A JOB!

I tried to sit here and think for a whole SOLID MINUTE of a cool post title to sum up my day, but nothing came. In short, I've got a job! It's two days a week as a receptionist for Chrysalis. I'm super excited to be working there and I love the girls that interviewed me already. When Harry Potter, then the question, "What would you do if you knew zombies would be attacking the world in two weeks?" come up, you know it's going to be great.

Also, what would you say if you got that question? My answer was pretty unimaginative, but seriously, I want to know what the people who read my blog would say! Who knows, it may come in handy one day.

AND, Whitney wished me luck today after I sent her a text about the interview. Good luck text + cute hair/outfit day = SUCCESS on 9/29/10.

Weekend Review: We're movie people and we have rad friends.

A street in DC

Our Friday consisted of Amanda and I baking up and talking up a storm while making my mom's amazing rolls and cinnamon rolls. Afterwards, Ryan and I went to a TA get-together with the TAs and professors and we ate some delicious food. Also, I realized that I am ridiculously competitive with silly games. Also, I love games that I'm good at. Sounds redundant, but true. We played this Viking game with sticks (I know, descriptive, right?) and Ry and I's team totally won both games. Oh, and two truths and a lie. I was totally on a roll when we played that. Also, I'm terrible and thinking about cool facts about myself.

On Saturday we both took wonderful standardized tests (me:GRE him:LSAT) and then ate some AMAZING Chik Fil A free, thanks to our sweet Chik Fil A calendar and gift card stocking stuffer. We stopped by Target and then came home to watch the Cougars… They lost, but it was still fun to watch the game and hear the roar of the crowd down the street! We also went to a wedding reception at Rock Canyon park. And watched a cool movie. (Hm, maybe I should type out my weekends more often, I feel like I did so much!)

Sunday was definitely a day of rest, but we were a bit busy with our Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching. No worries, we had time to eat amazing chili and watch the Chronicles of Narnia.

I love the weekends!

the swagger wagon

I found out about this video from Jen (my cousin-in-law and the next best thing to a sister-in-law, so I'll call her my faux sister-in-law, since I roll like that). She's a pretty sweet mom if I do say so myself.

It's a cute video and makes me laugh about how Ry and I will one day enter the life of being a mom and dad. It actually makes me pretty excited about being parents and being cool…at least to each other.

Hope.

The Provo Temple. It was super bright that day, all the more reason to be there. Beautiful.

Today I've got an interview to go to! This is very exciting for me. I made a promise that I would spend most of Sept. looking for jobs on my own (and trying to use my degree) and then start the last week looking for jobs like APX and other call center-like connections.

But let me tell you, it has not been easy in the least. I'm super grateful for the money we made this summer and the money Ry continues to make as he works at school, but it really can be a bummer to not make money. It really hit me last night and I'm not proud to say that almost purely the fact that I don't have a job made me feel so worthless and I totally broke down. A lack of making money definitely should not be a reason to feel un-valued, but I totally let society influence and break me down. Ryan was such a gem about it, even when he had homework and LSAT studying to do, he came and hung out with me while I pouted it out.

My personal lesson was not to worry about what others say you should or shouldn't be doing. I know that I've been working hard to find a job and I know that I've been fairly productive in my days, especially recently, getting up with Ryan and getting ready for the day earlier and getting stuff done whether it's around the house or around town. I also know that the pressure I was feeling last night can come again as Ry and I figure out what our family plans will be once he gets accepted to law schools, when we figure out which school to go to, when we start our family, when we buy our first home…but my goal is to be stronger each time and remember who's really in charge (not the world, not us) and what really matters.

Well, I'm off to conquer the day. Wish me luck and HAPPY THURSDAY!

Fall

The weather is acting a little crazy today and even though I can hear huge crashes of thunder, it's still pretty bright outside. Actually, it makes sense considering today is the first day of Fall. So in honor of fall, rain, and beautiful weather, excuse me while I go cuddle on the couch and watch Little Women.

Seattle by ferry

During our Seattle trip (I know, I still haven't posted stuff from everything we did) we took the ferry from Kitsap County to Seattle and enjoyed the cool weather, crazy wind, and almost invigorating semi-dreary weather. We definitely had our fair share of moody Seattle weather. And, we stopped by a blackberry festival before we got on. I really wanted a blackberry pie but no one wanted to eat it with me. They looked so good though!

Most of the pictures have almost no color, but I like them a lot. We had some great views on the ferry including beautiful boats and houses, crazy diving birds and we could see the Seattle skyline in all its glory.

Also, I absolutely adore my dad, and took tons of pictures of him while on the ferry. My mom wasn't feeling so hot, so she took a nap in the rental car while we went exploring.

I was getting antsy about taking pictures of the skyline and probably should have waited until we were a bit closer, but oh well. We had a blast riding that thing and hopefully someday we'll be back!

I came. I ate. I conquered.

Today was Wymount's annual Fall Family Festival. Last year I went with Ry, but this time around he was/still is taking a practice LSAT on campus and I only remembered about it this morning when Amanda texted me that she didn't see me there! Actually, I was talking with Ry about it just Thursday night and how I was so stoked to get some cotton candy (it's free! when do you ever get free cotton candy?!) but then I completely blanked this morning.

On a side note, I totally did some GRE studying this morning, of which I am proud of. This job search thing can get pretty monotonous, and I've been allowing it to make me a bit lethargic at times (like the day I didn't get out of my pjs or take a shower or get out of the house even) so today I decided to spice it up and take a shower early on, get dressed, and do some studying.

Back to the festival. It's in a big open space in Wymount and they've got free hot dogs and chips, cotton candy and sno cones, and tons of stuff for all the little kids here like a jumping castle, cooking decorating, a train the little ones can ride and all sorts of games for kids under 5.

I went for some cotton candy (of course) and ran into the Clydes! It was fun to see them in UT instead of DC and they asked if Ry was back from his London trip… At least we have a good attitude about it, right??

Afterwards I sauntered over to get my free lunch (also, they just put a new batch of chips when I was going through the line so I got some blue Doritos--they sure are in high demand!), and to put my name in the drawing box. They give away all sorts of goodies like shirts and even a grand prize of 50 bucks off your next month's rent! As I was eating my name was called for a prize! I ended up winning 10 dollars to Legends Grille, a restaurant on campus. I used to go there occasionally as a freshman (oh the days of freshman meal cards) but haven't been back in years, so I'm excited to go with Ry and get a dessert or something!

Here's to student housing and FREE cotton candy!

Did you know that we won the grand prize last year?? I can't believe I didn't blog about it. Go here and check out our festivities from 2009, if you want. I may have decided to go a little over the top last year and wait in line to get a balloon hat, but it was totally worth it.

WOAH.

Found this here today:

HOLD IT.

I want this.

PS. DC, I miss you.

PPS. Amanda, I think of you whenever I think of Trader Joe's (and running in the rain to get some ice cream), whenever I think of DC. DCFFL (DC Friends For Lyfe (yes, life with a "y")).

Seattle Part 3: A wedding!

I can't believe I forgot to make a post about the wedding! Well, even though most of the pictures are on Facebook, I'll tell you about it and post even more pictures. The wedding was in the afternoon, so the family got up, ate breakfast and then we were able to not have to rush to get ready. It did take a while to get to the airport and our GPS decided to be a little funny, but we got there safe and sound and the wedding was beautiful.

We took loads of pictures and I can't wait to see the professional ones as well (although ours are pretty awesome, if I do say so myself). Then we headed back to the hotel and almost everyone took a little nap before we were off to the reception.

I don't have many pictures of the reception, I've got to get those from my sister's and parent's cameras, but it was in a cute kind of woodsy area overlooking a lake. Man, the Northwest is gorgeous!

2 Reasons why I love the above picture:

1. I love all of our shoes, we're a classy family.
2. We all have the same calves. Brynn's are the more shapely of us, but they're all about the same--just like my moms.

Ry's account was hacked.

So in case an of my readers have ever emailed my husband, they probably got a crazy email this morning about him being in trouble in London.

Well, he's not in London, and it turns out his account was hacked into last night and all his contacts were sent this email. Poor guy. We woke up to a phone call from my dad early this morning (thanks dad!) and Gmail caught onto it so he had to change his password to get into his account and when he got there all of his contacts/emails were gone.

The bad part is that he lost a lot of stuff, but the good part is that much of it can be recovered through friends and work and we've just created new passwords for many of our accounts so that they can be one step closer to being hack-proof.

Anyway, all is well here, but it's been a very early morning and hopefully we can get everything squared away quickly and have a productive day.

Darn you hackers!

My first loaf!

Yesterday I made my first loaf of bread. For real though, I'm pretty proud of myself. I used the recipe I found here and used only white ap flour. The loaf turned out great though and I'd love to use wheat flour and make homemade bread from now on. Since I'm still jobless and continuing the search I'm trying to find more ways to hone a talent or hobby that I would like to strengthen or develop each day.

More on my bread on my cooking blog. I'm excited to finally get it up again and start posting more each week!

Have a great Tuesday! I'm off to watch the devotional, apply for more jobs, and do some laundry.

BYU vs Air Force

Me: BYU. I graduated in April and we're still here for a little bit, so I can't help but love them.

My dad: Air Force. As an alumni of the Academy, he's all for the falcons. In fact, even when we're NOT playing each other, he's hard-pressed to wear a BYU-anything and when I wanted to buy him something I had to make sure it said "BYU Dad" on it so he didn't feel like he was deserting his Falcons.

BYU and the Air Force Academy are currently playing each other in football today and I love that I get to be all competitive with him and send him texts throughout the game. And I can just see him ironing while watching the game, that's what he always did when he watched Saturday football games growing up.

GO COUGARS!

Seattle Part 2

After picking up Ryan at the airport on Friday, we headed to one of my favorite places on earth:

Seriously, what's not to love? We bought a bunch of their taco seasoning (the best I've ever had), their gorgonzola crackers and some sweet chili sauce (it's about half of what I paid at Maceys!) and stopped by for a free sample. Since we flew to Seattle we couldn't take any refrigerated items, but man, I wish I could've put the whole store in my packet and traveled to Utah with it (Dear Utah, please oh please put a Trader Joe's nearby. In N Out is here, so come on over!(I'm sure all the people in SLC will drink your wine!)).

Then we decided to follow the GPS and get on the highway while we looked for a place to eat. Turns out it was taking us to the ferry, so we decided to be adventurous and go with it! The only downside was that for dinner we just ate whatever we had in the car, which ended up being two quaker chewy granola bars and then we downed an entire box of gorganzola crackers. They're addicting!

The view from the pier was stunning and I kept taking picture after picture before it got too dark. The water was so blue and clear! Coming from only knowing bodies of water such as Lake Nasworthy and the Gulf of Mexico, this was a billion times better!

Also, it wouldn't be a Mangum adventure without something going wrong, so as we were on our way to Vachon Island (then to Southside) they announced that there was a medical emergency and we had to go all the way back to Seattle, without going to the Kitsap peninsula. So our ride was twice as long as normal! We took it with stride though and ended up reading the books we had brought with us (Ry read his personal finance book The Millionaire Next Door and I read The Book Thief (SO SO SO GOOD!)

We had a great night and the weekend was about to get so much better because the next day was Taylor and Jaimee's wedding!!

A look on life.

As I commented on a friend's blog yesterday, I realized that I really loved my outlook on life, and didn't even really know what it was until I was writing it down! She was saying how she's unsure of the future and if the route she's taking is the absolute right one, about how sometimes it feels like we only have one shot at life and one shot at picking the right things. This is what I wrote, and I'm digging it right now.  mean, I'm jobless at the moment  and even though I've only really been jobless for a few weeks, filling out application after application can be hard, especially when you're so used to having a job and being busy all day. It's a different kind of busy and it makes me a little Debbie Downer occasionally.

My philosophy:

Uh, I COMPLETELY know what you're going through. I remember thinking those exact thoughts last year and wondering about the "what ifs". I had a teacher in jr. high that would always say "I don't live in the land of 'what ifs'" and I like that. I know there are so many options, but I don't want to bog myself down with an imaginary second life that doesn't exist. I want to be happy with my decisions and, of course I'll think and pray real hard about what to do, but also take it one day at a time and work hard each day for a better tomorrow. Sounds cliche, but I think it's the best route ever.

*Ah, our beautiful life this summer. 

We worked hard and enjoyed life to the max 

(you'll find this awesome fountain in the sculpture garden near the National Art Gallery).*

Seattle Part 1

I'd never been to Seattle before, and the longest time I was in the NW before this weekend was for an old roomie's wedding, and we were only there for 24 hours (go Moses Lake, WA! ha). This was my first time seeing the Puget Sound and the water was so beautiful!

I flew in on Thursday and ate some great seafood with my parents Thursday night, but Friday was the first real day of touring the Emerald City. First up: Nordstrom Rack. Did you know that Nordstrom's headquarters are in Seattle? No wonder people live here and stay here!

We actually stopped by on our way to Pike's Place market. And all I can say is WOW. Yeah, I could definitely live there. Also, aren't my parents just the cutest?? We walked through the market, sat on a bench at the nearby park and just took everything in. I decided that I would come every week and get fresh produce, a bouquet of flowers, and some fresh fish. Those OMG peaches you see below, were HEAVENLY. Also, the flowers were all so beautiful and fresh and cheap! We have a big beautiful vase we got for our wedding but I don't know when we'll ever be able to fill it up…except if we lived in Seattle, it would be full nonstop.

Well, there's the official day one. After the market we drove back to Silverdale to do some car-changing and I went to pick up Ryan. So the next batch of pictures will be from our exciting adventure that night.

Update: I'm all for a $400 plane voucher!

Ryan has an 8am class tomorrow morning, but since I'm currently unemployed, I took the voucher and am at the LOVELY Comfort Inn for the night. It's actually not that bad and I've got a nice King-sized bed all to myself!

I miss Ry, but we're excited to be able to use the money for flights to see family and also put it towards our (fingers crossed) trip to Italy in the summer of 2011.

Also, being unemployed is totally not fun, but right now, this is definitely a perk of not having a commitment in Utah tomorrow.

Labor Day

This weekend has been so great. I've loved hanging out with my family, with my parents and siblings and just enjoying the long weekend.

I'll write more about the weekend throughout the week, but I thought I'd leave everyone with a few pictures of us hanging out on the west coast.

1. My parents are quite amazing.  I was able to hang out with them on Thursday all by myself and it was so fun! It was so beautiful in Seattle so we walked through a mall on Pine St. and ate some FABULOUS Thai food (I'm addicted after living right beside a Thai place the whole summer), then around Pike's Place!

2. The Market. I promptly stared at all of the beautiful bouquets and wished that they could survive without water for a few days and through the airport.

3. Taylor's wedding was on the 4th and the weather was so pretty! The day was perfect and we definitely all took our fair share of pictures. Which my sisters promptly put them on facebook that night.

4. Oh, my sisters. I love them to pieces. Here they are doing the classic "Hammy" look, from the movie Over the Hedge. They're adorable and I'm glad that we were able to spend the whole day together.

Happy Labor Day!

Sore.

I did an aerobics class tonight at BYU and I'm sore already! It was a step class with "boot camp" style mixed in where a few times, randomly, we'd all have to run around the room and do jumping jacks and high knees and punches and rock star jumps. Whew!

Then at the end we did some ab work with a little ball at the small of our back while we did pilates style crunches and wow, I did not have very strong lower-back muscles before now and each time I bend down I can feel them complaining! ha

Also, the classes at BYU are 48.00 for 3 1/2 months and there are cardio classes, zumba, pilates, yoga, and more. Totally check it out. ANYONE can come, which is rad.

Here's to healthiness and stronger muscles!

On the hunt.

Dear Gods of the Employing World,

Please hire me.

I'm totally adorable, so who wouldn't want to hire me?!

In other news, I'm off to Seattle tomorrow in preparations for Taylor's big day! I'll try to take as many pictures as possible, and even bring my nice camera and learn more about it.

Also, please wish me luck in finding a job. Last night it was 8 pm and I was wishing it was 10 pm so I could go to bed. I think when I actually get tired of watching Law and Order and the Food Network and just want to be busy somehow…that's when I know I really really really need a job. Or do something about my hobbies that I've been neglecting too...