The Best

I know people say this a lot. Especially newlyweds. But let me follow that trend.

I HAVE THE BEST HUSBAND EVER.

I know you thought you did. Or that you will at some point. But for me personally, I could not have asked for anyone more perfect for me if I wanted to. It's like we were made to go together, like puzzle pieces. We fit.

Let me demonstrate.

Yesterday was my day off. I had big plans, including a quick job interview, doing laundry and dishes, and taking a shower. Oh yeah, it was going to be an awesome, lazy day off.

But alas, it was not to be. I had one of the busiest, most wonderful days off. I did go to a job interview. I did start the laundry. But for most of the rest of the day, I cuddled with my husband, went and ran errands with him, and saw a movie with him. We just spent time together. It was amazing.  I realized at one point, when he had tucked me under the blankets because I was cold, and he started folding the laundry, that I love him more than I though was possible.

It's like my heart has expanded, taking in and giving out more love than I ever though was possible. Mushy, I know. But it's an amazing feeling to both love and be loved so much.

I love taking care of my husband. But I am so grateful that he also loves me and loves taking care of me when I need it. His concern and love shows in everything he does for me, whether it's taking me out on a date or scraping my car in the morning. And I am amazed every time, because it means he loves me. His actions every day show me how very much he loves me and wants me to be happy.

In some small way, I can glimpse what my Heavenly Father feels for me in the love I have for Thomas. I know one day I will have children, and I will feel an even greater part of His love. I am so grateful for the love of my Heavenly Father, and for the love of my incredible husband.

Busy!

It's been a busy few weeks! At the beginning of October Thomas and I had the privilege of going to my friend Anne's baby blessing. It was beautiful, and I very much enjoyed getting to see Anne and her family again. I did her wedding cake a few years ago, and it is so fun to see her and her husband and their adorable little William!

That same weekend, Thomas took the SAT. He is applying to another school that has a great Computer Science degree, and they require the SAT to get in. We are waiting to hear back about his scores, but I know he did well!

I am still working at Thanksgiving Point, and liking it. I enjoy doing something I am good at, and I feel I am learning more every day. My boss is forgiving and fun to work with, and we get along really well, which I am grateful for.

Thomas and I have discovered that Provo and the surrounding area have an abundance of small theaters that have plays almost every night of the week! This past weekend we took advantage of two of them. On Friday night we went and saw "Mousetrap" at the Lehi Community Theater. The play happens to be the longest running murder mystery in history, and it was very well done. We enjoyed it immensely, and loved the intimate atmosphere. For those of you who went to BYU-Idaho, it was similar to seeing a play in the Black Box theater in the Snow building.

Last night we were just walking down University Ave in Provo, looking to get some Gelato after a yummy sushi dinner. As we walked, we spotted a small theater called The Echo Theater. It was playing Jekyll & Hyde, and we were intrigued. So we bought tickets. It was incredible! The theater company that put it on was very professional, and the actors all had impressive backgrounds in theater. We very much enjoyed both plays, and will be seeking out more opportunities in the future to see any and all stage performances that we can while we are here. It is great that stage productions are so prolific here! It makes it easy to find a date activity, and most of the tickets are very reasonable!

Stay tuned for our Halloween activities, I am excited for this kick-off of the holiday season!

WHAT?!

So...this is going to be an interesting post, but considering most of my readers are women, I figured you guys would understand.

A few days ago I was complaining to my boss about how annoyed I was with my jeans  situation. For several months, my jeans have gotten baggier and baggier. (I know, sob story.) But seriously. I no longer had to unbutton them. They just pulled right off. And it was getting ridiculous.

So I was going on and on, and my boss asked what size I was. I honestly didn't know, but my best guess was a 12 or 14. That was what I had always been, and the jeans I had were a 16, so I figured a couple of sizes down would be perfect. She said she had a few pairs of jeans that she didn't want anymore, and I could try them on.

A few days later, she brought them in. They were 10s. I laughed. "These will never fit me!" I thought to myself. From the time I was 12, I have been a 14. Forever and always I have been at least a 14, if not bigger. It was unthinkable that a 10 could ever fit me. But not wanting to seem ungrateful, I thanked her and took them home with me.

Just for grins and giggles, I tried them on.

They fit.

WHAT.

Had to be a fluke. I am not, have never been, will never be, a 10. They were just streched out from being worn, they were old, they weren't right.

So today, I went to test it out. I walked into Old Navy, and pulled some size 10s.

They ALL FIT.

It was real. It was true. I am a size 10. I have no idea how it happened, but apparently marriage works for me.

I know it's silly to do an entire blog post about my pant size, but I am a girl. Who knows why we do what we do, right? ;)

No News

Is good news, right?

Well, I think so, anyway! Life has just been moving on as usual lately. Thomas has settled into his school and work routine, and I have somewhat grown used to getting up horrendously early in the morning. ;)

We have managed to do a few things that aren't work or school related, and I guess I can recount them for you here...so here goes!

We had our first dinner guests a couple of Sundays ago. We invited a friend of Thomas' and his wife over and had a great time. I made a pork loin, roasted asparagus, and creamy mashed potatoes and it all turned out great! I am excited to invite more people over and continue to make some new friends as we share meals with other couples.

We also got to go to a BYU Dace department recital, called Evidance. It was great! Thomas had to attend a dance performance for his dance class, so it was technically for school, but it was great! The dancers were very good, and we both thoroughly enjoyed the performance. If you would like to see a bit of what it was like, here is a trailer for it:



It was legit.

That's about it! Nothing much going on in the Tingey world! Stay tuned though, inevitably something of note will occur at some point.

Married Life

So it has now been a bit over two weeks since Thomas and I got married. It feels like so much longer than that! Since being married, we have moved to Utah, I started a new job as the Assistant Pastry Chef at Thanksgiving Point, I fell down some stairs, and Thomas has decided to keep me. ;)

I have to admit that I LOVE this whole wife thing. It rocks. I get to cook dinner for my handsome husband every night, which is actually super fun for me. I finally get to put my Pinterest to some good use! I have tried several new recipes, and all have been well received, luckily. But if anyone is wondering about the sudden explosion of food pins, it's because I'm obsessed! There are so many things I want to try! As I try some, I will try to document as best as I can what I tried and ow it turned out. I will also attempt to take a few pictures, although they might be from my phone. Which is okay, because the thing has an 8 MP camera on it. Oh how times have changed from when I was small.

The job is fun. It does begin a tad early for me (6 am) and is a bit of a drive (25 min), but overall I enjoy it. I get home early enough to take a nap and get some useful things done before starting on dinner, so it's nice. Most days I am just in charge of the deli goodies, which include four kinds of cake, fruit tarts, eclairs, tiramisu, chocolate-dipped strawberries, petit fours, quiche, brownies, lemon bars, strawberry crumb bars, and magic bars. Once I have that done, I generally start on any orders we have for the day, and sometimes we are super swamped with banquets, but sometimes we have it pretty easy. It's nice to have a job where I have fun and I feel like I use the skills I took out a student loan for...;)

As far as falling down the stairs, there is a bit of a story behind that. When we moved into our apartment, our landlord was having the outside of the house repainted. They were just starting, and our stairs were on the list. When I cam home from work one day, the dude who was painting asked me when I was going to be out of the house for at least 3 hours so he could pint the stairs without me needing to come or go. I told him a time, and as promised, I stayed away. When I got home I saw that it had been painted, and was supposedly dry as there was no signage to indicate otherwise. I made it about three steps down with my arms full of groceries before my foot slipped on the fresh coat of wet paint. I went down hard. There went my leather shoes and favorite pair of jeans, as well as the three new pairs of chef pants I had just bought. Not to mention my husband's new Avengers lunchbox. And, oh yeah, my shin. All bit it hard into industrial gray house paint.

All I can say is that it could have been worse.

When Thomas came home I related the tragic horror of my fall, and he cuddled me until i was sure he didn't mind the paint on his new lunchbox.

The next morning he made it clear to the painter that he wasn't happy.

I secretly smiled later that day when I arrived home from work and the painter apologized profusely, and offered to replace my pants. Of course I had forgiven him long before, but it was nice that he acknowledged his mistake and felt appropriately morose about it.

And that is the story.

Well...I think I have covered enough for now! More to come from the Tingey clan soon, I'm sure! I tend to be full of unexpected funny stories!

Mrs. Tingey

So. It happened. There were tears, laughter, one nap and at least a few hurting feet by the end, but I GOT MARRIED! I am now officially MRS Tingey. It's amazing, let me tell you. I love being married, and I am so blessed to have the most amazing spouse of all time! We had the sealing and reception on Friday, August 10th. We were sealed in the morning, which was incredible, and then partied the night away at the reception. It was a blast! My dress was beautiful, my husband was dashing, and I was ecstatically happy! The day went without a hitch, and Thomas and I were thrilled with all the family and friends that came out to support us!

We had a lovely open house the next day, hosted by Thomas's family down in Florence, CO. It was beautiful and I loved meeting all of his friends. It did rain a bit, but we all moved inside and had a wonderful time.

The following day we drove to Grand Junction and stayed in a cute little bed and breakfast there, and just enjoyed being together. At the end of our little honeymoon, we drove into Provo and set up house.

On Monday of the next week, I got a call from a job I had interviewed for and they said they'd like to hire me! I am so blessed to have a full-time job! I am now the assistant pastry chef at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, UT. I am loving the job, and loving being a wife even more! Finally a captive audience to cook for! ;)

Bear Lake Reunion

So this whole last week I have been in Utah. Why? Because Utah is where the love of my life is going to school, and this weekend we had a reunion. It was a lot of fun! So, like I once did for my European travel posts, I thought I might chronicle this trip day by day. Here goes!

Day 1: I left early on Tuesday, July 24th. I drove all day, only stopping for gas, and made it to Provo at around 6pm. It was a fairly uneventful drive, and I made good time. I met up with Thomas, hung out with him for a bit, ate some Brick Oven pizza, and then went to my friend Katy's apartment for the night.

Day 2: I woke up refreshed, and got ready for the day. I had a job interview, so I put on my snazzy clothes and headed out to find breakfast. I got lost finding breakfast, so I just went straight to Thanksgiving Point where I had my interview later that day. I was three hours early. So I went and got some food, and sat out in the grass. I was also tasked with finding a storage unit for Thomas and I to put our stuff in until we could move into our new apartment in Provo. I figured all of that out and continued waiting for an acceptable time to go find the woman I was being interviewed by. I wandered around Thanksgiving Point, did some window shopping, and finally went to the interview. It went well, I think, and so I proceeded to wander back to Provo and waited for Thomas to get off work. We made some dinner, went for some frozen yogurt, and then I once again headed to Katy's.

Day 3: I woke up late  and just chilled out until Thomas was done with classes for the day. Of course, I was cheating with Katy and ended up being late meeting p with him. We hit the road and made it to Woodruff, Utah by late afternoon. We were camping in Bear lake, not far from Woodruff, for the next few days, but he wanted to show me his Grandparent's  ranch before we went. We drove around, looking at everything. It was fun to see where he spent his childhood. We headed down to Bear Lake
And found the family at the local KOA camp ground. I set up my tent and got everything situated, and met the family. Of course, I didn't remember half of the names that first night, but I tried my best! We all went to a local burger stand for dinner, and the raspberry shakes were amazing!  We sat around the propane fire for a few hours talking, then I went to bed. Thomas set up a cot outside next 
to my tent, but by the time he went to bed, the wind was howling and it was raining, so he ended up sleeping in his car. Poor guy!

Day 4: I woke up early and talked a bit with some of the Aunts and Grandma. Eventually, we began cooking breakfast and Thomas woke up. We all ate breakfast and then headed down to the lake. It
was a blast! We rode jet skis, played in the water, and sat in the shade. It was a blissful day, and I only applied sunscreen four times...;) I should have put more on Thomas, as he got a nice amount of sunburn on his legs and shoulders. We all went back to camp around 6pm and had dinner, which consisted of slow-cooked beef, scalloped potatoes, and corn. It was so good! After dinner we roasted marshmallows for s'mores and taked a bit more. We set up Thomas's cot again, and this time the weather was pleasant enough to stay the night outside.

Day 5: We all woke up later in the morning, as pretty much everyone but me had a nice sunburn. We ate some breakfast and again headed down to the lake. We got there just in time to get the last good
spot on the beach, and Thomas and I went out on a jet ski. It was a lot of fun to be together out in the middle of the lake, away from the family, and just take a break. We spent the day much like we did the day before, swimming, playing on jet skis, and lounging. The only moment of panic happened when all three of our sun shades got picked up by a random gust of wind, upended on our neighbor's shade, and destroyed it! We felt really bad, but there was nothing we could do about it. As the crash had also taken out a couple of our shades. So the day ended pretty early, and we headed back to break down camp. After dinner and a family picture, we put away the tents and sleeping bags and all 
headed back to the ranch in Woodruff. There we showered and parted ways. Thomas and the rest of his family (including me, of course) stayed the night there, with the intention of leaving the next day, his family for Colorado, and us back to Provo.

Day 6: His family hit the road early, and we kind of just lazed around for a bit. When we decided to leave, we loaded up and headed out. About eight or ten miles down the road, the car died. It just
stopped working. It would turn over, but you couldn't accelerate at all, and then it would die. We were stuck. So we called a tow truck, and got towed back to the ranch. There is a small repair shop close by, and we dropped the car and then Grandpa came and picked us up. Since the shop wouldn't open until the next day, we just resigned ourselves to leaving the car situation until the next day. 


Day 7:  We were awoken by Grandpa early the next morning asking if we would like to help with the cattle drive that day. Of course we both said yes. So we got all geared up and left with a trailer full of trusty steeds. When we got to the location, Grandpa, Thomas, and I mounted up and set out to round up the cattle. Thomas and I found the herd and the other herders and helped as best we could. We drove the cattle about a mile from where the were, and neither Thomas nor I got in the way. We were helpful, I think. Of course, being in the saddle for the first time in years did take it's toll on both of us, but the soreness we knew we would face that night and the next few days was totally worth the trip! When we got back to the ranch, we were exhausted. We got some lunch, found out that the car was fixed, and went and picked it up. Once again, we headed out, but not before I sprained my foot. Which was annoying. But the car ran perfectly and brfore long we were back in Provo. We went to see our new apartment, which is wonderful, and then parted ways. That is the last time I will get to see him until the wedding. It was a great trip, all things considered, and though it ended with a broken down car, we did have the very fun experience of helping with a cattle drive because of it. So I would count that as a success. ;) 


So that's the story! Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I seem to forget I own a camera a lot. I will have to rectify that soon!