Blog it baby, 5 years and counting

It's about time that I (Zach) contribute something to this blog. Even though I give her a hard time about all the time she spends posting/blogging/blog-surfing/thinking about new blog ideas/making backgrounds for hers and others' blogs/photographing things for no other reason than to "blog it", I always look forward to seeing Mel's posts. I decided that since it was our 5 year anniversary last Friday, I would write a warm, fuzzy, lovey-dovy post about my Mel (if you know Mel, you know how uncomfortable she'll be knowing that others will also read this, she's a little anti-PDA, but oh well).

So it was 5 years ago that Mel and I sat in a waiting room in the Logan Temple before our sealing ceremony, both of us excited but mostly nervous.  "I think I'm gonna throw up, I'm gonna pass out, this dress it too tight, I can't breath".  Mel was pretty freaked out, can you blame her??

               She looked beautiful, too bad it was about 20 degrees and windy.

The ceremony was awesome, or so I've been told.  Adrenaline and anxiety do funny things to your memory, good thing we had so many family and friends there to remind us what happened.

I thought that to bloggebrate (blog+celebrate) our 5 year anniversary, I'd post some meaningful pics.  I love you Mel.

 

 

That famous Gruwell family half-baked look that only gets caught by cameras. Eating a meal before attempting a summit of Mt. Rainier.

Enjoying a sunset on lion's back in Moab.

We thought that we should see if we could successfully raise a dog (success is pass/fail...  Lulu is still alive so I guess we passed) before trying our hand with an actual child.

Then along came Aubrey....

And now here we are!!!

Thanks for 5 wonderful years of marriage, isn't it great to have someone to share so many memories with?  I get excited thinking about all of the memories we'll make in the future together  Here's to many more love-filled years.

Zach

Giveaway frenzy!

I hear that spring is coming. You wouldn't know it living here (I'm currently typing this wearing a North Face down coat, a hoodie sweatshirt, long sleeved shirt, and flannel pants). But bloggers sure seem to be energized because there are giveaways "springing" up (I'll roll my eyes for you) like weeds!

First of all, a friend of mine from my hometown just started a little business called Kookles. She makes nursing covers, swaddle blankets, and little girl headbands. She's doing a giveaway for one of the headbands. Check it out here.

Next is a giveaway from a friend of my friend. Dandee. Click here to enter her giveaway. Actually, please don't click there so I have a better chance of winning :)

This one I also snagged from a friend's blog. It's called Giveaway Today. They really do have a giveaway each day! I didn't have to share the link to enter, but here it is anyways. You're welcome :)

Have you heard of Grosgrain GiveAways? This lady is an amazing seamstress and has a blog just devoted to giving away her creations. At least one thing a week. I've never entered one of her giveaways because hundreds of people enter, I think I even saw over 1000 entries once! I've also never entered because I'm a little confused on how you're supposed to enter. You have to link back to her post from her blog, which means I think I have to do a post for each item I want to enter for, so there will be several of those coming! See the posts below for some of her creations.

When a sale DOESN'T save you money....

For several weeks now, flannel has been on sale at Joann's, at a good 60% off. I know it's sad that I get excited about something like that, but in my defense, so have MOST of my friends. I lost count a long time ago of the number of trips I've taken. And why are we so jazzed up over flannel? Because a friend of ours makes these adorable baby receiving blankets out of them and showed us how. Unfortunately for her, now we've ruined her go to baby shower gift since we are all making them now. Unfortunately for me, my lack of willpower manifested itself big time. This is my current stack of flannel, and this is AFTER making 5 blankets already. I think I have another 12 or so from this stack. Sales usually cause me to spend MORE money. Which shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to me since I'm also the type that will eat BOXES of reduced fat cookies but won't touch a regular oreo. The sad thing is, for months now I've been wanting to buy myself some new jeans. Most of mine are $10 purchases from Plato's Closet (i.e. used clothing store). But I decided that financially it was not in the cards. And then I saw my stack of flannel and darn it all, that stack could have been a cute pair of jeans. At least I can't get too fat to sew a flannel blanket, right?

Did I mention I joined a sewing club? 5 years ago I belonged to the outdoor club, Sierra club, climbing club, etc. Now....sewing clubs....oh my....