Not we, just me.

Ok, do you married folk remember getting engaged and making the trip to Target/Bed Bath/Macy's to register for gifts? Ahhh... that was a good day. Anyway, when Ben and I registered for gifts, I just wanted to find things that we both liked. Ben rarely gave an opinion regarding home decor and whatnot, so when we registered I was desperate to hear him voice an opinion. And as a twitterpated newly-engaged girl, I was willing to ok anything he wanted to register for.

Like our dishes:
Nothing wrong with them, they just aren't completely my style. Also, they don't go with my color scheme.

Now that I'm over the "Say ok to any home item Ben expresses interest in, regardless of what I think of it" phase. I'm in the "I want what I like" phase.

Which leads us to our new dish set:
I absolutely love these dishes because:
A: the colors go with the rest of my living/dining area (aqua,brown,cream)
B: they're just pretty. Do you see the cute flower plates?

Thanks Mom for the dishes! I'm a happy girl :)

Cannot wait for this one.

Less than 4 days until "Breaking Dawn" is released! I am seriously so excited about this book coming out- probably as excited as I was for HP7. However, I must admit that I wasn't this excited until about 2 weeks ago. Since reading Twilight, I've always been a lukewarm fan- sure, I loved the books, but I didn't feel tons of emotion or excitement over the whole story.

No, no, this is no longer the case. Two weeks ago I decided to re-read the series in prep for book 4. I'd never read Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse back to back before and oh my gosh I am now a super fan. Cannot wait for Breaking Dawn. Fret about what my happen to Edward and Bella. Paranoid that Bella will die before getting changed or married. Thank goodness for this little spoiler.

Ben has been warned not to bother me on August 2, as I will have my nose in a book the whole day.

No longer a solo hobby.

After weeks of begging, I finally convinced Ben to go to yoga class with me.

Guess what: He loved it! I totally knew he would, but it took him forever to swallow a big boy pill and come with me to class. For some reason, he has a phobia of going to classes at the gym. It's probably because most classes are at least 75% female. We go every Monday night at 24 hour Fitness, which is our little FHE activity. Ben on his blue mat, me on my purple one.

My next project is convincing him to go to spin class with me. Wish me luck!

Avoidance to the fullest.

In our little townhome complex, Ben and I have a certain neighbor that drives us crazy. We've actually taken to avoiding him. Yesterday, Ben's avoidance reached new heights.

Ben was about to pull into our parking lot, but he saw the neighbor. Rather than park in our assigned spot and undoubtedly get into an endless conversation with this neighbor, Ben drove around to the opposite side of our complex, (it's shaped like a square, with the houses facing the outside and the backyards on the inside) parked in a guest spot, cut through some random yards, snuck through our backyard, and slipped into the house.

We think it's hilarious that our lives have come to this- running and hiding from this neighbor. I kind of feel like Wayne from Wayne's World avoiding his ex-girlfriend Stacy. Just look down and maybe she won't notice we're here...

Random fact.

Here's a random fact about my Benjamin: he only has 9 3/4 fingers.



See?

There's no super cool story about this one, but Ben likes to make things up, like a dog bit it off or whatever, but that's so not the case.

Actually, when he was little (around 5 or 6) his doctor realized that he had a few tumors growing in his fingers. He had surgery to remove the tumors, but the doctor scratched the growth plate on his ring finger. Thus, the little finger was born. It's short and stubby and doesn't do well with rings. For that reason, Ben wears his wedding band on his right ring finger, if at all.

I didn't notice Ben's little finger until about our 3rd date- he was a little self-conscious about it, but I thought that it was awesome. Seriously, how many people have a little finger?

In case you were wondering...

As you can see, my blog address is christanka.blogspot.com. Christanka is the name my high school girl friends made up for me. I was such a brat about numerous things that they took to calling me Christanka. They even made shirts that said "We love Christanka." Not sure if I should've been flattered or offended. Hmmm. Just a little explanation for ya.

Vegas fun.

This past weekend Ben and I were able to visit some of our best friends, Nathan and Taylor. They moved to Las Vegas just a few months ago and we've missed them tons. We headed down Friday after work and stayed until Sunday afternoon.

On Saturday we all went shopping at Town Square mall, which is AMAZING. It almost makes me want to move to Vegas.

Ben dancing around Finish Line with a baby. I'm thinking it's Jordan, but it's hard to tell when they're not side by side.

Taylor and I also ate at my new favorite restaurant, Brio. This was the crazy-delicious salad I ate. Seriously, it was a head of lettuce, chopped in half. We also had spinach artichoke dip and pizza, followed by some Godiva, followed by a stomach ache...

We got to help take care of the girls- feeding, playing, and bath time...

Friends for the past 13 years.

Photo shoot on the way home :)

Feeling nostalgic.

Oh to be on a cruise again...

This will me mine.

I'm absolutely in love with this dress. It's almost like it's begging to be purchased- it's on sale, plus I have a 25% off coupon for Shabby Apple. Of course Ben will hate it and say it's too trendy, but do you think I care? That would be a no. This dress is also available in green, which is equally tempting to me.

For some reason it reminds me of this adorable outfit Drew Barrymore wore- I don't know why, other than the collar. I'm referring to the picture on the right, fyi. For some reason I couldn't find this picture without the sunglasses one by it.

Ben's new crush

We watched the "American Gladiators" marathon on Mtv today and he revealed his secret crush: Phoenix, one of the gladiators. This is so funny to me, since Ben doesn't really talk about celebrity/tv crushes all that much.

Anyone else have husbands with random celeb/tv crushes? Do tell!

This commercial drives me nuts.

After seeing this commercial 4 times in an hour, I hate it more than ever. Ben and I like to make fun of the girl around the 5 second mark. She reminds me of Jessie Spano a bit.

"I love my abdominals..."

Family, fireworks, and fun. I like alliteration.

Ben and I had a super crazy weekend. It truly was whirlwind without much down time. We spent the 4th in Richfield with all of Ben's family, minus TJ, Lori, and Taylor. We watched the parade down Richfield Main Street and I was stuck at how many pageant queens, 1st attendants, and 2nd attendants there were. Seriously, Miss Richfield, Miss Sevier County, Miss North Sevier County, Miss Rodeo, Miss Blah-blah-blah... seriously, Utah is so pageant-happy. Later that evening we camped out on the Richfield High School football field and watched a really really good (and long) fireworks show. The next day was even busier, full of visiting some of Ben's other family members in Salt Lake. Highlights were watching Ben try to learn how to unicycle and dominating a boccie (sp?) ball tournament. Sadly, no pictures to post. The only one's I took are kinda lame.

Like a teeter-totter.

Yesterday my life was so up and down. I'll outline the up's and down's for you to truly realize what life was like 24 hours ago:

Up: See Benjamin before work
Up: Eat at a delish bakery for lunch (Flour Girls & Dough Boys on State in AF)
Down: Leave work for a dentist appointment
Down: Get to dentist office and discover they are closed. What? It was 1:02 pm and my appointment was for 1:00. Hmmm.
Up: Don't know what do to, so I go visit Ben at work again. He works 1/2 mile away.
Down: Continue to call Aspen Dental to inquire about the drama, no answer
Down: Finally get a call from Aspen at 1:45 wanting to know where I am. They said my appointment was at 1:30. That's a lie. I have a card saying 1:00.
Down: Get 3 cavaties filled, 1/2 of face is numb until 5 pm
Down: Begrudgingly go to the Red Cross to give blood- they call me every week asking for blood and I finally gave in. Getting stuck with the needle hurt so bad- it stung like crazy from the iodine.
Up: Free cookies and juice after donating
Up: Randomly see Marc and Jasmyn on my way out of the Red Cross. Cute, cute newleyweds.
Down: Mouth and arm are throbbing
Up: Ben comes home from work and takes pity on me.
Up: Ben goes to grocery store, buys dinner stuff, and makes dinner
Up: Ben puts on Bridget Jones while we eat and while I whine about my aches and pains
Up: Ben putting in Bridget Jones 2 after 1 finishes. Wow!

All and all, it was not that bad of a day. Thanks to my sweet husband for making the day not suck.