Draper Temple Open House

We had the privilege of going to the Draper Temple open house this weekend and it was a really good experience for us. The temple is gorgeous and unique in it's own way and I was just amazed at how the church does everything so perfectly when it comes to the house of the Lord. Even though the temple is yet to be dedicated, you could feel a sweet spirit there and I knew that I was on holy ground. As we sat in the sealing room, a lovely couple bore their testimonies of the temple and the sealing of forever families and it really touched me. I knew that in that very room, for many years to come, Eternal families would be created right where I was sitting. Sitting next to Geoff, it made me think of my special day where I started my family and I was overcome with gratitude for a loving Heavenly Father who would let me have Geoff for forever. I feel so blessed to be able to go to a temple whenever needed. It was a neat experience to be there with almost all of Geoff's side of the family. I am so grateful for the house of the Lord and all the blessings that come from attending the temple. I have a firm testimony that it is indeed God's work that goes in these sacred temples.

Yummy HEALTHY peach cobber!?!? It's true!

Ok so on my quest to make recipes healthy, I decided to surprise Geoff tonight with a yummy yet healthier version of my peach cobbler and I must say... it came out REALLY well!! It was moist and delicious.
Here is how you do it:

2 cans peaches in light syrup (drain peaches & reserve the syrup)
1/4 c. Skim milk
1/2 c. Flour
1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. oats
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. peach syrup
1 tsp. baking powder


Drain peaches and reserve the juice. Mix all the dry ingredients. Then add the milk and peach syrup to the dry ingredients. Pour into a 9x9 sprayed dish. Spoon peaches into the mixture. Bake at 375 for 35-40 min. We didn't add icecream but you could if you're feeling scandalous =)
Or maybe just a dallop of fat-free cool whip....Enjoy!!!

Our relaxing weekend...

We decided kind of on a whim to leave Logan for the weekend and to spend some time with Geoff's parents. We had such a nice weekend! We got into Cedar City at around 8:30 Friday night and stayed up until midnight just talking to my in-laws. I feel so blessed to have married into such a wonderful family. Saturday I woke up and went for a long run... and it was just beautiful. The weather was nice- not a cloud in the sky. Geoff got to show his dad the wonders of google earth and my father-in-law thought it was just about the neatest thing ever, haha. Then we all got ready to go down to St. George for the day. We decided to go down to the St. George dinosaur mueseum... and it was actually REALLY cool. They literally built the building around real dinosaur tracks that are from 200 million years ago. Crazy huh? Then we did a little shopping and went out to eat at Outback Steakhouse, which I suggest because they serve the one and only Texas BLUEBELL ice-cream there (the ONLY place in the northern states that has it and trust me-- its the BEST store bought ice-cream you will ever have!) and man it was SO great!! I only had a couple of bites of the icecream and it was just heaven, haha. The weather in St. George was wonderful! It was in the mid 60's. What a nice break from the frigid Logan air we have been living in! It was just such a lovely weekend and we feel truly blessed to have such wonderful parents on both sides of the family.

Photography Fun

So Geoff and I got a new editing program for all the photography we plan on doing with our new camera and I have been messing around with it and LOVE it... Here are a few of my Bridal portraits that I have been editing. This is what I have been doing to avoid homework!

Whatever happened to GOOD movies?

So today I decided to drag Geoff to a chick flick (He is actually pretty good about seeing girly movies). I really wanted to see "He's just not that into you" because 1) I LOVE Jennifer Aniston and 2)I love Ben Affleck and 3)It seemed really funny.

Well... Lets just say, I left the theater VERY disappointed.

The movie portrays men as dogs that are only after ONE thing and Women as desperate, needy and without any self-worth. One character's husband cheats on her and of course, she blames herself. One character is the "other woman" and makes it seem okay because "someone she knows knows someone who left their spouse because they married the wrong person", so it was "okay" to have an affair. It also made many comments about marriage that took away from the sacredness of it.

The only story I did like (there is like 10 different ones going on throughout the whole movie), was Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck's characters. They were real people with decentcy and morals. Sorry if any of you have seen the movie and liked it, I don't mean to offend. But I wish I honestly would have walked out of the movie rather than stay. It just was a very worldly movie that just didn't mesh well with my standards and beliefs. If you need a good movie to see, which may be in the cheap theaters now, it's Marley & Me. Good movie with good family values.

That's just my two cents! Take it or leave it :]

A Valentines to Remember

So far, we Browns have not had the best of luck with Valentines day. For our first Valentines day last year, we were staying with a client from my work who went crazy on us and ran away and made my life hell. This year we thought we would try and do something more our style. So Geoff made me breakfast in bed, which quite honestly, he does all the time (sorry have to brag about how sweet my husband is) and we spent the morning searching for a new camera. We finally decided and purchased this fun camerae:


Geoff's good friend Jason came up from Cedar City with his new girlfriend we had never met so we decided to meet them for dinner in Ogden which is about an hour away. Her cute sister and brother-in-law met us for dinner as well. Well, they had a special on steak and shrimp for 2, so being the conservative spenders that we are, we decided to go for it. I have never really eaten shrimp before but I thought, what the heck? I am an adult, I can handle anything? So we got our food, it was alright (sorry, once you have had Texas steakhouse food- you can't help but see other steak as "alright"). A few minutes after taking a bite out of the shrimp my mouth started feeling all tingly. I touched my lip and I could literally feel bumps. I leaned over to Geoff and said "Uh, I think I am allergic to shrimp... my mouth feels weird". I tried to just let it go and drink lots of water. As time went on, my throat started to burn and I knew this could not be good. So we paid for dinner, said goodnight to our friends, and headed to a store to get some Benedryl. I took the benedryl and we decided to head back to Logan. As we were heading towards the freeway my whole body started to hurt. We are talking immense pain where I was like moving around like I was almost having a seizure. Geoff kept asking me if I needed to go to the hospital and I kept saying no (I wanted to be tough). But soon I was having a really hard breathing. I could feel my throat closing up. Geoff pulled over in some Arby's parking lot and called 911. I stayed in the car but soon I got super dizzy and opened the door to lean my head out. Good thing I did, cause without thinking, my steak and shrimp dinner came up. Geoff was still on the phone with 911 so I told him I think we could make it to the hospital. So we hopped back on the freeway and of course, it had to start snowing really hard at that moment. Geoff called his friend Jason who knew the area better, to give us directions to the closest hospital. I could tell the pain was starting to go away the closer we got to the hospital. I guess throwing up the shrimp was my body's way of fixing itself. Once we reached the hospital, my breathing was almost back to normal and so was my heart-rate. We sat there for 15-20 minutes to make sure I was okay, but thank goodness I was. The hospital wasn't where I wanted to stay for Valentines day. So we headed back to Logan again.

It was quite adventurous. Geoff was amazing through it all. He just took a first aide class about 6 months ago and learned all the first responder stuff you're supposed to do. He said in his mind he was reviewing CPR and all that stuff cause I looked as if I was ready to just pass out. As silly as this sounds, I really did think that I was dying. Not being able to breath will do that to you I guess. Thank goodness, it was NOT my time.

As we were driving through Sardine Canyon, Geoff looked at me and said "That was the first time I saw you throw up... And I am glad it's not the last". ha ha. Talk about romantic! Needless to say, it was a Valentines day to remember.

Aggie Basketball & More...

So if you live in Utah, I am sure you have heard how amazing Utah State B-ball is this year. They are always the best team in Utah among the major universities but currently they are #17 in the country, and moving on up. They have the BEST record in the NATION right now! I have always been a huge Utah State basketball fan since I came up to school here when I was 18, but man, this season has been AMAZING!! We don't always have time to go to all the games with our super busy schedules, but man- When we do... It is SO much fun!! (Plus, its a FREE date night). The stadium is SO insanely loud. An ESPN announcer said a few years ago that besides Duke's stadium, ours is the craziest stadium to play in... I think our coach has only lost like 14 games at home in the 10 plus years he has coached there. We Aggie fans are CRAZY

The INSANE student section.

Also, Geoff and I recently went ice-skating which was really fun! Believe it or not, it was Geoff's idea (I have a very sensitive, creative husband, eh?). Here are a couple of pics from that excursion.

Rising from the ashes

It's funny how life teaches me and humbles me each and every day. Thursday night, I had just had it! Work had really stressed me out, as soon as I got home I had to write a paper and take a test, go to the gym and I didn't even get to work out as long as I would have liked, couldn't find a parking space on campus, I was late to class and to top it all off it was cold and rainy! I was feeling pretty badly about myself for no particular reason, just being an insecure girl I suppose. Needless to say, I was pretty grumpy and was complaining to myself the whole way to class. The topic for my Family Crisis Intervention class that night was on resilient people. We were introduced to an amazing woman named Becca Levie. She is someone who has truly risen from the ashes. A brief history on Becca. She was born to a mother who grew up as a teen prostitute. She married young and wanted nothing to do with children. When Becca was born with a serious heart deffect, it was more than her mother could handle. So often when Becca would cry as just a young child, she would get beaten with a wooden spoon. When she was just 6 years old, her mother literally dropped her and her two sisters off on the side of the road and told them to play with some puppies that were there. She never saw her mother again. She was placed with her father, where the abuse continued so she eventually ended up in the foster care system. At the young age of 13, she tried to take her life. Luckily, a friend saved her and she was sent to counseling which was a life changing experience for Becca. The counselor told her some powerful words by Eleanor Roosevelt: "The future belongs to those who believe in their dreams". She literally turned her life around and blossomed like a rose in the desert. She went on to do some amazing things with her life including winning the title of Mrs. Utah a few years ago and now spends her life as a motivational speaker and has written books on her life to help others. It really softened my attitude on the small, meaningless things I was unhappy about on that particular day. It really taught me a lesson that no matter how bad things may get or how wet your shoes are from walking in the rain, you should never let the advesary get you down, because nothing can take away your dreams and the things that truly make you happy. Becca says it best: "When the prayer of your mouth matches the prayer of your heart, this is when God can really use you".

This was an eye opening experience for me and I really wanted to share it with all my loved ones. I know how so many, women especially, that struggle with depression and self worth. Her website has some pretty wonderful tips on how to reduce things like negative self talk (something I really struggle with in particular), overcoming adversity and so on. Take a peek if you have a moment, I think you will find it worth your time.

Heck yes!

So nothing new or exciting has really been going on in the past week or so... But in a little over a month Geoff and I will be leaving on a jet plane and landing here:
HOUSTON, TEXAS! For our spring break... where we will also be going here to stay for a few days:
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, TEXAS.

... And the BEST part is I will get to see this little girl:

ABBI LYNN NELSON (MY NIECE)...

.... Can you tell I am a little bit excited?