Mr. D and Mrs. M

Mr. D and I are getting ready to celebrate our third anniversary, and we feel fortunate and blessed in our current financial position. We started out knowing little about how to manage finances, but we appreciate the advice we had and thought we would share a little about what we did the last three years. I always assumed I would be a stay-at-home mom after college, but when I was a single college student shadowing people for possible careers, one woman shared with me that with financial situations that option is not always possible. She also shared that some women like having the option to be in the workforce. She shared that she could be a full-time stay-at-home parent, but that she chose to work. She and her husband agreed to live on one salary so that she would not feel pressured to work when she became a mom. Her salary went toward retirement. I remember liking what she said and asking Mr. D when we were engaged about how he would feel about living on his income and then s...

Brendan and Alee at the reception This past weekend Mr. D and I traveled to Los Angeles to attend the wedding of our friends Brenden and Alee. They have been great friends to us ever since Brendan and I did internships at Walmart in 2010. We absolutely loved attending their wedding and are so happy for the commitment they have made to figure life out with each other together. I loved how personalized their wedding felt; the beachside wedding (that fit Brendan’s love for the beach), the wedding vows (which were full of philosophy and humor, true to Brendan’s personality), the decorative sign that said “I love you” in multiple languages including Japanese (where Brendan studied abroad), and the stories told about the couple throughout the night that reflected the thoughtful people Brendan and Alee are. During toasts, one young girl told a story about a time when they all went to build-a-bear together about eight years earlier when Brendan and Alee’s courtship had begun. The girl ...

David and I aren’t really Valentine’s Day people, but we do try to observe the holiday in our own way. Here’s a couple ways that we celebrated this year: Friday we celebrated Valentine’s Day together in our odd, but now traditional way by going out to McDonald’s. We both ordered big macs and spit a large order of fries. We thought it was pretty cool that we saw one of David’s coworkers while we were there. Apparently we aren’t the only ones that think going to McDonald’s around Valentine’s Day is a good idea. (Okay, fine, we know that it’s normal for them because they have three little kids.) Saturday we had a few couples over for a Valentine’s Day party. To decorate, we purchased red wrapping paper and covered frames on our walls with it. We planned a few games to play, mostly picking ideas from this random website . We wrote romantic movie titles on stickies and put one on each person’s back. Each guest tried to guess their movie by asking yes or no questions. In another game,...

Mr. D and I had a wonderful Christmas week and got to spend a lot of time with my family. Some of our family activities included the following: Watching the new Star Wars movie Watching My Fair Lady at the Village Theater Seeing the Star Wars-themed gingerbread houses at the Sheraton hotel Singing around the piano Receiving Star Trek-themed PJs Christmas Eve Receiving BYU or University of Utah Aprons Christmas Day from my grandma For Christmas gifts, my siblings and I drew names. I got my brother. Mr. D and I decided we would buy him a game to help start what will hopefully become a game collection at BYU. He also liked the marriage book, "Things I Wish I'd Known Before We Got Married" by Gary Chapmen we gave him. For the New Year, David got to go to Utah to see on of his best friends get married. Here are some photos of our adventures: BYU and Utah Aprons Star Trek PJs Saw Santa at a work party at the aquarium Gingerbread house Star W...

This year David and I traveled to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving, which is something that we haven't done for three years. Some thing that we did that was fun was recreating a photo that was taken in David's grandparent's backyard by David's dad our first Thanksgiving three years ago when we were still dating: One of my favorite memories from that trip three years ago was when we were driving over to visit his grandparents. David received a text message from his sister-in-law while he was driving and to be safe, I took his phone to read it for him. The text read, "I like this girl, you should marry her." I felt flustered and when David asked me what the text said I responded as nonchalantly as I could. "It's your sister, she says she likes me." When David got his phone back after we arrived at our destination, he gave me a look and said, "Hey! That's not what the text said!" For Thanksgiving this year we ate at David's grandp...

A sampling of favorite Memes, GIFs, and other Internet images... ‘Adorable Confused Puppy” http://i.imgur.com/AXcyili.gifv something to brighten your Monday! ‘First you cage me, then you don’t save me from the pup asite’ http://i.imgur.com/hF5VFCX.gifv View post on imgur.com ‘Nom, Uhhhhhhhhhhh, Ah, nom, NOPE, nom Nope, NOPE, nom. Naaaw’ http://i.imgur.com/xzpANj3.gifv Smelly Foot, Smelly Foot, What are they feeding you.FP?! <a class="imgur-image" data-hash="udS9JMB" href="//imgur.com/udS9JMB.jpg">http://imgur.com/udS9JMB</a> ‘As a thank you to all of you who keep me informed of any Golden Retriever that graces imgur, here is a puppy attacking a camera.’ http://i.imgur.com/opQHpwq.gifv You&#039;re the real heroes. ‘Yes tiny hooman, I will be your pillow’ http://i.imgur.com/DFwMrwa.gifv ‘ View post on imgur.com Keep trying tiny human.’ http://i.imgur.com/k4h5vsJ.gifv View post on imgur.com ‘Board Game’ ...

Aboard the USS IOWA This year Mr. D and I decided to visit southern California. For the first part of the trip, we stayed with Mr. D’s sister’s family, then we saw a few of our old friends who now live in California, and for the last part we met up with my parents and a few relatives to see a game at the Rose Bowl. Some food highlights from staying with Mr. D’s sister’s family include doughnuts on the beach, homemade ribs, pizza, and breakfast smoothies. We also had the chance to go to the San Diego Safari Park. Mr. D's nephews loved seeing the animals. Reading a map at the safari park Tram ride at the safari zoo After visiting them, we drove a rental car north to see friends who recently moved to California from our neighborhood in Issaquah. Our friend happens to be our hair stylist (who we haven’t been able to replace) and she offered to cut both Mr. D's hair and my hair. While spending time with them, we took a ride in their 1966 Ford mustang convertible...