and Karissa in such a long time that we succumbed to the temptation of going

COUNTRY SWING DANCING!

I honestly didn't know what to expect. Brian wore his plaid button down shirt, and I wore an outfit I thought Taylor Swift might wear, complete with boots. We were pleasantly surprised.

We learned some moves.

We sang some Karaoke.

Karissa and I got hit on by some 17 year olds.

Kenny and Brian talked about fishin' and came up with a funny country man walk.

It was a good time. 

The next night we went out with our friends Kate and Anthony and saw the last Batman movie. Our friend Anthony got us the best seats at the Draper IMAX theatre. We sat middle/center. It was so awesome.

We are so grateful to have some really good friends that we can go out and do things with. We feel very blessed to have met such amazing people. We hope they know how much their friendships mean to us.

Lastly, to tie up the title of this blog to the blog, I dyed my hair back to red.

I am officially a REDHEAD once more!

Sorry we didn't have too many pictures posted this time. I need to be better about remembering...

We love you and miss you!

My little town blues, they are melting away..

As always, when traveling with Brian, we ran into difficulties leaving Salt Lake City.

Utah State just doesn't want this kid to ever leave! Our flight was supposed to leave at 11:35 PM, however due to Hurricane Debbie, we didn't leave the airport until 8 AM the next morning. We chose to stay and were rewarded greatly with flight dollars that will pay for our honeymoon flights and then some.. uh, can you say score?!?

Brian slept on the floor of the airport for the majority of our 9 hour stay there.

I refused to sleep on the floor. I did, however, enjoy photographing the other passengers. ;)

After our long flight to Buffalo, we immediately went to Niagara Falls. Brian and his family had never been there, and it had been a long time for me. They are more beautiful than I remembered. We decided to take a Maid of the Mist tour. It was a lot of fun.

"Josh, would you take a look at those gulls!"

"Oh Rachelle, those be some mighty fine gulls."

Oh Gulls.

:D

                                                        

Brian's dad got us lost multiple times in NYC on our mini two day excursion to the big apple. I'm truly grateful we made it out alive...

Haha!

Jeff & Josh <3 each other...

We really enjoyed going to Manhattan where...

We explored Toys R' US

                                                                

                                                                       

Brian got spanked by a creepy old guy.

(He's still having nightmares..)

                            

I made out out with a stuffed animal.

"OMG! It was only that one time!"

I got a drawing done of myself by a street artist. It's amazing how well he was able to truly capture the essense of me.

I have a sleeve tattoo and am drinking a martini on a skyline rooftop.

Nothing says: Rachelle Campbell,

quite like that!

The night ended well for Brian who was able to, at last, satisfy his craving for a burger at the Shake Shack. He has been lusting for one since he first went there last year. Oh, What a sight it was to see the two reunite. It brought tears to my eyes..

You just had to be there.

When we got back from NY, we had a day to get ready for the reception. Our centerpieces didn't end up working out. Luckily, Brian's great aunt was there to come up with a quick fix.

I got my hair and make up done the day of the reception. I chose to have my hair up at this reception just to do things a little different. I don't have any pictures back from the NY reception quite yet, but as soon as I do, I will put them up here.

My dad needed a little bit of hairspray to keep his 16 hairs in place..

The reception was really great. I had so much fun catching up with everyone and getting to smash Brian's face with cake once again. My mom got a band to play for us, which was really cool. They did covers to all of "our songs." I loved this reception because it was less stressful than the other one so I was actually able to enjoy myself. There were so many people there and I know, from reading cards that I wasn't able to speak to everyone individually, so if you went to my reception and I didn't get a chance to speak to you, I am very sorry for that. But I do appreciate your attendance and support greatly.

The day after the reception, I invited my bestest buddies to come over for a S'mores night. My grandmother from Puerto Rico was just ecstatic over this tradition that she had

NEVER

before participated in.

Isn't that just bizarre?!?

My dear dad reading to Joe about Lightning McQueen.

So precious. I love them both!

Roastin' those mallows. YUM!

*yes, that is my wedding hair still mostly and beautifully intact.*

Some Misc. Activities, that I can't really break down into categories:

My dad taught Kara, Brian's mom, how to drive a big rig 18 wheeler truck..

pretty impressive Kara!

We went to Carousel Mall and tried out many of the NY fashions.

This is coming to UT sometime, and when it does... I'll be ready!

Oh, how I miss being able to drive 20 minutes to a sandy beach...

Then, came the worst part...

having to say, "Goodbye."

:'(

It went by so fast I didn't want to leave. We were so busy that I was not able to partake of my mom's culinary skills or show off any of mine. I also said, "Adios." to my abuela who had been staying in UT for the wedding and we dropped her off in NY to stay with my parents. I don't know when I'll come back to Syracuse or visit Puerto Rico which made it so much harder to leave.

My abuela and I.

My best friend,

My mom.

From my family...

to

my "new" family.

Brian and his little pink suitcase.

(That may or may not be my pink suitcase.. but I'm not telling.)

So our trip had a bumpy start with the delay, but I'm happy to say we did not encounter that on our way back to UT. We had a great time and I don't think either of us can wait until we can come up with a good excuse to go back!