Fun Activities!

Thursday, June 18th

Kory and Stephen took their last finals for Spring term, yay! By this point Kelli had been in town for a couple of days and we hadn't seen her yet. So in the evening we dropped by to say hello. She had to run some errands so Kory and I went with her. It doesn't really matter what we are doing, I love seeing family. After we ran to the grocery store we had to show Kelli our new favorite Provo treat, Yozone! Yozone is the yogurt place in the retail space at the bottom of Alpine Village. It took me by surprise, I wasn't expecting it to be as great as it is. They have 8 flavors of low-fat frozen yorgurt goodness, plus lots of yummy toppings. My favorite is original and mango flavors with strawberries on top. I went and got Stephen while we were there and he got to meet Kelli. After enjoying our treat, we dropped Kelli off back at home. Kory, Stephen and I went back to our apartment and played our new favorite "group" Wii game, Wario Ware. It's a silly game that makes us laugh a lot so we love it. It was such a good night hanging out with our siblings.

Friday, June 19th

We worked a shorter shift so that I could hang out with Stephen and help him move out. He is really easy to move out compared to either Kory or me, haha. Mom was also able to come for a quick trip to help Stephen and go see my cousin's play. We went and saw Singing in the Rain at the Hale Theater in Orem. My cousin Bre played Lina, and she was hilarious. We really enjoyed watching her. She is a really good singer but for the part she plays she has to pretend she has a really annoying voice and can't sing. Since we know her, it made us laugh harder. It was so fun to have Mom here, I love it when she comes! (even if it is a short stay).

Saturday, June 20th

Kneaders breakfast, yum! It is always a treat to enjoy unlimited, delicious french toast for breakfast. Mom and Stephen left for Boise after breakfast, I was sad to say goodbye! It made me a little homesick.
We had to head to work (because we had to make up the hours that we missed on Friday). After being there just 2 hours I decided to head home because I wasn't feeling very well. Lucky for me, the intranet server wasn't working in the whole office so everyone got sent home and I didn't have to feel guilty. After work we went to Bed Bath and Beyond to get a wedding gift for my cousin Lindsay. I was sick with a cold the rest of the day. It got me on a cleaning kick and I completely cleaned and dusted our apartment like crazy instead of taking a nap like Kory suggested. It felt really good to get things really fresh and clean, our apartment gets dusty so easily. Kory got home from running errands, and while he admired the clean apartment he was disappointed to learn I didn't take a nap haha.
We were able to go to my Aunt Laura's home for my cousin's wedding reception. It had been raining all day so they didn't get to take advantage of all of the beautiful work they had put into their yard for the occasion, so sad! It turned out great though.
By the time we left the reception the weather had cleared up. Kory and I decided we would go see Beauty and the Beast at the outdoor Scera Shell. It was a lot of fun to cuddle up in blankets and enjoy the show. We really enjoyed it.

Sunday, June 21st

Church was wonderful as always. I love our ward, and our callings. Every week just gets better and better :) I was able to go visiting teaching after church. Then Kory and I got our Sunday naps in. After our nap we woke up just in time to make it to Sunday dinner at my Aunt Laura's home. Not only was dinner delicious, we got to enjoy the outside decorations that couldn't be enjoyed the day before. It was beautiful outside.

Monday, June 22nd

We went to work, as usual. But Kory adjusted his schedule so that he could come home early enough to go to Hayden and Roman's birthday party! They are my adorable nephews (Kelli's boys), who turned 5 and 3 this month. It was fun to go to the Scera Park in Orem and visit with family and friends while enjoying a yummy picnic. The boys got some great gifts! We were happy to learn that they have already been enjoying our T-ball set. I hope it is a lot of fun for them over the warm months.
We had to leave a little bit early because Kory and I were one of the couples who organized our very first Ward FHE (Family Home Evening)! Family Home Evening is something that Latter Day Saint Families try to once a week, typically Mondays. It is a time when families and talk about the gospel together, feel the spirit, and bond through a fun family activity. I had been telling people that I thought we should have one in our married couples' ward once a month so we could create more ward unity. Finally last month the Bishop gave us the go-ahead to start implementing it as a month ward activity. Needless to say the Ward FHE event was a total hit! Lots of couples came. We split into two groups so people could get to know each other better. Each group had a lesson prepared for them, and then a game to follow the lesson. Our group played a game where we had to act out adverbs for a person who didn't know the word to guess. It was hilarious, and very funny. Wish you could have been there to witness it!

The Rest of the Week

I don't really remember what has been going on the rest of this week. Just working and getting ready for an exciting weekend! Tonight (Friday) Kory and I are going to go see the Manti Pageant! We are going with another couple in our ward, plus my friends Emily and Debra! I am so excited because Debra is leaving to serve a mission for the LDS church in Kentucky (the same mission Kory served) on July 1st. Emily graduated with me then moved to DC and I haven't seen her since! She came to town to say goodbye to Debra and hear her speak in church on Sunday. I am thrilled to be able to spend time with them tonight. More people were going to go with us but slowly more and more people dropped of the list. Oh well, next time we plan something fun hopefully more people can come.

Tomorrow Kory and I are heading home to Boise to attend my bridemaid Kylee's wedding! I am so excited for her to be getting married. Her fiance helped out at my reception so much, I was really impressed with him. I am happy for them, and cannot wait to attend the reception. We will be in Idaho the rest of the week for the Van Vleet (Mom's side) family reunion! I am SOOOO excited for that! I LOVE my family, and our reunions. It will be fun to camp out in cabins and play lots of games until really late in the night.

I'll update you when we get back!

Last Weekend With My Prince Charming

After the surprise party during the week, last weekend Kory and I had the opportunity to be in a parade! One of our neighbors, Rebecca, was doing an internship for a new spa/oxygen bar that is opening in Orem. They were in the parade to help promote and advertise their opening. She needed volunteers to help her. The theme of the parade was "Tell Your Story," or something like that. The theme of the oxygen bar that we were representing was, "Turn Your Story Into a Fairytale." So Rebecca rented
beautiful costumes from the Hale Center Theater and had 3 princesses and 2 princes. My handsome, charming husband Kory was one of them!




It was crazy because earlier that day we were at work and saw the most insane rain storm. There were DARK clouds, with rain POUNDING from the clouds to the ground. The wind was also BLOWING like crazy! It was an intense rain storm. I was concerned that we might get caught in a storm for the parade just a few hours later.

But when we lined up to get ready for the parade, it was sunny! We had bags full of candy, flyers, and crowns to hand out to children and parents lined up to watch the parade. In front of us in the parade were these cute little karate kids, so I took a picture of them too :) haha. It was fun to do the parade and watch little kids get excited about seeing a prince or princess. At the very end of the parade it started to storm again, but luckily we made it to nearly the end first!

My Unique Name

I have always loved my first name, Ana Lee. I know there are others out there, but I don't meet them very often. When I do, it's usually spelled differently. Now that I have a new even more unique last name (compared to my maiden name) I was not surprised to discover that I am truly ONE of a kind. Celeste did this and I thought it was fun, so I decided to share :)

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1 or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

A Venting Post, You Probably Shouldn't Read It

When someone is rude to me on the phone it totally frustrates me and sometimes it completely throws me off for the next hour or so. It just drives me crazy when people do not LISTEN to the WORDS that I am saying to them!

Me: This is Ana Lee calling from Comcast to inform you of some benefits that we have recently updated and added to your service for free. This is a courtesy call to inform you of them because we have found our customers do not know about these things.

Customer (bad response 1): Are you selling me something?
Customer (bad response 2): I know about everything.

What part of, "I'm telling you about FREE things that YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT" do you NOT understand!?! A.D.D. Americans.

It also drives me nuts when my co-workers are so bad on the phone that by the time I call someone, I have to overcome so many objections just for them to take a couple of minutes to tell them about things they later thank me for.

How are people so awkward on the phone?
How are people socially awkward, period?

I guess because I have been trained in low/no-pressure sales and business communication I know tricks and techniques that other people have not had the privilege of learning. I should not complain about others, but rather be grateful that I have been able to acquire the communication skills that I have through my experiences. haha I probably shouldn't have written this post. It wasn't very nice... hmmmm

Congratulatory Surprise Party

Earlier this week my neighbor, Lauren, sent me a message on gtalk while I was at work asking if Kory and I were doing anything that night. I said no and asked why. Then she told me she wanted to plan a little get-together for her husband, Zach, to celebrate that we was accepted into the Accounting program. Over the next few minutes I helped her plot what was turning in to a surprise party with Zach's friends from the ward. We planned that she would leave the key behind for me while she took him to dinner. I helped her contact people to invite while she got things ready. When I got to their apartment Lauren had decorated everything so cute! She also had yummy brownies and ice cream ready for everyone.

Needless to say, it was so fun to surprise him and then have a little get-together with some friends from the ward. Zach was absolutely startled! Here are pictures for you to enjoy :)

Everyone waiting for the "surprise moment."

Scared for his life.

Close up.

Lauren and Zach, so cute.

L ro R: Aubree (from Double Date post below), Me, Lauren, Rebecca.

Friday Night Double

I ended up working the evening shift with Kory last night. I forgot how much I dislike working until 8 PM. We had plans to go out to dinner with some friends afterward. So the last two hours of our shift we kept talking about how hungry we were, haha.

We got off work and hurried home to change clothes and take off for dinner. I still had my birthday meal to redeem, so we went to Tucanos with our neighbors Aubree and Blake. They are so fun! It was nice to change things up and go out with friends rather than have people over. Kory and Blake are such men, and were loving the variety of meats available. They were so entertaining, joking around and feeding off of each others' comments. Aubree had a camera but we totally forgot to take a picture, oh well. Needless to say, it was great going out to dinner to get to know Aubree and Blake a little better.

Now that it is summer we hope to spend a lot more time doing things with other couples. Going out to dinner, plays at the Scera park, Manti pageant, camping trips, and anything else entertaining we can think of. Every time we get together with other couples we have a blast. We have so many fun neighbors. We lucked out!

Schedule Change and Church Activities

I changed my work schedule for the summer so that I am working the morning shift. However, Kory is still working the evening shift. That means I get home from work at 4 and have to wait for him to get home at 8. I'm only kind of complaining because I'm glad I don't have to be at work until 8 anymore. However, for some reason yesterday I was feeling so bored and lonely after work. Of course there were plenty of things for me to do around the house, but honestly, housework just gets old sometimes even though it needs to be done. I listened to Pandora Radio which entertained me for a while. I talked with mom on the phone for a while and I told her now that I have a sewing machine I want to start using it. Maybe that would give me something fun to do?

Needless to say, I was actually glad that we had enrichment last night. I rode over with my neighbor Lauren, whom I love. Our church has this great pavilion with picnic tables where we met the other fun girls in our ward. It was recipe night so we shared recipes with each other and some girls brought samples for us to try, yum! But mostly it was just fun to sit around and talk in a smaller group, and actually get to know the girl whose face you see every Sunday but never really get to chat with. Plus, it doesn't get dark until way late here now (like 8:30 or 9:00) which I love. It is so nice to be outside in the evenings.

After the activity my visiting teachers came over. They are so sweet, and I actually loved having them over and getting to know each of them a little bit better too. We talked, they gave a lesson, then we talked for another 30 minutes haha.

It was fun having something to do last night. Now that I get off at 4 I need to start planning fun things with friends to fill my early evenings. It's been so long since I have had time for friends because of work and school. I'm excited for the schedule change.