Memorial Day Festivities

First off, I do want to post my unconditional gratitude to those who have served and/or are serving our country today. I may not be the most patriotic person on the outside, but in my heart I am thankful everyday for those who have struggled, suffered, and worked so hard to keep our country's freedoms. I can't even watch those "Coming Home" clips without bawling like a baby. I'm so eternally grateful.

As much as I would have loved to have slept in today, my girl Haley and I decided to hike the "Y" today. Haley's fiancé is out of town for the summer as well so we've decided to make different hikes every Saturday we're available to keep us busy a bit; and it's a great excuse to see my best friends :).

I cannot believe how tough that hike was! lol. I under-estimated it that's for sure. It wasn't a long hike, it was just VERY VERY steep. My legs were burning but I can't wait for these hikes to get easier :)

I forgot how fit Utah Valley people are! Seriously, SO many people on bikes today, and not to mention, almost everyone hiking the Y was carrying a child on their backs or pushing a stroller! Man these people are tough cookies!

I would have preferred a big ol' U right here, but "When in Rome" ;) lol

Mid-hike during one of our many stops :)

We made it! 

Super hot and tired lol

So, I blurred the faces in case people know this mother and son lol. I'm seriously ashamed of her for ruining a nice healthy hike for her chubby kids with a box of Twinkies! REALLY?! The girl still had half of a Twinkie being shoveled in her mouth while Mom was opening her a third. How bout some fruit or a granola bar lady?!

This little girl got separated from her parents and was kind of following us for a few minutes before we heard her slip behind us. Before she started crying, Haley was sweet enough to pick her up, hold her hand out and tell the girl we would walk her to the bottom to find her parents. Thankfully Mom was about 5 minutes down the trail and was looking for her - definitely a good deed done today. (Haley's cute with kids BTW) :) 

Thanks Hale, for pushin my out of shape butt up the mountain today :) 

After the hike, we went and picked up our Nani so we could play for the day. We drove up to my mom's house, chilled and watched trash TV lol. Perfect way to end my originally lonely Memorial Day :)

Thank you girls for always being there - especially when the hubby AND family are out of town :)

It's Christmas!

You heard me right! It's Christmas in May over here at the Buck residence....

Just got this bad boy all set up and I am in love!

I've had my hand-me-down laptop since high school and I knew it was going to just die one day and I'd end up losing everything I have on it, and Tyson's is a hand-me-down from Steve as well, so.... TA-DA! Love love it!

Now we have a main desktop for the both of us to just keep everything in one place and not worry about losing our documents, pictures, music, etc; not to mention, Ryan connected it to my old laptop and my phone so everything is constantly updating to the desktop so I love it even more! And, now I can make our family DVD's in my own home instead of driving all the way to my parent's :)

I chose the keyboard with a 10-key pad cuz my job has made me extremely fast at it so I love not having to type one number at a time at the top of the keyboard.

I also thought I'd try out the Magic Track Pad - It's a mouse and a track pad in one; so far no issues and it's awesome :).

I've ONLY ever known Mac computers/laptops so I knew this would be a great investment ;).

Guess this is how I will be spending the rest of my Saturday; updating everything from my old laptop and getting my settings where I want em.

-sincerely,
Continuously Happy Apple Customer :)

Definitely Not a Runner!

Well, not much has happened this week so this post is going to be pretty bland. 

I got bored the other night and decided to color my hair - why not right? lol These pictures are just not capturing what my hair really looks like now so I'm sure you're thinking, "hmmm looks the same to me!" It does look about the same in the pics but really, its darker and in the light has a deep red color to it. I like it on me cuz it makes my green eyes pop with the violet :) 

I know I've heard not to color your hair out of a box but 1) I'm not going to spend $90+ on getting my hair colored anymore 2) it takes about 3 hours in a salon and 3) my hair feels healthier now than it did before I colored it the other day! I also bought Moroccan Oil for my hair and I love it! It makes my hair so shiny and smooth without making it oily; which usually happens pretty quickly with products on my hair. 

So, yes, I condone coloring my hair out of a box because I haven't had a bad experience yet - plus, when it doesn't turn out right, I have no one to blame but myself lol, and I'm okay that :). 

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Welcome to my Friday. Off work at 4pm hit up the gym 4:30-6:30 and now enjoying some Edamame and TV on my amazing new couch :). Not too shabby of a night; still wish I was with the hubby though. 

The gym was pretty intense today for me. I saw a fellow High School friend post on Facebook that she ran 1.2 miles in 14 minutes. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!! What better way to spend my time at the gym than silently challenging other's Facebook statuses of how much they lifted, how far they ran, etc? :)  

If you know me, I 100% ABSOLUTELY HATE RUNNING!! My throat gets torn up after just 5 minutes of running; so I knew this was going to be tough. But, I found this challenge on Pinterest: 

UHHH KILL ME!!! I didn't realize how fast 8.0 MPH was let alone 8.5 lol. I can usually run my sprints at a 6.5 and I'm good lol

I didn't finish but I am proud to say I ran 1.2 miles in 11:30 minutes!! I think that was the first time I've ever pushed myself that hard on running. It drained me. But afterwards, I took it slow, did some leg workouts, and got back into my workout routine, and even finished with 30 minutes on the bike - man do I love Cardio Cinema! Nothin like some Harry Potter part 2 to make it go by fast :) 

I was supposed to take a hike with my girls tomorrow, but thanks to the rain and lightening goin down, we have to postpone. I'll be bored house-sitting next week so maybe we'll go then! 

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I do have a trip booked out to see Tyson for June 22nd though! So excited and can't wait to see him! Goin on 3 weeks without seeing him so it's pretty tough most days. We're hangin in there though and he's still doing really well out there in NY. Still a proud wifey!

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Well, that's about all for now. Told you it wasn't going to be a very entertaining post. :)

Eclipse

*Weekend in Review*

Friday: Definitely a VERY Chill day. After work, I went home to my mama's for some dinner and then had nothing else to do for the night so I went to the gym til 11:30PM. My mom told my step-dad that she was worried about me walking around at night especially in my little gym clothes; my step dad's response, "You're worried about her?! I feel sorry for the guy that tries to attack her!" hahaha I thought it was pretty funny.

I actually LOVED going to the gym at night! It was pretty much empty, had the Cardio Cinema to myself, and I loved not having to fight for machines, equipment, etc. It definitely made me wonder though; I know I'm here because the hubby is out of town and I'm not tired, but why are the rest of these people here? Body image issues? Depressed? Alone? Or in one guy's case, he seemed to be preparing for a competition as he ripped off his shirt and started doing poses and grunting out of nowhere! haha Made me giggle. But, no matter what the others were there for, I know I definitely enjoyed the "me" time and getting a good work out in to help me crash in bed that night.

hahaha pretty much like this. GROSS

Saturday: Met up with my mom at Costco to get some food, but little did I know Costco had a whole selection of classic Disney movies on DVD!! My mom was laughing and shaking her head at how indecisive I was at trying to pick one out. I told her we could finish picking up what we needed to and I would just come back to it before check-out. I LOVE the classic Disney movies! They are so cute! I knew I didn't want Fox & the Hound, Lion King, or Toy Story 3; why might you ask? All of them make me cry lol. I'm a ball baby with everything and just wanted a cute movie, not something to make me sad and cry all night! So, after much deep contemplation I went with A Bug's Life and Alice in Wonderland - don't you fret, I'm going back for more :D.

thought this was funny :)

Later that day I FINALLY got to meet up with my girls!!! The best/funniest trio we know lol. We've been besties since senior year of high school and it's never gonna change. Nani, Haley, and I have always had the best times together. I seriously never laugh harder than when I'm with these two; and Saturday was no exception.

We met up and went downtown to City Creek to check out the new mall; GORGEOUS! I haven't gone yet because I like to let "Openings" die down before I check em out because I'm not much of a crowd's person. After City Creek we went to sushi at Takashi. It was pretty good. I love sushi and can never complain. We spent the rest of the night in sweats at my apartment laughing hysterically and getting some good talks in.

I love you two and definitely wouldn't be the same person without you! I can't wait to hike the Y and hit up Seven Peaks on Saturday!!! (YAY for summer plans with ma guuuurrllllsss) :) haha

Sunday: Yesterday was a pretty good Sunday. My mom and I went down to see one of our old neighbor girls who just got back from her mission; her mom also threw me a bridal shower. Good to see old neighbors and friends.

After we got home, the family played some games, sat around and chatted, played some hoops, and best of all, waited for the Solar Eclipse!

For those who know me well, I'm a HUGE space nerd!! Astro/Physics was my very first college course I ever took and I instantly fell in love!! I love anything to do with space and can't get enough! I can't even count how many date nights Tys & I have taken to the Clark's Planetarium lol; he's a trooper for putting up with my geeky side, but I think he get's a kick out of the stuff too.

The only other eclipse I've ever seen was in 2007 during the Lunar Eclipse. I remember my mom calling me at my dorm at about 2 or 3 in the morning telling me to go outside and check out the moon. It looked just like this...

It was so amazing! I'm glad my mom realized what a space nerd I had become and knew I wouldn't have wanted to miss it :)

Any who, my step-brothers and I played around in the backyard waiting for the eclipse to take place. I honestly had no idea what to expect; total darkness and the moon moving ever so drastically over the Sun's surface? It started getting cloudy so I was nervous we weren't going to be able to see anything. As boredom took over and I started taking super artistic pictures (enter sarcasm here), I looked straight at the sun through the camera and started to see the eclipse happening! I really got so excited!

It just felt like the right thing to do lol

cute little max

They look too young to be grandparents :)

Enjoy my artistic side ;) 

Although at first the clouds seemed to pose a threat to my astronomical event, they turned out in my favor; I was able to stare directly at the sun, squint, and watch the entire eclipse! yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. You're not supposed to stare at the sun. But I really did feel just fine with all the cloud coverage. Guess we'll see in a few years if all of a sudden I'm more blind than I already am ;).

Unfortunately, after playing with every setting on the camera, my pictures were not turning out. This is how mine turned out, and this is what I was seeing; pictures NEVER do anything justice though :)

It was such a fun night and I'm so happy I was able to catch this event since only a few states in the US could see it! I'm just bummed I didn't have Tyson here with me to share it.

Tyson is doing really well. He definitely misses being home with me and family, but I hope he'll see this experience as beneficial in the end. I say it to him every day but I really am proud of him! It takes a lot to leave your family behind; but he's doing great and learning so much every day.

***BYEEE***

R&R Heaven

I had got to take half-day at work today; although some R&R is always a treat, it got even better when my living room went from this....

to this.....

LOVE LOVE our new couch!! We had a little love seat that I bought at Ikea when I moved into my first apartment, but it was just WAY too small; it'll be a part of our office/craft room once I get that put together within the next week or so. But, we invested in this beauty and I love it! Poor Tyson doesn't get to enjoy it until August, but I'll make sure it gets some good use :)

Gotta find a cute table or something to go with it now too! Love me some projects to take on with my mama!

Oh, and I guess Oliver isn't enjoying my couch as much as I am; he'd rather sleep in the corner lol

Thought I would share our newest purchase while getting a new post in here as well :)

Guess who's back?!

I know, it's been about 4 months since the last update; just went through a phase of not wanting to post and figured sporadic Facebook updates were enough. No? haha I'll do my best. Not to mention, married life got pretty busy around here and now that Tyson is gone (again), I have to find things to keep me busy.

So, I started with the gym - definitely been kickin my butt since I haven't been in about 2 months; chose to stay home after an 8 hour day at work and hang with the hubby rather than go to the gym and focus on me... it was worth it :). But, may have gone overboard yesterday; spent 3 hours working out! YIKES! That's a lot for the 2nd day back! But I didn't just do this because I had no rush to get home to an empty apartment (minus my new very temporary roommate; pic in a minute) but I got off work at 4 and wanted to stay to catch my kickboxing class from 6:30-7:30 (since I gave up on Zumba).

Did I ever mention that I can't stand Zumba? Maybe if I was just flailing around in my own apartment it would be okay, but I just felt like mess at the gym lol. I can dance all sorts of styles, but salsa, etc... definitely not my thing! Now kickboxing on the other hand, OH YEAH! Love sweating and punching my tough frustrations away :).

Any who, like I mentioned, Tyson is gone again. But, I'm doing a little better with this one; not only have we done this separation before and this time it's shorter, but Tys is workin with Vivint and gonna be makin some dough and having a great experience! My brother's buddy got him on at Vivint and they are in New York this summer! I really do hope he enjoys it out there. I know that it's really tough being away from each other again and the work isn't easy, but it's definitely going to be a blessing and benefit in our lives (more than he knows).

Tyson needs his car in New York so what did that mean? You got it.... we drove cross country to get him there! haha oh man, neither of us has driven that far and it was... necessary? lol. We had some really good times and I loved getting to spend the time with him, but really? three 11.5 hour days just driving? kill me. It was rough. But like I said, I loved the quality time with the hubs. And we got to stop in Michigan to see Tyson's sister and her little family; they're poppin out baby #3 next month and we'll get to stop by to see her little girl when we head back to Utah in August.

Speaking of babies... Not only is Tyson's sister due next month, Ryan & Mad are having a baby!!!!! I cannot wait to be an aunt for the first time (by blood) :)! Seriously, I'm already planning little crafts I can make for the nursery and I absolutely can't wait to babysit!!

Ryan & Mad had their 1 year anniversary on April 16th, and that Sunday they came over to my mom's for dinner and Ry said he had an anniversary DVD to show us that he made Madison. So we're watchin it and all of a sudden this slide comes up

I knew right away what it meant but I was too excited to say anything!! Can't wait to have a little tiny one for Thanksgiving! CONGRATS you two!! oh and BTW, is it too much detail to mention they got pregnant 4 days after she went off BC? haha I'm just impressed is all!

Speaking of anniversaries.... We had our 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY yesterday!! I wish I could say how amazing the day was, but I worked, he had a bad day at work, and we weren't together. But Tyson was SO sweet and surprised me with gorgeous flowers delivered to my office! I'm a helpless romantic so I was smiling from ear to ear :).

Being alone for our first anniversary was a lot harder than I expected. I knew I was going to be sad and lonely, but it was kind of an emotionally rough day. I had just gotten back from one of my close sorority sister's temple weddings in Vegas Sunday and I was constantly reminded of our wedding day.

I was so blessed and thankful that Lexie invited me into her sealing ceremony. It really meant so much to me. Lexie's family wasn't all able to be there, but I had the privilege of sitting next to her aunt. I introduced myself as her sorority sister and her aunt said, "I hope you know, you got her here." I wanted to cry right then and there. It was so true and I hope Lexie knows she got me there as well. No matter what trials and temptations we faced in college and growing up, we held onto each other, cried together, laughed together, and had in depth conversations about where we were going after college. We held together as friends and sisters bonded together forever. Cheesy? yeah whatever. It's true. I'm blessed to be tied to SO MANY amazing girls forever.

The eternal ties I made in my sorority and on my wedding day, are something I am grateful for everyday. I know, that no matter what is going on in my life, I always have a sister or a husband to turn to.

People who say how AMAZING marriage is at first, must just be talking about the bedroom fun lol. For real! It's not easy on ANYONE to learn to adjust to a 24/7 opposite sex roommate, having to get used to each other's quirks and habits, and learn to compromise and pick your battles. If you've had a perfect marriage so far, then congrats to you for being the exception ;). This first year of marriage has been quite a roller-coaster in SO many ways, but through help and determination, we're still pushing on and working on "us" every single day. We're becoming closer as best friends and parters for eternity. It's going to be constant strive everyday to work as a team but I know we can do it because we both know what we want.

I'm constantly reminded of one of my favorite sayings "He never said it would be easy, He only said it would be worth it." It's true. If things come too easy, you can lose sight of how important it is to you. You take it for granted. But we are working together as partners to make this marriage stronger everyday; especially before even thinking about throwing a kid into it lol. We wanna be a strong couple before raising a child. And I'm glad we're on the same page to wait a few years :)

Happy 1 year baby! Can't wait for many, many, many more to come :)

Man alive this got long and sappy! haha could you expect anything less with all that's going on around me? :) Hopefully future posts aren't so wordy; I know people like pictures and short paragraphs, but sometimes you just can't help but express your feelings for those you love.

Oh, and before I go, here's a picture of my new roommate

Don't you love his Lion-cut? haha so funny

He's very temporary at the rate he's going; like 'back at my mom's by Sunday' temporary lol. He cries during the night because who knows why... is he lost or something? And cries in the morning to be let out. Sorry buddy, can't let you wander around Midvale; even I wouldn't do that lol. He is the best cuddler though, but nonetheless, just like a reason for not having a baby yet, I cherish every minute of my sleep and I haven't slept well since he's been here. So, Oliver, you have 4 days to shape up! Although, he probably wouldn't mind being back home with his little friends and a mountain to climb around lol.

That's DEFINITELY good for my first post back. Sorry again for the length, but hopefully it was worth getting caught up on the past little while :).

BYEEEE