rushley & crew

Last week, my friend Laura and I did a little swap on our blogs, so I wrote about one of my worst dates over at Simpleton Pleasures . It was a bad one, to be sure, but it pales in comparison to my absolute worst date, which is the one I'm sharing today. *   *   *   *   * The summer after my freshman year of college, summer 2011, I went to a Spanish-speaking Mormon church. I was feeling pretty good about my Spanish, but I wanted more practice and more immersion into that language and culture. However, by joining that ward, I realized I did not know Spanish as well as I thought I did. It wasn't horrible, but there were definitely times when I had no clue what was going on. One of the first few weeks, I met this guy and he introduced himself and we talked a bit. I thought he was just being a friendly and welcoming person. Through him asking me some questions, I somehow ended up telling him I was getting married the upcoming December, which wasn't actually true at all

Throughout my childhood, I moved twice. I grew up in Kansas, and my first move was to Elk Ridge, Utah (about 30 minutes south of Provo) when I was almost eleven. It was exciting, and I really loved moving. The next time we moved was to Orem, Utah, when I was fourteen. Since we knew we were moving up there, my brother and I just commuted to Orem schools for the first half of the year until we actually moved into our house in January 2007. My brother went to Orem High School, and I went to Lakeridge Middle School. Again, I really liked the change that came with moving--making new friends, decorating a new room, being closer to things . . . those were all good things. However, it's not a change I would want to make every single year. You see, Lakeridge Middle School fed into Orem High School and  Mountain View High School, and the split was about 10%/90%. I was in the boundaries that were supposed to go to Orem High School, but most of my new friends would be going to Mountain Vie

So I've mentioned before that Kristalyn (who will from now on be referred to as Talyn, since that's what Russ & I call her) is my cousin and one of my best friends. She recently returned from her 18-month LDS mission to Rochester, NY, and I'm so happy to have her home! Yesterday, she came down to Provo to hang out with me and Russ for the day and we had lots of fun together! don't mind my atrocious bangs . . . i'm just trying to decide whether to trim them or grow them out. what do y'all think? one.   First we went out to Sam Hawk  for a Korean lunch. Three years ago, Talyn (pronounced Talon , like a bird's claw) and I had the opportunity to go to Korea for what is called a Peace Camp for Youth. College students from all over the world get to go (as long as they have grandparents that served in the Korean War and their application gets accepted) and meet each other and learn about the Korean War a little bit, while experiencing the Korean cultu

I met Laura during our sophomore years of college--we happened to be on the same major/minor path and she worked with my best friend, so we had connections. We became friends when we had two classes together in one semester (accidentally) and then we spent the rest of college trying to get another class together, finally succeeding in her last semester (my second-to-last). Today we're swapping blog posts about some of our dating history . . . good, bad, and awkward in between. To read her story, continue on! To read mine, head over to Simpleton Pleasures :) *   *   *   *   * Oh hey! My name is Laura, and I blog at  Simpleton Pleasures . My blog was originally created to document the awkward moments and  accidental flashings  that happened to me as I made my way through college. But now that I've graduated and hopped on the marriage train, I usually just blog about the nonsensical things my husband says in his sleep  and about our preparations to move to the island o

So the other day, I was over browsing at Tattered to Taylored and I came across this great DIY ! I was in Target shortly thereafter and saw the very same $3 bag, so I decided to give it a try. I won't give you the full tutorial, since Taylor already did a great job of that, but I'll just clue you in on what I did differently. When I gathered all the supplies together (bag, acrylic paint, paintbrush, & masking tape), I remembered how much I love stripes and how I miss that striped bag I didn't buy , so I decided that I would do stripes rather than the color block that Taylor did (though I loved that option, too). I did 3 stripes, each one being 4 rows, with 4 natural rows between each. I left 6 rows empty at the top. Since the bag is made by going around and around with the rows, you can't just stay on your 4 rows. You'll need to choose where you want to make the transition, and then make sure it's gradual. It isn't too noticeable unless you look up

The past two Saturdays have been busy and fun :) My sister-in-law, Lacey , is super fun and likes to plan fun outings. She invites us, and voila! We have fun plans without even thinking of them. It's great when we don't have to make decisions ;) So last weekend, we went to Antelope Island for some cowboy poetry, burgers, and the Great Salt Lake. None of us had ever been in the Great Salt Lake before (or if we had, we can't remember). I've always heard things about how it's so easy to just float in that lake because of the high salt content, but I wasn't prepared for how truly easy it was. You could literally put yourself in any position and float that way! I absolutely LOVED it. That is my new number one recommendation for anyone who comes for a visit to Utah Valley--go to that lake. It's so fun! We ended the day with snow cones--our first of this summer. It was a great day with family and fun :) 10-year-old cowboy poet. he was adorable. mackenzi,

My honeymoon was seriously the greatest. It was definitely one of my favorite trips ever, because it was the first time that I was spending every single moment of every single day with my now-husband :) A few weeks ago, I mentioned my number one tip for Mormon brides . Now it's time to share tip #2: For at least the first night of your honeymoon, STAY LOCAL. Wedding days are looooong, especially if you didn't follow my first piece of advice, so trying to get anywhere else that night is just crazy talk. I once talked to someone who, following her reception, had to drive with her new husband the four hours to St. George. Talk about being too exhausted for anything after a day and drive like that . . . So after our wedding dinner, we made the short drive to the Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake, though not before we were delayed . . . our friends decorated our car cute, but then filled it with balloons! We had to pop them all before we could leave . . . took forever! But we final