New looks

So Mark found the secret to looking younger (or older- I guess whichever you prefer)...

He went from this...



To this...



I think the facial hair makes him look much older, but he decided to shave it and I think he looks great either way! It kind of reminded me of when I got my hair cut about two weeks ago. One of the students that rides my bus (for work) said, "Hey I like your hair. It makes you look 10 years younger".

So I thought to myself, "Do I now look 13 years old, or did I look 33 years old before the haircut??"

School- what fun

I'm done, I'm done, I'm done, Woo-hoo!!!! I just finished my last test and I am officially completely done with my second to last semester of college!!!!!

And now......the side affects of too much studying. Sad, but true, I think I'll look at the back of my eyelids as well.



(He doesn't know I even took the picture)!

Fun Tag

1. My rock star name: *Bunny Escort*{First pet and current car}



2. My gangsta name: *Andes No-Bake*{Favorite candy bar and favorite cookie}



3. My detective name: *Red Dolphin*{Favorite color and favorite animal}



4. My Star Wars name: *Harwh of Singulair*{First three letters of last name and first two letters of first name then the word "of" then a medication you are on}



5. My superhero name: *The Blue Sprite *{2nd favorite color and favorite cola drink with "The" in front}



6. My Nascar name: *Phyllis Mariel Virgie*{First names of your grandmothers}



7. My "lover" name: *Curve skittles *{Name of your favorite perfume/cologne and your favorite candy}



8. Witness-protection name: *Lee John*{Mother's and father's middle names}

I tag everyone again! Have a great week!

Christmas Treats and Yummy Snacks

We always get into this baking/cooking extravaganza mode during the Christmas season. Mark wants to make every good recipe he finds and I don't complain because the stress of school is pretty much gone. So here are two of the latest recipes we have found. The first, "Texas Jalapeno Poppers" were discovered online at Mommy's Kitchen (link on blog) and they were yummy dipped in ranch dressing! MMMmmmmm....



Next: Truffles!



This "heaven in one bite" treat was a new one we tried from a recipe given to us by our sister-in-law Amy. Amy brought tons and tons of these truffles to our Harmon Thanksgiving last year in Salt Lake. Hers actually looked liked truffles though. We definitely need to work on our shaping skills. We ended up making four different (well five) different kinds; (not all shown in picture): mint chocolate, raspberry chocolate, raspberry dark chocolate, powdered sugar raspberry, and coconut!

They are quite the deceiving little treats though. It took us about five minutes to make each pan of filling and so of course we thought, "Man, this is going to be way easy". We ended up trying to dip the darn truffles and make them look good from about 8:00 pm to 4:00 am. Yep I stayed up until 4:00 am and still didn't finish! (yes I am crazy- won't be doing that again anytime soon). I woke up at 8:00 am this morning and finished after I put the roast in the crock pot. The reason it took up so long was because we actually made 7 pans worth (4 cookie sheets, 2 cake pans, and 1 8x8 pan). We need to learn some time saving skills from Amy. It's a good thing these truffles are soooo yummy: I'm still trying to decide if it was worth staying up that late (or early!)

Funny Story

So because Mark is the ward mission leader he has to go to PEC every Sunday morning, so he leaves the house at 10:00 and I don't come to church until 12:00. So as I was getting ready this morning after Mark had left, my phone rang. The caller ID read, "Missionaries" and I was wondering why the missionaries were calling me as I answered the phone. The voice on the other end said, "Hey, hot stuff"; (I felt like my heart stopped), so what would your reaction be if a missionary said that to you?? I didn't know what to say so I didn't say anything. And then the voice said, "This is Mark".

After my heart stopped racing and I realized who it was, I just laughed and laughed and laughed.

Yeah for good times!!

I'm It: Christmas Style

"On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me..."

1 embarrassing moment: Okay, this was a recent embarassing moment that happened probably about a month or so ago. Mark and I were at the church preparing for a baptism (Mark is the ward mission leader) and so we were filling up the font. When we were in the relief society room where there are back doors to the bathrooms I really needed to go, so without thinking about it I walked into the bathroom, closed the stall door (because you walk right into a stall from the back door) and did my business. Well when I opened the door to go wash my hands there was a 14 year old boy standing at the sink. You should have seen the look on his face when I opened the door. It surprised me as well and I quickly said, "Oh, I'm sorry" and turned and walked out the back door into the relief society room. You guessed it, I used the boy's bathroom, for the first time in my life, (give me a break, there's no sign on the back doors!) So I went into the girl's bathroom laughing and as I was washing my hands, I heard the boy out in the hall talking to his friends and he said this, "I'm not kidding, there was girl in there!" So as I went back into the relief society room and sat with Mark and studied, a bunch of adolescent boys and girls started coming through the back doors of the bathroom into the relief society room and out the relief society room door into the hallway a few at a time (probably to get at a look at the girl who used the boy's bathroom!)


2 best friends: Mark and my family

3 things I buy regularly: milk, bread, tomatoes

4 places I want to go: Korea, Europe, New York, Nauvoo

5 goals for the upcoming year: graduate college (in May!!); eat healthier; save money; start working out again (and keeping it up); learn a new craft.

6 things most people don't know about me: I love watching "The Andy Griffith Show" (I have 2 of the seasons); I don't like pie all that much; I drink at least one glass of chocolate milk a day; I own 11 hoodies; my favorite food is cottage cheese!

7 things I would never say: Any seven swear words (I won't write them, so use your imagination)

8 things I love about the Christmas season: Focusing on the Savior and remembering Him; spending time with family; wrapping presents; keeping secrets from Mark about what I bought him; Christmas goodies; Christmas meals; NO SCHOOL!!!

9 things I say to my kids (Mark): "I love you babe!"; "I miss you"; "I don't care, you decide"; "I'm so funny, don't you think I'm funny?"; "It's too bright in here!" (at bedtime); "While you're up, can you get me.....?"; "I have so much to do, I HATE group projects" (I had a lot this semester); "Thanks for doing the dishes"; "What should we have for dinner on Sunday?"

10 things I do a lot: Homework, cook, homework, grocery shop, homework, eat, homework, relief society, homework, watch movies and cuddle with Mark (did I mentione homework?)

11 things I would rather not live without: Mark, the gospel, my warm house, family, my hair (haha), my education (I know I complain a lot), my future kids, the Book of Mormon, chocolate milk, clothes, food

12 people I tag: Cambree, Stefany, Kerri, Erin T., Linz, Kym, Cherry, Erin D., Carlie, Kyla, Jackie, Vicki

Do you notice anything different???

Like my hair???

I got 6 inches cut off and bangs!! I haven't had bangs for years and I really needed a change. We're talking like I haven't had my hair cut in a little less than a year (I got it cut on Dec. 18th last year). It feels so good and healthy!

Happy Holidays!

I know I just barely posted about our adventerous Thanksgiving, but I wanted to blog about our few, but cute Christmas decorations that we have actually had up since the 16th of November. We usually wait until right before Thanksgiving Break (because we want our decorations up when we come back from break) but we got really rambunctious and excited this year. Plus that was an easy time to put up our decorations since we have been crazy busy with all of our finals and projects.

This is one of our small nativity scenes and a cute decoration.



Here are our stockings (I actually made- with my mother's help of course!) and our other nativity.



Here is our entryway between our kitchen and living room with our table.



And, here is our tree!




We are so excited for Christmas!

Thanksgiving Break

How lame am I? Both mine and Mark's family's came through and stayed with us in Laramie during the break and I didn't get a single picture!! So this will be a pictureless post (sorry- I always love looking at other's pics)

Anyway I'll give a breakdown of our Thanksgiving week.

Tuesday night Mark's family stayed with us. Well when I went to fill up the air mattress they would be sleeping on, our air pump did not work (which I thought was interesting because it is brand new). Well turns out you have to charge it for 10-12 hours prior to first use. 10-12 HOURS??!! Yes and Mark's family would be here in 2 hours, so that did not leave me much time. I quickly gave my good friend Steph a call and she lent me theirs (thank goodness) because I did not want to have Mark's parents sleeping on the floor and I do not do well on the floor.

Wednesday morning, Mark's family left for Omaha Nebraska where our brother and sister-in-law live. My family came through on Wednesday evening about 4 pm and visited for about 30 min. before heading to Loveland Colorado where my mom's brother lives.

Wednesday night- we got tired of doing homework (or trying to do homework) and went to Twilight.

Thursday morning- off to Loveland Colorado for a scrumptious Thanksgiving. We stuffed ourselves with the good old Turkey, potatoes, rolls (thanks mom!) veggies, shrimp and green chili over rice (not the traditional Thanksgiving side, but it was soooooo good!!!) Thursday evening, Mark drove back to Laramie to continue studying for the four tests he has this week (Good Luck Babe!) Thursday evening, we (me, mom, sisters, aunt, cousins) went to Twilight again...

On black Friday we went out shopping at 6 am (which is very early for me!) I finished shopping for Mark though, which is always a good feeling. Later that day as my family and I were leaving we went to Lowe's and found this little beauty (I know I said no pictures...whoops!)





That's right folks....my very own waffle iron!!! This isn't just any waffle iron, these types are very hard to come by. You know, the kind that makes the flat, big, yummy waffles. Not like those thick, dry waffles. No thanks. My parents bought it for me for my birthday (I know it's not until January) but she's a beauty and will surely be put to good use.

So then my family and I traveled to Cheyenne on our way back to Laramie on Friday afternoon and stopped to see my cousin's family. Funny story: They have a three year old boy and he is hilarious. Not even joking. He does the funniest things, for example, he was playing catch using a football (a small soft one) with my little sisters and he licked the entire football and then threw it at them; and then (it gets better) his dad told him that we would never come visit again if he licked his football. So he wiped it off with his shirt and said, "all clean" and then threw it at them again. (okay, so you had to be there- this kid makes me cry because I laugh so much)

On our drive through the summit between Cheyenne and Laramie we hit some nasty Wyoming weather and were going like 50 mph down the interstate. It was icy and blizzardy (ugly!) We finally arrived in Laramie, went to Carl's Jr. for dinner and came home and played Clue. Then on Saturday, we all went to the UW vs. Denver boys basketball game and UW won! GO POKES!!

Saturday night we ate some yummy tacos and played more Clue. On Sunday morning my family left and on Sunday evening Mark's family came back through. Because the roads were so terrible they stayed on Sunday night and left Monday morning.

We're glad everyone traveled safely!

Anyway that was our busy Thanksgiving break!

The Things You Forget

This was a list of things my friend, Cambree, posted on her blog... She invited people to bold what they have done on the list...
for you to do: copy and paste this to your blog and bold the ones that you HAVE done.
(I had to italicize mine because I can't figure out the bold thing)

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

It's great to look back on some of the things you've done.....

Shopping...

So Mark and I have been on this late night shopping kick lately. Most normal people go to bed between 10:00-12:00 possibly earlier if you're lucky; well you can find us at Wal-Mart at this time of night (especially on weekends, if it's during the week we're still up doing homework). Anyway on Thursday night we went grocery shopping at 10:00- who does that? Not very many people, because let me tell you, the store was practically EMPTY. Not only did we not get home until 11:00, we then proceeded to sit at our kitchen table and look through a cook book as we looked at all of the yummy things we wanted to make until MIDNIGHT. Having to get up at 5:30 for work the next morning was not motivation enough to go to bed I guess (even though I was SUPER tired).

Do you think we learned a lesson??? No. Last night (Saturday) we went to Wal-Mart at 10:30 and didn't get done until 12:00 and then came home and didn't go to bed until 1:00.

What time do you go shopping?

Scattergories!!

SCATTERGORIES...IT'S HARDER THAN IT LOOKS!

USE THE 1ST LETTER OF YOUR NAME TO ANSWER EACH OF THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS.

THEY HAVE TO BE REAL PLACES, NAMES,THINGS. NOTHING MADE UP! TRY TO USE
DIFFERENT
ANSWERS IF THE PERSON IN FRONT OF YOU HAD THE SAME 1ST INITIAL.

YOU CAN'T USE YOUR NAME FOR THE BOY/GIRL NAME QUESTION.

1. What is your name: Whitney

2. A Boys Name: William

3. Girls Name: Wendy

4. An Occupation: window washer

5. A Color: white

6. Something you wear: watch

7. Beverage: water

8. A Food: wheat thins

9. Something found in the bathroom: waste

10. A place: Wonju, South Korea (it's real!)

11. A Reason for being late: wasting time

12. Something you shout: WATCH OUT!!




1. What is your name: Mark

2. A Boys Name: Matthew

3. Girls Name: Mindy

4. An Occupation: Manager

5. A Color: marine blue

6. Something you wear: mittens

7. Beverage: milk

8. A Food: mozarella cheese sticks

9. Something found in the bathroom: mirror

10. A place: Montana

11. A Reason for being late: missed the bus

12. Something you shout: MINE!! (2 year olds!)

I TAG- whoever wants to do it!

Countdown

7 days of classes until Thanksgiving Break

13 days until Turkey Day

12 days of classes until Finals

28 days until Christmas Break

41 days until Christmas

Can You Tell I'm Excited???

Happy Halloween!!

Mark and I went to a Halloween Party on Friday night put on by our friends Stephanie and Ryan Parks. We dressed up as Koreans and wore real traditional hanboks. At the party we played a few games. In the first game, the guys had to be blindfolded and then they had to feel all of the girls hands and try to guess which one was their wife. Then we played Guesstures, guessed how much candy was in a jar and had a costume competition. Mark and I tied for first for best couple costume and got a cute Halloween decoration!



Whit playing guesstures



Koreans



Whitney and Carter Plaisted



Cherry playing guesstures



Harry Potter playing guesstures (Ryan)



Cody, Cherry, and Carter Plaisted



Romans (Mandy and Jen)



Mandy playing guesstures



The Incredibles



Joker and Batman (Luke and Sharilynn)



Cute Witch Kelsey



Shawn, The Mighty Lion






Our cute Halloween decoration!



Ahn Nyeong Hasayo
(Hello in Korean)

Daylight Savings Time???

So Mark must have thought that last night was DST because he set his clock ahead one hour. (I think he just accidentally pushed the wrong button when he was setting his alarm). Anyway, so the alarm goes off at 5:30 I get up (really, really tired by the way - hmm...I wonder if it might be because I only got 5 1/2 hours of sleep) anyway, I get ready, make-up, hair and all and then go into the kitchen to eat something before I have to leave for work at 6:20. The first thing I notice is our microwave reads 5:05 AM!!! Oh my goodness! Straight back to bed I went, but yah know it's just not the same when you're already ready for the day....needless to say I'm so glad we get an hour more this weekend instead of an hour less.

Two Tags-

So before I start, I just have a few things-

First, my sis-in-law Jackie tagged me a few weeks ago on her blog (this was before I had a blog), so I never officially did that tag, so I'm going to do two of them in one-

Second, what's with the number 6?

First tag- list 6 quirks (don't think I'm too weird...)

1. I do not like odd numbers, I don't know why, but I had to get married on an even day, my birthday is on an even day, and we set up our family prayers so I pray on the even number days. (Mark having his birthday on an odd day didn't stop me from marrying him though :)

2. When I do the dishes, I have to wash them in a certain order (utinsels, plates, bowls, cups, tupperware, and then pots and pans)

3. When I sleep, it has to be completely dark and completely quiet (so it doesn't help that we have a bright spotlight shining into our window from the next building and we have four single college guys living next door)

4. I hate cleaning the bathroom, I will wait as long as possible and then Mark always ends up cleaning it for me.

5. I have to personally check all of the doors and windows before I go to bed (and all of the blinds have to be down and shut). I check the deadbolt on our door two or three times and when I am at my parent's house in GR, I check everything at their house (they just sit and laugh at me!)

6. When I do my homework, I like to have all of papers and assignments done at least 2 days before they are do or I get really anxious and stressed out.

I'm not tagging anyone on this first one-

Second tag- list 6 things I value, 6 things I don't, and then tag 6 people (again with the number 6?)

6 things I value-

1. My testimony/Savior
2. My husband
3. My family
4. My health
5. My warm house on a cold winter day
6. The innocence of little children

6 things I don't value-

1. The wind in Laramie!
2. The smoking and drinking in abundance in Laramie
3. Nasty t.v. shows and internet sites
4. Group projects (if you want more details on this one just ask!)
5. Working at 6:30 am
6. Green vegetables

6 people I tag-

1. Cambree Clare
2. Erin Druce
3. Kyla Rollins
4. Carlie Thayn
5. Erin Toolson
6. Emily Lemon

Here's the story of our lives.....the pictures tell it all, need we say more?

So if you're wondering what we meant by being busy students doing busy work in our first post, here are some snapshots of what we do at our house (this is why we're so exciting to be around! :) Hmm....and we wonder why more people don't come and hang out with us???

Florida

Mark and Joseph Poling eating dessert!- YUM!

The Gang!

The hotel and convention center in the bay.

Mark recently went on a trip to Tampa, Florida with NCPA (the pharmacy club he is in). Him and a few of his classmates went to the National Pharmacy Convention and he had a lot of fun. Here are a few pics from his trip (of course, while he was gone in 80 degree weather, I went to good ol' GR and froze!)- Gotta love WYOMING!

Eagle Eye

Mark and I went and watched Eagle Eye tonight, it was so good! We absolutely loved it! We are really into these action packed shows so of course we thought it was great and everybody should watch it.

It's finally here, not that anyone is waiting.....

We finally got a BLOG!!! Since we are busy students doing busy homework, and we think there is little time for other minor things in our life (like blogging.....although it can be addicting), this blog might not be updated as much as any of you would like, but we will try to keep up better than David and Amy (just kidding Dave and Amy). We have also realized most of the pictures in our camera are of neices, nephews, and other pictures of cute kids belonging to friends, so for a while you might see your little ones on our blog instead of us since we are their biggest fans.