Teacher Pants

Usually Halloween kinda just comes and goes in this house. But this year I've been making a point to be a little more festive. I've come to the realization that traditions don't just happen, but you have to make them happen so I'm doing my best. We carved pumpkins with a few really good friends and I must say it was the best pumpkin I've ever carved!

Can you guess whose is whose?

We've gone to 2 haunted houses this year. Nightmare on 13th and a $1 haunted house in Provo. Both were nice a creepy! We're going to the play Dracula on Friday and I think that should do it for Halloween spookiness.

I also started teaching today. Hence the "teacher pants" as the girls in my major like to call them. I met my mentor teacher and she is wonderful. I think it will be a great experience and hopefully I will learn a lot.

My first day of school! Teachers can't wear jeans... lots of "teacher pants" and skirts for the next month!

Jumbled.

Warning: there will be no coherent order to this post.

I am loving this semester. I finally have 3 of my greatest friends all living near me! So we decided we need a monthly dinner in which attendance is mandatory. September's was fab. We ate Chicken Cordon Bleu, salad, potatoes, asparagus, rolls, and peanut butter bars. Yum. Then we played...

Yup you guess it, Quelf. What a grand time we had! Here are some of the favorite pictures of the night.

Meet Aaron. The poor kid had to do all the most embarrassing tasks of the night. (He's my friend Caitlin's, remember the returned missionary, boy toy.) What a good sport!

Jordan was banished underneath the table for a little while, love the face my friend!

Erin and I had to creepily slow dance with each other, circa high school. I'm so creeped out, look at that face.

This handsome guy was a beautiful miming ballerina. Look at those lines!

Oh Aaron you poor thing. He was, I believe a mime stuck in a box on this one. Thanks for all the laughs though!

We also played a rousing game of Guesstures in which the boys pummeled the girls. We were so certain we were going to win too. Bummer.

I love my friends! Jordan is working her fanny off at dental hygiene school, amazing right? Erin is working as a dental hygienist, plus being a mom of the cutest one year old boy I know! And Caitlin just worked her tail of for a year and a half as a missionary. I am one lucky girl to have such incredible friends.

Last weekend I went on a girls getaway to St. George. It was so fun and so nice to get to spend more time with my sister-in-law Elizabeth and her two funny girls. You can read all about the trip here. Basically we went to Tarzan at the Tuacahn, an amazing outdoor theater. We shopped, ate, talked, and watched some seriously amazing people run a marathon.

With the girls. Tarzan was SO good, I cried... multiple times. Who doesn't cry when they hear "You'll Be in My Heart?" Such a good song.

Thanks Betsy for SUCH a fun trip!

Funny side story. As I'm sitting waiting for the play to start, my lovely friend Dantzel comes waltzing in front of us and literally sits directly in front of me. I haven't seen this girl in at least a year... and we both live in Provo! Who would have thought we'd see each other in St. George of all places. Needless to say we resolved to have lunch together more frequent than once a year.

Oh and I dyed my hair a lovely shade of brown. It was time for a change. I'm slowly adjusting to the strange girl looking back at me in the mirror! Change is good right?

Other than that we're just schoolin it up, Grant's murdering his tests... 100%? Ya, he's a stud. Fall hit this week, I actually felt cold once or twice. This morning I walked outside took a big sniff and thought to myself, fall is here. Fall just smells different ya know?

Behind...

Again.

We've been alive the last month or so, although it may not seem like it.

We left Texas with a bang in August. Grant decided to be a rebel and skip out on the first 2 days of school and we spent some time in Dallas with the fam. It was a really nice way to end our summer and have a few days to relax before starting school.


I know, I obsess over my nieces and nephews. I can't help it they are the cutest kids in the whole world. You'd think they were mine.

Grant and I drove the 20 hour drive home like champs. Straight through. I fiddled around with

Artsy eh?

I also got to experience Grant with a "beard." I call it a beard because it's the most facial hair I've ever seen on him! I thought it was pretty sexy if you ask me.

When we got back to UT one of the first things we did was camp. Well we ate at Cafe Rio first... but then we camped. We ended up at the same area we went to last time, it was beautiful just like always. We planned ahead this time and brought our extra sleeping back for some cushion. We both slept MUCH better.

Oh and we roasted GIANT marshmallows. I highly recommend these puppies.

Since then we've done a lot of school and homework. Grant's teachers are trying to kick his fanny, accounting does not sound like a fun major to me. So much reading. But Grant is a stinkin hard worker so he's doing awesome... LAST SEMESTER BABE!!

We've spent a lot of time with our lovely friends Bridger and Jordan, we even played another round of Quelf, (remember this game) and laughed our heads off like usual.

It's always joyful being back in Provo, only this time it's slightly bittersweet. I'm noticing everything is my last! My last fall semester on campus, meaning no more beautiful changing leaves. My last semester living in UT with Grant. My last fall in UT. My soon to be last winter in UT, although that isn't really all that sad for me.

For those of you who didn't know, Grant is moving to Dallas in December to start up a pest control company. I, however have one more semester left at BYU so I have to stay behind. Yup, 4 months apart. It will be worth it we know, but still sad. In April I will giddily join him in Dallas and we will make a little life for ourselves there. Woot!

On a side note... we're always looking for people who need or want a summer job to come sell with us. Let me know if you're interested!

Life is good for the Romneys here in Utah!

She's back

After a LONG 1.5 years, this little peach is back and you better believe I'm so excited to see her!

Dear Caitlin,
You have been missed dearly. I will give you a giant hug when I see you.

Reunited will feel so good....

Suckas LOVE YA!

Favorites

#1. A quick visit from our babelicious friend Courtney.
#2. The absolutely delicious dinner we had at the Braken Store Cafe.

(Can I just tell you, best burger and onion rings ever.)

#3. This season of So You Think You Can Dance and basically every dance on it! Sooo good.

#4. My favorite summer reads:



#5. Late night swims and chats with him.



#6. Mostly just that guy up there. Ya, he would have to be my number 1 favorite.

Nightmares

It has been a LONG time since I had a nightmare. I had forgotten how horrific they can be and how real they seem!
I was walking into a grocery store at night, it seemed like Albertsons, with my friend Caitlin. All of a sudden this white truck comes charging at me. I managed to jump out of the way, but in my dream I threw some profanity at the boys driving it. THAT MADE THEM SO MAD!

Stupid dream Zaundra doesn't know when to shut her mouth.

Anyways, it was this truck of 4 boys straight from Hotel Rwanda, machetes and all. I remember running into the store just as it closed so they knew I was the only one inside and had to come out sometime. I was in an office in the back of the store with the only store manager still there when all of a sudden we hear the vroom of the truck as it's slowly passing by the back of the store. Then the boys starting banging their machetes on the windows looking for me.
I wake up at this point, but my heart is racing and I'm sweating. I have to open my eyes look around and cuddle up to Grant to make sure it's not real.

So... I fall back asleep and it starts AGAIN! I'm still hiding I'm imagining all the horrible things that could happen. I call the cops, but my dream doesn't want the cops to come so somehow they never arrive and I'm stuck. My dream must really want me dead, it's horrible.
I woke up I again opened my eyes cuddled next to Grant again and tried my very best to think of happy things like flowers, Hawaii, the ocean. And luckily the dream doesn't come back.

Needless to say I'm exhausted today.

Nightmares suck.

To Remember Summer

This post is for selfish purposes. I've realized my only posts from this summer have basically only been about bugs. Gross. Personally, I would like to remember this summer for more reasons than just those.

Texas really is beautiful. It isn't Utah or Idaho mountainous beautiful, but it has it's own unique beauty.The sunsets are glorious here. No mountains to block them!

This was the scenery during our drive home from Dallas last time.

We've joined in on some of the local Texas fun. First we went tubing on the Comal River.... well river in Texas standards. The river goes right through the city. I wasn't so sure about the lack of nature, but I'm biased (the Hathaway's are hardcore river rafters you know).

This is not an exaggeration of how many people were there. Texas is HOT people, and cold water seems to be the only way to survive. Needless to say the river isn't the cleanest, or really even clean at all, but we had an enjoyable time. The whole sales team came and we just relaxed and laughed at all the crazies on the river.

There is this little concert hall/bar that I pass by on my way to work everyday. Much to my surprise and excitement Jerrod Niemann's name was listed on the billboard as an upcoming artist playing there. Jerrod Niemann sings one of my favorite summer songs "Lover Lover."
Jerrod was a slight disappointment. His songs were fun, but all he wanted to talk about was which ladies were going home with him that night. Really Jerrod? I mean your cute and have a very nice voice... but not everyone wants you. It was worth it just to hear him play "Lover Lover." You know that happy excited feeling when you hear your favorite song on the radio, well this was like that times 10! I totally smiled the whole time and sang along at the top of my lungs. It was an outside concert and it started about 8 so it was nice and cool..... er.
By the way, Texans totally dance!! I've never seen people dance the way they did, I can't even describe it. They get real close together and kinda shuffle around the stage, it looks slightly boring and mostly awkward. I felt the urge to line dance and Miss Caitlin Walton if you were there we would have rocked it.

We have eaten A LOT of yummy food, mostly stuff I've gotten to make. Here are some of our favorite new recipes:

Butter Brickle Amazingness
S'mores Bars
Sugar Cookie Bars
and
these White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

So we really like sugar and goodies in this house.

We had dinner with Micah and Katy, and they're adorable baby Madison, some great friends of ours from Provo. I loved catching up with them and seeing them in Texas, if only we could live close by forever! It was so fun to hear how life has changed for them in Texas and how well things are going. I finally learned how to play Settler's and I'm basically hooked!

Oh and the bugs are still here, don't worry. Yup, that is a bag of crickets. Did you know crickets smell like dirty rotten diapers when they die. Grant gags every time he goes out to our porch because of these little suckers. Oh, and our washer and dryer are on the porch so occasionally our clothes smell like dead cricket diaper because yup you guessed it they figured out how to get in the washer.

San Antonio you've treated us well. Let's keep it that way for our last 2 weeks here please.