Valentines

In prep for V-day, my lil' sis and I painted our nails red and pink. We made a big mess... but also had a lot of fun!

If it was up to me, Valentines Day would be a national holiday. Unfortunately, it's not, and Michael still had school and work. I was luckier, and had Rebekah cover my shift so I could prepare for later that evening when we finally would get to be together. 

My sister-in-law, Kimberly wrote this in regard to the holiday. I thought it was cute and wanted to share it.

Valentines Day Shout Out.

Cute! right? Anyway, back to my Valentines day. I spent a good portion of the day with my mom, but when I went back to our apartment, I found these waiting for me on the table.

My husband is such a sweetie!

I told him the pink bear was very cute, which she is, but would eventually end up in my parents basement, because she didn't match our bedroom. He was insulted and argued that Michael Bear, the stuffed bear he got me for my birthday a year ago needed a companion; he needed a Haley Bear. Ha ha. I loved his sweet logic behind the idea. 

I asked Michael if he really thought the pink bear represented me. He agreed that the pink bear looked like she was high maintenance. He said he'll take me to find a new bear that matches our room and my personality a little better. Ha ha. 

After Michael was done at karate, I picked him up and we went to eat at Sizzler. We arrived right when they were about to close. The staff probably hated us that night... We both ordered steak with sweet potato fries on the side. The manager came out and informed us they were all out of sweet potato fries but would give us $20 in gift certificates to make up for it. We definitely weren't complaining. 

I did something for Valentines day for the hubby as well. I debated about sharing this, but I put so much effort into it, plus someone reading this somewhere might think it's a good idea and try it out. If you are not married, or if the idea of what goes on between couples behind closed bedroom doors makes you blush, by all means, stop reading now. 

If you are still reading this, don't tell my husband, because he doesn't know I'm posting this. 

For Michael for Valentines day, I created my own version of the The Game of Love. Click on the link to see where the original Idea came from. Don't worry, this site is clean. The dating divas are all about strengthening marriages. 

Because I gave you the link, I guess I'm not going to go on about the details or rules of the game, but I did work hard on it and would like to post some pictures. I made the game board on a white sheet.

The Little Monkey was his Playing Piece. 

During the game, Michael landed on different spaces where he earned shrimp, chocolate covered strawberries, homemade Oreo cookies, sparkling juice, massages, the video game he's been wanting (Star Craft, Heart of the Swarm) and some other fun things. At the end of the game he scored... if you know what I mean. ;)

My advice for anyone who wants to give this game a try: play it earlier in the evening. We got started late, and we were both extremely tired. We decided to give it another go the following morning, and it was a lot more fun. Michael enjoyed the game so much, he said we should play it every Valentines Day. I'm really glad he liked it. 

For anyone who's interested, this doesn't just have to be a valentines game. You could create it for you anniversary or for your spouses birthday. It's a fun way to celebrate and strengthen your marriage.

Quick Review, Because I've Been Slackin...

Well with all the celebration and festivities that come around this time each year, I've gotten a little behind on keeping our blog updated. Here are some of the highlights from the past couple months.

• Craig left on his mission. He gave a good farewell talk. I'm so proud of him.

We're so cool. 

• Thanksgiving was at Grandma and Grandpa Decker's new house this year. We ate a lot, went on a walk and played Thanksgiving bingo. Jennie announced she's pregnant. Another cousin! :) 

Look how big the Decker side is getting!

• I applied for BYU... Again... We'll see what happens. Maybe with all the freshman deciding to serve missions, I'll get in. *fingers crossed*
• Our house got egged... Yeah... I was ready to shoot someone; especially after it rained the next day and left the foulest odor.
• We made our own J-Dawgs and went bowling with the Brooks

Look at that intensity. Blue Steel. 

• Michael's Christmas countdown was a success! Thank you everyone who participated. It made him feel really special.

• December 11th, my mom turned 45. (I think). We went to Pizza Pie Cafe to celebrate.
• I made a gingerbread house with my sister.

Yep. We're Pros.

• One of our neighbors did the 12 days of Christmas for us. We got things like: jello, toilet paper, candy and doughnuts. YES!
• Michael did the 12 days of Christmas for me. I got things like: a free back scratch, a free chick-flick movie night (popcorn included), and Recess candy bars. My husband's a sweetheart.
• We attended the Nelson Christmas Party.
• We had a karate Christmas Party. Where one of our students, Andrew Heap won the new Kindle Fire in a drawing. Guess who else came to our party. SANTA! I was sad, because Michael left before we could get a picture with him.

Santa and Andrew. 

Also, while we were cleaning up after the party, Mr. Scott performed this awesome form with pom poms. This may or may not be the result from eating too many Christmas treats. 

• Michael finished another semester at BYU. That boy is amazing!
• We survived December 21st, 2012!

• For my birthday, I got the stomach flu... and new boots. :)
• While I was sick, Michael got me Gatorade and I watched the 2nd season of Glee. (Glee's my guilty pleasure)
• Christmas eve, Michael took me to celebrated my birthday since I was sick on the actual day. We went to see Breaking Dawn pt. 2 and ate at Red Robin for lunch. That evening, we made a fancy dinner together. 

• We woke up the next day, and it was Christmas! It was our first Christmas together as a married couple. We opened stockings from each other. Michael got me the new Taylor Swift album I've been wanting. Thanks babe!  After that, we went to my parents house where we spent the rest of the day playing our new Wii games we got for Christmas. Michael and I got Mario Party 9 and Donkey Kong, and my sister got Just Dance 4. 

Aww.. look at us in our Santa hats. :) Kitty got a chocolate kiss for Christmas. 

• The two nights before Christmas, and the night after, Michael and I slept at his parents house. We were house sitting in addition to watching these two rascals, while they traveled to Idaho to spend time with the Cochrans. 

Koda and I are actually becoming buds. Michael and I watched a movie, and he came and plopped himself on my lap.

At first I was dissapointed we wouldn't wake up in our own appartment Christmas morning, but it was actually really nice. It was like staying in a hotel. And I got to take a bath in their jetted tub. That made it all worth it! 

• Michael and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. I came home from work expecting Michael to be at karate, but he surprised me by taking the day off. This next sentence is a little graphic, so feel free to skip it. I walked in our appartment to find him lying on the living room floor with nothing but some batman underwear on. Ha ha. Yep, he surprised me alright. He got me roses and took me to see Les Miserables. It was the most amazing movie! I sat there mouthing the words to all the songs. If you have not seen that movie, watch it. Watch it now while it's in the theaters! It's definitely one that needs to be seen on the big screen. :) When the movie was over we went out to eat at Tucanos. I love my boy so much for making our anniversary such a fun day together. Thank you Michael Bear! It's been the best year of my life! (After Les Mis, I've been having a hard time deciding to listen to my new Taylor Swift album or the Les Mis soundtrack.)
• On the 29th, Chloe came over and we had a girls night! We went out to eat, watched a chick flick and made peanut butter bars. It was so good to spend some time with my bestie! I miss her! Her mom just had another baby girl. Her name is Aria; from what I've been  told, aria is a musical term. She's going to be a musician, just like her big sis.
• That same night, Michael had a mans night. He went over to Scott's house. They watched a couple of UFC fights and played Starcraft. Ha ha.
• New Years Eve day I had to work. Not only did I have to open Hogi Yogi, but they closed early so I had to close too. Not only that, I was the only one scheduled! According to Kyle, he did it because in the past it's been really slow on New Years Eve day. Well let me tell you... it was NOT slow! It was one of the worst experiences of my life. On the bright side, people kept handing me ones. I made $13 in tips. Also, Michael, Rebekah and Richard came and helped me close, so I didn't have to stay there late.
• New Years Eve eve, we spent with the Brooks. We ate a yummy ham dinner, and played video games. We also lit a gingerbread house on fire and had party poppers. When 12 o'clock came around we all drank bubbly. I think my nephews had an easier time staying up than I did! 
• New Years day, we both had work off! That never happens. Unfortunately, Michael woke up with a cold. Instead of going sledding with his family, we played Mario Party, got a pizza delivered and watched a redbox. Kimberly and Lance were sweet and brought us cinnamon rolls. 
• One of our pipes froze. We went almost an entire day without running water. It's a lot harder than I would of imagined. 
• Today, I got work off again! We trained this morning with Master Lawrence, and ate out a Chili's. Yum!

That's about everything I can think of. As for New Years resolutions, well I haven't really set any yet... but I've been thinking about it. I'll set some next week when Mike goes back to school. :)

And with that, I'll conclude with this quote:

"Tomorrow I'll quit procrastinating." 

-author unknown

Happy New Years Everyone!

Tournament Nov. 2012

The Bobby Lawrence Karate tournament this November was fun and long. Friday night, we went for the demo team competition. For the amount of practice we had, I would say we had a pretty decent 

demonstration put together. Nice work Scott, for making this possible. 

Then there was American Fork's demo which took first. It was absolutely Amazing! just like always. :) One of my favorite parts is when Joelle and Josh do the malando kick together. I want a husband/wife spotlight in our next demo!

After the demonstrations, Michael and I staid to help out with judging and cleaning up. Earlier Saturday, it had started snowing, and by the time we left the expo center, it was a full on blizzard! Jessica was our ride home, and we walked out to her car to find it dead... After scanning the almost empty parking lot for someone who could help us, we finally found a nice lady to jump Jess's car. Jessica came out to thank her, and it was only after she drove off that we realized we were all locked out of the running car! We called the Sandy police, only to be told they could come break into her car, but would have to smash a window. The only other option was to call her husband Kurt, who was in Provo, to come up and save us. Which he did. Meanwhile, we were stuck out in the blizzard. Fortunately for us, the very last person in the parking lot was our friend, Jon Bronson. Jon staid with Jessica while his wife Kristin took Michael and I to get something to eat. (We were starving!) I'm so thankful for the Bronson's, so we had a warm car to wait in while we waited for Kurt to come unlock the car. By the time Kurt showed up, the roads were extremely bad... We were very blessed to make it home safely.
Michael and I went to bed at 2 in the morning, and had to get up early to go back the following morning.
The next day consisted of hours and hours of judging.... It could go so much faster if each ring could have knowledgeable scorekeepers instead of the 10 year olds they had making multiple mistakes. They slow the entire ring down. Oh well...
Here are some of my students at the tournament who competed and did awesome jobs! I was so proud of them.

And here I am judging with my friend Nathan... It was fun to hang out with my old pessimistic buddy. ;)

Unfortunately, the events went so slow, that Michael and I had to wait until after the black belt test to compete. The test went well. Everyone from our school who tested passed. Scott got his 5th degree! Woo Hoo! Here's Sydney who just earned her 1st degree black belt. 

Here's Michael warming up before competing. Look at those straddles! Scott's doing his Tuscan Raider imitation in the background. :)

Finally we were up to compete. Michael wasn't feeling too great and kept sliding on the slippery mats while he was sparring. He ended up taking third anyway. That's my boy!
He placed second in Contemporary Kata with Ba Sai Dai.
He placed first in Contemporary Weapons with Sato. See for yourself.

I competed in three events, none of which were sparring. I'm a chicken. I did end up placing first in Contemporary Kata with Black Ice. I thought Joelle's form was better, but hey, I'm not complaining. 

All in all, it was a good Tournament. I can't wait until May's. Michael and I will hopefully be testing for our fourth degrees. *fingers crossed*

iPhone 5!

Michael and I got iPhones today! I'm so excited to have all my music on my phone! Check it. :)

And mine has a super cute case!

Yay!

Walmart Bingo and Homemade Pizza

A week ago, we went to Hopper's Farewell. Yesterday, Michael and I went on a group date with him. Wednesday, he's leaving to the MTC. Crazy huh.

Anyway, I'd like to share our fun date.

It was Michael and I, Chloe and Hopper and Craig and Summer. (Craig and Hannah broke up, in case you were wondering.)

We met up at Walmart and played Walmart Bingo. If you'd like to play your own Walmart bingo, click here to get the bingo cards. We played against each other as couples. Chloe and Hopper won. I thought it was a fun game. Hopefully the others enjoyed it as well.

After Walmart, we went to my parents house and made homemade pizzas. Craig and Summer got the pizza stones and theirs stuck right to the stone. They had to eat their pizzas off the pizza stones with a fork. I really need to learn how to properly use one of those.

Rolling out Dough

Hopper cutting Chloe's heart pizza

This one was mine. It was delicious!

So Cute

After our pizza dinner, we went to our place and watched John Carter. I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it was a great movie despite it's bad reviews. 

I had such a great time last night. It was awesome to spend some time with my friends. I don't get to see them all that much. Now Hop's leaving on a mission and Craig is following soon after. They are going to be fantastic missionaries! I have no doubt.  

Happy Halloween

Today at work, we had to both open and close the store. Blegh!
After, Michael and I got to sit at a Salem truck-or-treat and pass out candy and karate flyers.
Finally, we got to celebrate the holiday. We dressed up and partied at the Brooks's.

Here's one of my very favorite youtube videos. It just happens to be about Halloween candy. :) Enjoy.

October Fun

Sorry I've kind of abandoned my blog this past month. October has been crazy busy! I would however, like to post this update on the events that recently happened.

• Pumpkin Carving. The second Sunday of this month, Michael and I went to my parents house. We carved pumpkins and made caramel apples. Can you tell who my pumpkin's supposed to be?

Also, my sister talked me into getting instagram. That's why all of the above pictures are square. :)

• Soon after, my mom helped me make Halloween sugar cookies. They were actually apology cookies... I kind of snapped at my co-worker, Scott, during one of our demo team practices. I felt so bad, so I made him these.

There were so many! so we also gave some to Anne, Robert and the Gordons.

• We had two opportunities to take some family pictures. The first one came when we went with Kimberly and Lance to help them with some wedding pictures. We got some good ones of ourselves while we were at it. 

• We also got to take pictures with my family for my Mom's Christmas card. Here are some of those. 

Isn't this a good one of my parents?!

• Kim and John Sorich came to visit the Brooks from California. It was nice to meet them for the first time, and also the Freeman's new puppy, Samson. Look how cute he is! I want a dog! :(

• I got a raise at Hogi. Woo Hoo! $8.25
• Finally, on Friday, there was a karate Halloween party. I dressed up as a princess, and Michael was a prince. I wore my prom dress and my Grandma Decker helped to make Michael a cape that matched. We looked so good! 

 Kailee, my co-worker curled my hair that day. On my way driving back from her house I was stopped at a stoplight, and someone in the car full of boys next to me called out "Hey gorgeous!" I turned and smiled at them. When they kept calling to me, I held up my left hand and pointed to my wedding ring. The boy closest to me did a "dang it" snap. Ha ha.

Anyway, at karate there were games, a costume contest and a trunk or treat. We had a great turn out. 

As Scott would put it "Instructors featuring Katy".

After the Party, Michael and I went with Scott and Katy to his house to carve more pumpkins and eat Papa Johns Pizza. Yum!

Yes. It's been a fun month!