Royal Gladiator Rumble

It's official.
You can never be too old for blow-up gladiator fighting..
For the young marrieds' social there was food galore, fun house bouncers, and a gladiator ring. It was awesome.

Alliances were made, lines were drawn and the male Team Bevans wer the first to fall. Cathy and I were shocked and dismayed; there was really nothing else to do but for Cathy and I to take up the reigns and redeem our good (and new) name.... We lost the first bout but in the end we were the best-of-three victors (it is surprisingly hard to stay on those things when someone is trying to take out your knees)....
It felt great, being the last one standing on the air-filled gladiator stump holding the foam gladiator battering ram but we all knew it was basically a fluke..

Temple Trip

Growing up in Magrath, we heard over and over how LUCKY we were to be so close to a temple. We were told stories of people traveling for days and days to visit a temple and that we shouldn't take it for granted having a temple only minutes away.

Now, we are in Saskatoon, the closest temple two hours away, and I thought we were pretty lucky... This weekend, we made our first temple trip down to the Regina temple with Trent and Cathy Bevans. This temple trip made me realize that nobody told me to appreciate the fact that we not only had a temple nearby, but we had a full-size temple nearby. 

What a surprise it was finding out that we not only had to call and make our own appointment for endowments, they don't rent any temple clothes, and they don't have a distribution center to buy any garments or temple clothes... We were shocked. Once I got over the initial disappoint that I would have to make a road trip to Cardston to get temple clothes, I was able to focus on the fact that we were still lucky enough to have a temple within a day trip's drive. We were put on the wait list for the 10 am session and never quite made the cut which was a blessing in disguise because we were able to do other temple work that is not as commonly done.

At the end of the day, we had a fantastic time; spending the day with our friends making our first road-trip to the Regina temple, marking only the third temple I have been too and the first mini-temple... Guess what? Big or small... The experience is wonderful.

Today My Manager Tried to Set Me Up....

Yes, I was talking with my manager of nursing today about my shifts in the summer when she burst out:


Ooooh I have just the person that I have been dying for you to meet! 


I followed her as she whisked me away to meet this person, just praying that she clued in from my previous sentence containing the following combination of words, "My husband and I..." that I was, indeed, married.


Soon, I found myself face-to-face with a nurse, about my age, from Day Surgery. Relieved to be meeting a female, I listened to my manager run off about 


how similar you two are! I know how hard it is to meet new people and make new friends I really think you would hit it off!


My boss was grinning from ear to ear as she relayed all the similarities; both new from out-of-province, newly-weds, husbands with hopes to be dentists/doctors, both new to the floor, similar ages. The other girl giggled nervously saying:


I have heard so much about you, I feel like this is a blind date


Finally, after a couple minutes of introducing us and pointing out the similarities between the two of us, my manager gave one last plug:


  I'll give you two a couple more minutes to chat and I will leave it up to you two if you wanna switch numbers to meet up later on and left us with a satisfied momma-hen air...




The whole set-up situation made me sit back and realize how lucky Shawn and I have been to have built-in opportunity to meet fellow young marrieds through our ward. Even if we didn't have two of Shawn's cousins and their significant other out here, we would still have two opportunities to mingle and meet new people each week, something that I had taken for granted until I was talking to the "set-up" nurse and she explained how hard it has been for her and her husband to meet/make new friends. 


Although I might gripe and groan occasionally about having to go visiting teaching or going to another ward activity when all I wanna do is cuddle up on the couch with Shawn, how amazing is it that there are so many opportunities in our church to meet like-minded people... No matter where you go in the world, all you have to do is look online, find the nearest ward and you instantly feel have a shared connection with the people you meet. 

Night and Day

Some people are morning people, some are night hawks. Shawn is a rare breed that is not only both but his peek time of the day always seems to be right when I am laying down to sleep. It never ceases to amuse me that every night that I am tired, ready for bed and laying my head down on my pillow, this is when Shawn gets his second wind and just rambles on till either:
a) I beg him to let me go to sleep, or
b) I finally halfway nod off and answer one of his questions in a mumbling, unintelligible response and he finally concedes to go to sleep


He has his own complaints about me tho, saying that on the mornings that I am the first to arise for work, I am as quiet as an elephant walking on glass. I object to his accusation due to the fact that the man is the lightest sleeper! Okay, maybe it does take me 15 minutes to wake up after getting out of bed and I may be slightly louder than I should be but it is unfair, really. He could ring bells in my ear and I would remain sleeping soundly while I could breathe extra heavy and he would rouse.


Neither of these can be resolved any time soon, and until I become quieter or Shawn all of a sudden sleeps in a deeper sleep I think that we will continue to be amused by our own versions of why I wake him up each morning and why he feels the need to open up each night as my eyelids are dying to close.

Messing Up Frozen Pizza Takes Talent

When Shawn and I decided to have a frozen pizza for dinner, we understandably assumed it would go off without a hitch. But we underestimated the power of my ridiculousness. Onto our pizza stone and in the oven went the pizza, and out it came 30 minutes later. It looked delicious. We were excited to dig in so after Shawn seemed to be having a hard time cutting the pizza, I gave him a lil bit of a hard time


Me: "Come on, can't handle a lil pizza?"
Him: "I can't understand it... Why is this so.... Wait...... is this cardboard?"
Me: "No way! I threw out the cardboard! I swear!" opens the cupboard to reveal the garbage and reveals no cardboard. "Oh"


The pizza wasn't completely ruined, rather it was just very, very, very soft on the bottom. Not quite the texture one usually aims for when picking out pizza. It was somewhat rectified by throwing it back in the oven for an extra 5 minutes or so.


To be fair, nowhere on the package's cooking directions does it mention cardboard but, on the other hand cooking pizza is pretty idiot proof and I just figured out a way to mess it up. It was an honest mistake, and I brushed it off. Until it happened again.


On Wednesdays Shawn has a night class, and sometimes he decides to stay in between classes to study so I bring him supper to make sure he doesn't go hungry, and so I can sneak a kiss in. Today, I decided that I would bring him some pizza. Easy, yummy, and perfect. So I popped in the pizza, set the timer and sat down to read. It hit me just as I heard the buzz; I couldn't recall removing cardboard from under the pizza. I did it again. I ran to the oven to pull it out before it could cook on the cupboard one second longer. In my rush, I outdid my first mistake by dropping the pizza. Just like that, my hawaiian pizza became a ham pizza as all the pineapple jumped off into the oven's grill. Thankfully, I was able to half catch it and salvage the pizza and Shawn still received dinner tonight. 


Only a special, special person can mess up cooking a pizza, not once, but twice, and then drop it. Sometimes I wonder how I ever graduated university. 

The Anorexic Count

The Count of Monte Cristo is a FANTASTIC movie! Love it. Love the actors, love the setting, love the movie. I just so happen to love books too so, I went out and found me a copy of  "The Count Of Monte Cristo" and delved right into it. 

It was good, but I wasn't blown off my feet by it. Unlike the typical book-movie comparison, it didn't set up the scene much better and it felt like the same tempo as the movie. It was one of the rare times I was in favor of the movie over the book (unlike the horrendous Harry Potter films fiasco) but I wasn't quite ready to give up on the book completely so I did  my usual wikipedia search, to find more info to get myself re-excited. Then I found the shocking truth.

I was not reading the TRUE version of The Count of Monte Cristo. And I am not referring to the fact that the original version is in french. No, I am talking about the fact that the true version is over 1000 pages long and the book I was holding in my hands was a mere 300 pages. WTF? 

Turns out that the answer was sneakily hidden on the front cover.

I saw the translated but the whole 'abridged' missed my eagle eye. Maybe it's because I wasn't 100% clear on what abridged meant, really. The only book I have read, to the best of my knowledge, that had been abridged was "The Book of Mormon" and that's not a book that you usually associate with your beach reads or page turners or great literary works of fiction. Turns out that Mr. L. Bair 'lightened' the load of the book while he translated TCofMC... 

 All of a sudden  it made sense why the book's pace felt a little rushed, and fast. It was missing 700 pages!! I felt a lil outraged, ripped-off, and slightly foolish for not catching on earlier. So, perhaps I should go and try to find the legit book in all its 1000-p.g. glory. But first I am gonna read  "I am Number Four" so I can go watch the movie after. This book may not be a literary masterpiece but I know for sure that I am not missing 700 pages. 

Life's Choices

In life, one makes so many choices, and with each choice comes the consequences. And with time and experience I can vouch for the old adage, hindsight is 20/20. How could I have ever thought that high school would last forever? or that moving to utah was out of my reach at 18? or that I should keep dating THAT guy? or that baggy cargo pants and tiny tight t-shirts was super cool? or that I would never make it as a nurse, or that I ever wanted to be a public health nurse? or that I was ready to get married at 19? or that ironing my hair was a fantastic idea? What was I thinking? 


But luckily, for every one thing that I look back and laugh at, there are so many more that I am so grateful that I did, at the time, get it right. Enrolling in the nursing program at 18 yrs, moving in my girls, taking the job on 3C, finally realizing that that guy or that guy or that guy was not for me and to not settle for anything less than 'amazing', taking 4 months off and going to work with orphans, than only 5 months later taking more time off and traveling the world with my girls, and lastly realizing that Shawn was the one to finally convince me to settle down. The last one scared the bejeebers out of me. I was coming down from a fantastic trip, a massive accident and was just trying to get my life back in order when this man came into my life and swept me off my feet. He was so sure of what we had, so fast that it made me question it almost more; then when he asked me to marry him, in a month, I thought he was crazy. But I will be forever grateful that I was able to decide that getting married to him just might be the best idea yet. 


In the past 2 months of being married, the biggest decision we have made was the one to move to Saskabush. It was a big shock to the system, leaving my job behind and sitting around a tiny basement suite in the middle of a wintery wastleland (it's actually quite a beautiful city, but it's just too dang cold for me to venture out most days) but it was worth it because it was the best decision for our future. 


But last week, Shawn came home with the news that the University will not accept all his credits for last semester, which means that this year won't count as one of the two full academic years needed to apply for dental school. I will admit, it got me down at first. "This is because he moved home to Lethbridge last semester for me" "We didn't have to move out here" "We could have been in Lethbridge, and I could have been working this whole time and we would be in such a better financial situation" "That means we are another year away from being done". That sucked. I am a girl that loves to work and see the bank account rise. I love knowing that we have that financial stability and potential. But then I caught myself and started thinking of the good things that will come from this set-back. He can spread the remainder of his classes over the next two years so he can take more filler classes to up his GPA. And perhaps if I came in September, I wouldn't have gotten the job I got. And being here, Shawn can find out all the tips from all the guys who have learnt, and he can learn from their mistakes. 


I won't lie, I was quite disappointed at this speed bump, I have always been one to want to speed through and get to the desired end result but this is one time that a choice we made didn't quite turn out how we planned, right away, and I have to accept it and see how it is a blessing in disguise. 

Dopplegangers

Everyone has probably heard of dopplegangers, whether in fairy-tales such as "The Prince and the Pauper" or t.v. shows such as "How I Met Your Mother". Well, unbeknownst to us, we had a family member's doppleganger with us in Saskatoon. This man is actually, already quite well-known amidst the Bevans, because he is a cousin.

Jon Bevans, meet your unsuspecting twin

The True Jon Bevans

If a Jon appearance is required/desired and cannot
be acquired, apparently Chance will do just fine
as many Arizonians cannot tell the difference.

Shawn and I were flying down to Gilbert, AZ for a visit to the 'rents and Chance was coming along to visit Shawn's sister and bro-in-law, Shad and Kyle. I am so glad he did come, because watching him get mistaken for Jon, over and over, was one of the two humorous highlights of the trip.

The first time Chance was mistaken for Jon, we chalked it up to a fluke mistake, even if it was by Grandmpa Thuan. The second time was worth a chuckle or two. By the night of our open house Chance had just accepted his alter-ego, as it happened so much. Chance and Jon are both lanky, dark hair, dark eyes, with similar builds; perhaps people were used to seeing a tall lanky guy come to visit every now and then and just assumed this tall, lanky guy was the same one. But the night before we were about to leave, we were at Shad and Kyle's when our sister-in-law's parents stopped by. They, like Chance, were from Cardston and were here on vacation to go to some NASCAR races. Stopping by to pick up some tickets, they talked for a bit and then started asking Chance if he had met any cute girls down in AZ, he joked about meeting girls and then the wife said, "well if you meet a cute girl, just tell them to look you up on facebook. How many Jon's can there be?" We were all stunned and disolved into giggles when they left. It was one thing for Arizonians to not tell the difference, but these people were from Cardston, they KNOW Chance. It was just the icing on the cake.

Our second amusing moment involved this lovely man

This man is the father of Shawn's uncle's wife Michelle. He was along for the ride, from California, and was in Arizona for our open house. He was so sweet, but for the past five years he has been suffering from Alzheimer's. As such, he would speak random bouts of German, despite him not being German.

Michelle's father: 'Danke'

Michelle: 'Dad, you're Italian!'

hahahaha, he was so cute