Close Friends and Getting Closer

Yes it is true. It's March which means we are just 38 days away! That is so close! I can't believe it! Things are going well around here in Rexburg.  Mike is still working, we are still studying, and I am still blogging.  
GREAT news! The apartment that we have been wanting is officially ours :) And we are going to pay less than what we were told! Mike got a new basketball for free, and we got a new coffee table for free yesterday. So what free things are we going to get tomorrow? :) On a sour note, Palagi died this afternoon, ok so like 5 minutes ago.  Mike isn't very happy about that. Ending on another good note, we are headed to Utah this weekend!


One of our very close friends, Sister Kodie Staub left for the MTC this morning.  She will be serving the Lord in the Philippines, Angels Mission.  We are so proud of her and will miss her dearly.  Her farewell was this past Sunday,  she did an amazing job! We love her so much!

Two New Additions

We have two new additions to our little family, Wilbur and Palagi (it means white thing in Samoan).  We call him Pali for short.  They are two large goldfish. Pali is white with a gold stripe on his back and Wilbur is the gold one.  I had a goldfish when I was in middle school, well t was really my dad's because he's the one who took care of him so he named the fish Wilbur.  So that is where that's name comes from. Mike had the fish tank and food already we just needed things to put in it :) So we are the proud parents of two new little additions and hopefully they will stick around for the big move in 46 days.

Fast forwarding to the 40's

I walked in the door two minutes ago only to be greeted with a computer in my lap and an invitation to write the newest McEwen Matters blogpost.  As flattered as I am to have this opportunity, I would like to briefly mention that Caitlin and I have broken the unforgiving fifties and are currently at 48 days till we tie the knot.  The days go by slow but the weeks fly by like hours... I could not emphasize enough how excited we are.  Let me recap the weekend thus far (the weekdays are relatively boring consisting of homework, cleaning toilets (for me), and a little bit of sleep):


Friday we hurried to get our homework knocked out of the way so that we could relax a little.  I made grilled cheese sandwiches at Caitlin's apartment and then we drove to Porter Park to eat them(Caitlin couldn't have been happier to have her favorite grilled cheese with ketchup... mmmmm!)  After the park we headed over to the racquetball courts.  I took a racquetball class at BYU this past summer and thoroughly enjoyed it.  We had fun whacking the ball around like three year olds on a sugar high.  Unfortunately Caitlin walked away with a swollen ankle.  We rested the rest of the afternoon we spent watching Harry Potters 1-3, and drinking hot chocolate (thank you Chantalle for the hot chocolate maker!).  Saturday I spent from 10 am- 5:30 pm doing homework while Caitlin went to DI with her roommates, cleaned, and took a test.  Later we drove to Idaho Falls with Hannah, Hayley, and Natalie.  We dropped Natalie off at a wedding reception and took the other two with us to the mall and to a mongolian buffet... by far the best decision I have made in a long time!  With baby bellies all around we picked up Natalie and headed home through a storm of massive snowflakes.  We ended the night with a traditional game of Rummikub... Caitlin beat me again (I always let her win ;).  We just got home from church and it smells like we're having cutlets, pasta salad, and french fries with some friends.   


That's a wrap for now, stay tuned until next time after we recap our dear friend Kodie's mission farewell and introduce the 30's!            

55 Days!

Well a big 55 days to go! I haven't been great about telling everyone what's been going on here at BYU Siberia.  Well on Sunday we went with my ward to an elderly assisted living center and Mike got to sit next to a lady and help her figure out whose brush she was holding.  He got the easy job! I had to give a talk, but it really wasn't too bad.  Then we went to his ward then my ward then we went to my lounge for naps and I made stuffed peppers for him or our Valentine's Dinner.  It was really nice to have the whole lunge to ourselves, it was nice and quiet and the lounge has a full kitchen so we made dinner there.  

Today being valentine's day Mike was so sweet to wake me up two hours early to bring me a full bouquet of flowers complete with card, vase, and necklace :)  he's so sweet.  My parents gave us two free meals at cafe rio, so we got to enjoy those tonight.  After which we came home and played games and enjoyed dessert.  Vanilla frosting on gram crackers, a childhood favorite of mine.  All in all it was a great weekend and only more to follow :)

57 Days!

So this was really for yesterday, but yesterday was so great I totally forgot to tell everyone about it!  A guy is selling his Adobe CS3 Design package complete with photoshop, illustrator, indesign, and many more programs, all for $150. I'm sure you can imagine how excited I was!  I'm doing a trade with a lady selling this AMAZING dress! And my roommate from Ukraine told me that if I taught her how to knit then she would teach me how to crochet.  She's amazing at it, she started late Thursday night and has already made a new camera bag, a hot pad, a scarf, and like 5 flower clips.  Plus still keeping up with her classes.  I don't know how she does it! 
Awkward couple strikes again! Times ten! This time I retaliated, I turned the volume way down on my computer so really only Mike could hear and I started playing the song "Afternoon Delight" probably not the most mature or appropriate thing I've ever done, but it suited the moment for them.  And Mike seemed to get a kick out of it.  As long as he thinks I'm funny right?
Once Mike and I got our homework done we had lunch and took a much needed nap.  We went out to dinner at Wingers, one of my favorites.  And we even splurged for the best dessert! PIE! It was so nice to sit in a restaurant away from both of our apartments and just talk.  I personally think the best part was having someone wait on us and not having to do the dishes :)  We have deemed Friday night as our date night, and that got me thinking at dinner about the Friday nights I used to spend with my parents.  In middle school I never had any real close friends to hang out with on weekends so I hung out with my parents a lot.  Every Friday once Chantalle and Jennifer were out with their friends we would go to Hollywood Video and get a movie or two with a candy and then walk next door to Safeway (a grocery store for all you east coasters) and we would get sushi and buffalo wings.  The most random combination, but we got it almost every Friday.  Well that got Mike and I talking about fun traditions like that, that we would do with our family.  After dinner we went to Mike's lounge, which he reserved, best idea ever, and we watched a few movies.  All in all it was a much needed break away from people here in freezing Rexburg.

58 Days!

Today being Thursday we had our weekly, "watch Bones night." after which we went and played basketball with some friends which was...............interesting.  And we'll just leave it at that.  58 days to go.....is it really that long? 

59 Days!! 2 Months!

It's true, we're officially in the 50's!! And there are only two months left till the big day! Well I'm sad to say that nothing too big or exciting happened yesterday.  For Mike the best part of the day was most likely the Duke v. UNC basketball game.  To his delight, Duke won in a close game.  I did figure out that the Apple desktops on campus have photoshop, so naturally I had to go and try it out! I got to play for a good hour or so, I was so excited! Here are some of the things I did: