5 years ago today...

On 10-02-04, us two became one...

We were married at a local hotel on 10/02/04 at 1 pm. It's strange how fast that moment passes a person by. It was pretty much a blur. All that planning and prepping for, what seemed like, eternity was over in just a few short hours. My face hurt all night from smiling so much that day. I wanted to share a few pics although most of you have already seen them...

i now pronounce you: mr. and mrs. brandon and penelope scow. true, but funny story about the ceremony: the officiator called brandon, "roger" because we used the same format as my uncle roger's wedding. aaron, the officiator, was reading it verbatim and read roger instead of remembering that he was talking to brandon. i don't think many people noticed but he apologized profusely afterwards. it was more funny than anything else.

here we are cutting the cake. for those you wondering we did not attack each other with the cake. brandon was waiting for it though. he told me he would hunt me down if i got any on him.

one of my favorite pics of us on that day.

quick recap of the last 5 years...

• we adopted our baby, mamma (a part grey tabby, part calico and a small part dog, kitty:)
• we moved from ogden to salt lake
• i graduated with a bachelor's degree in psych and am in my 3rd (and final!!) year as a master's student
• brandon has worked tirelessly at remodeling our last home and is now working on our current home

we have strengthened ties between family and friends which we have found to be the most important thing to us. we've loved, we've fought, we've cried (well mostly i have cuz i'm a self-proclaimed "crier":), we've had good days and bad. we've shared major losses and gains with each other, our hopes and dreams, and we are looking forward to many more years and milestones together. here's to us and our future and all those who play parts in our lives, we couldn't do it without you and your support.

awwww, how tender!!

le cirque

last night, dorie and boyd (brandon's parents) invited us to le cirque. i was really excited because i haven't been to the circus since i was a lil chitlin. brandon was less than excited but a good sport. what's crazy is that boyd had never been, in his whole, entire life! he was clapping and cheering louder than the kids. i loved seeing the animals perform (even though i felt bad for them:( and all the acrobatics. i almost had to turn away on some of the stunts because i just wasn't sure they could do it. they could. best part: when the elephants did hand stands!! omg, it blew my mind. my mouth dropped. the puppies were super cute and the tigers seemed a lil like crabby patty's but they obeyed the whip...for the most part. one of them even hopped on his hind legs. being at the circus definitely took me back to my childhood. brandon even said it was better than he thought it would be.

so, boyd works at a local media broadcasting company and he gave us a private tour at 10 pm, saturday night. it was awesome. he showed us all the sets and where the dj's sit for their radio shows. we watched the 10 o'clock news from above the set. it was so crazy to see the anchors down at the desk checking the mirror during every commercial break, constantly touching their faces to make sure everything was perfect and they even fist-bumped before they went on. i'm not sure why but it was really cool to watch. it was much more entertaining than the news really is on tv. i think i'd watch more of it if i could see the "behind the scenes" every time. after that we went onto the roof and had a great view of all the city lights. it was really pretty...if only i had my camera [insert big sigh here].

randoms for july and august...

i just unloaded my camera and had a bunch of random things. thought i'd share them all with you, my loverly readers.

we stopped at the bottom of wolf creek for a ride before we went out to tabiona for the 24th of july (a utah holiday). it was one of the worst rides we have been on but i was able to take some nice pictures. the ride sucked cuz it was sooo rocky and there were huge boulders on the trail. at one point i made brandon take the bikes up and i just hiked up. i was pretty sure i would have crashed and burned-HARD! then the chain broke on his bike and i had to tow him/push him back down. but, we lived to tell the tale.

pretty weeds!

back side of tabby mountain. first time i'd been all the way back there. it was really cool because it was just a huge canyon. one time we stopped to shoot a bit when brandon's cousin shot into someone's camp. needless to say they freaked and we got out of there fast. good thing no one was hurt!

another shot of tabby's finer side.

brandon and tasha found some mushrooms. this pic was taken before they realized the shroom was full of maggots. yuck!

brandon's finer side:)

sunset from our backyard. the pic just doesn't do it justice, it was incredible.

mamma invited all her friends for dinner...well, she wishes she could have had them for dinner!

one day when i was out back mowing i ran into this little guy. of course i stopped the mower and moved him to a safe place, but now before i took his picture. i like to call him sven olafson.

that all folks!

frustrated at the picture show

i like watching movies but it seems that there are so many reasons not to go see them in a theater. for one, it costs about $8 for 1 ticket! that's about twice as much as it was when i started going to movies. insanity! plus, the quality of the movies that are coming out these days is way down. let's recap, cost: up, quality: down. that's not very enticing. anyways, lately i've found myself viewing a lot of movies in the theater and i've discovered yet another mind-blowing phenomenon: no matter how many seats there are someone inevitably sits in the seats right in front of you. wtf! i had my feet on the seat way before they even thought to sit in those particular seats. these people (and i use the term loosely:) insist on first giving me the stink eye (1) and then just plop down. i don't get it. a lot of the movies i've seen have less than half the seats filled and yet, everytime someone sits in front of me. it doesn't make sense. it must be some weird psychological phenomenon that needs to be researched. like, since people are social beings maybe they are inclined to sit near other humans rather than off in seclusion?? if only i didn't already have a thesis topic:)

note to self and all others reading this: unless there is absolutely NO choice, whatsoever, do not sit in front of some in a movie theater.

(1) watch Juno if you haven't. there is a terribly hilarious scene where one girl gives Juno the stink eye. i crack up just picturing it!

road rage

do you ever have days when you're driving and you just feel like all the traffic signs/lights just DO NOT apply to you?? i was driving home earlier today and found myself trying to make illegal traffic moves because it would have made my life so much easier. i would have saved so much time if i could just have done what i wanted to. alas, i did not do the things i really wanted to. i started to become angry with the signs, which made me angry with the government for putting these seemingly ridiculous rules on my driving. it seems stupid to me that i can't turn left at some lights just because of the trax. aren't i capable of making my very own decision to go when no other cars nor trax is coming? i like to think so. but, maybe i'm wrong. it just seems like an infringement on my freedoms to restrict these things, like my own free will is being compromised by some stupid sign.

so then i thought what makes me so special to be able to turn when i'm not supposed to. some people are not capable of making good and rational decisions so why should i be able to? i'm sure they feel like they are making the right choices, just like i do. and i think that is what laws like this do, they make you doubt your ability to choose the right. i think i might have just lost confidence in myself to make good and rational decisions. i hope the government can figure out how i should live the rest of my life...hmmm, seems like they are striving to do just that anyways. but, that's another blog altogether.

i'm a sickie today

as you all can tell, i have not been in the blogging mood lately. but i thought i'd bust one out tonight and let you all know how miserable i am. somehow i caught a viral cold thingy and all i can do is wait until my body fixes itself naturally. i hate it. my nose won't quit leaking (which doesn't help when you are trying to sleep). i have to turn over every 30 minutes or so, so i can relieve the pressure on the one side of my nose. i have had a perma-headache since yesterday morning. and my throat hurts. it's been a sad, sad day:( apparently, this viral cold thingy has been going around lately. thanks for the warning! what a great way to spend the last week of my last summer vacation! hope it's almost over...blah!!!

long time, no see

well, i'm back...finally. brandon and i have been sooooo busy working on the house, our computer crashed (obviously, it's back now:), and some of my family from ND came for a 5 day stint (including my birthday!). now that things are settling down some i thought i'd blog a bit. truthfully, i'm not really in the mood so i'm just going to do a little update:

• i was working...reception work and then sales type stuff. not my thing, but it was nice having the extra money around. it was a good feeling to know that after this summer i will (hopefully?!) never have to work a job like that again. from now on i will be therapist extraordinaire, starting with my 1000 hour internship working with perpetrators, victims and witnesses of domestic violence. i start in exactly 2 weeks (when the school year officially begins...my LAST school year!!-can't believe it, never thought i would be so close...still so much to do!:).
• our home is much closer to being finished. don't get me wrong there is still A LOT to do but it feels good to have some major projects finished. we even christened the backyard saturday night when we hosted our first backyard bbq (in our new home-we've been here for almost 2 years:) for my 25th birthday.
• one of my grandmas and two of my aunts came for a visit. i showed them around salt lake and had a great time taking pictures of crazy things. since there are so many pictures, i'll do another blog about what we did and all that jazz.

anyways, i've got 2 weeks to get things around the house where i'd like them since i never have time to do much around here after school starts AND i absolutely have to make a lot of progress on my thesis. but, i will be making a trip to st. george this week for some R & R.

so, now that you've all been updated i'm done for now. ttfn!