Cornbelly's

A couple of weeks ago Michael and I went to a corn maze with some friends. It was so much fun and totally worth the $10 a person. I had never done a corn maze before, and that was fun, but not as fun as all the other attractions Cornbelly's had. We looked at some intricately carved pumpkins, played on hay bales raced rubber duckies, climbed up into a princess castle, sat in Cinderella's carriage, raced blow-up horses (that was hilarious and more of a work out then you would expect. I really wish I had gotten some pictures, but they probably wouldn't have turned out anyways since we were all laughing so hard!). Oh and did I mention we got kicked out? It was pretty lame, some of the guys thought it would be fun to pull each other around in a wagon that we didn't know was only intended for little kids. They security guy was pretty rude and just told us to leave without giving us any kind of warning. It was close to closing time and we had done everything we wanted so we just apologized and left. We had a good laugh about it when we got to our cars! Despite the ending it was a really fun night! The following day Michael and I headed to Logan to meet our new niece, Bailey. More to come on that later!!

Ps. the pictures are in no particular order.

 

 Court and her new boyfriend

 Michael wouldn't come take a picture with me, so I decided to make him jealous! 

 President Hinckley and BYU...we are still trying to decide if they are real pumpkins or not. Michael thinks yes, I think no. What do you think? 

 Courtney Made It!! 

 Bus Driver Courtney

 And I was the passenger

 Michael wanted a silly picture

 Ryan and Eric

Court and the infamous wagon

I never pass up these cutouts! I love getting pictures in them. 

 Lost somewhere in the maze.

 We Made It!! 

Although we are pretty sure we accidentally crossed into the 2nd maze, oh well! 

 The whole group:

Michael, Me, Courtney, Ryan, Eric, Aaron and Kathryn.

Hello!

I dont know where to start with catching up on my blog posts...It's kind of a daunting task! So I think I will just pick up with current happenings in the Coon home and then do an occasional flash back from the past 6 months or so.

But to fill you in: Michael and I had a wonderful 4 month long summer break of absolutely no homework, quite a bit of work, but plenty of fun. We did lots of things around here, and even found time to fit in a vacation or 2! Now we are more than half way through a new semester and as busy as ever.  Michael is in his first semester of his MPA (masters of public administration) program and I am now a Junior and crossing my fingers that I can graduate next December, a semester early...but I will keep you posted on that! We are anxiously awaiting the holidays, our 1st anniversary, getting to spend time with both our families and to take a much needed break from school.

Things I am looking forward to!

The list, in no particular order. Can you believe that this is all happening before the end of June...this is going to be one busy month! 

1. Our (immediate) family reunion at my Aunt and Uncle's new house over the 4th of July. I cant wait to see my family, eat lots of yummy food, play games, enjoy the sun (and convince Michael that I "need" a floppy hat to protect me from those harmful UV rays) and just relax! 
2. The Manti Temple pageant. I have never been, but Michael says it is lots of fun. 
3. Our 6 month anniversary. Im not usually in to celebrating the months, but its on a Saturday so I figured why not, and I cant believe how fast the time has flown! The plan for our anniversary date is: go out for lunch (lunch is cheaper than dinner), maybe do a little shopping at the mall, eat leftover wedding cake that we still have in our freezer (I have been rationing it!) and perhaps get a redbox for a relaxing night at home.
4. The Jenkins family reunion. Most of the people will be old or distant cousins that I have never met. But my Aunt, Grandma, and 2 of my siblings will be there will be there with their families so it will fun. Plus, it will get us pumped up and excited for the next weekend which is the 4th of July/Family Reunion! Oh, and its in Roy, Michael's old stompin' grounds so he is excited to show me around. 
5. A weekend in Park City with Michael's parents and siblings at the condo they rent for a week every summer. Hopefully we will get to explore a bit of the city. I hear old town is fun, and they have some outlets! And to top it all off, the place has a pool so I am hoping for some nice weather so I can get some swim/sun time in!
6. A double date to the Pizza factory. We got this awesome coupon for dinner for 4 for only $20!
7. Girl's night next week- Jessica and I are going to do a session at the Temple, while Courtney does baptisms for the dead. Then we are going to treat ourselves to ice cream :) I cant wait for someday when Court is endowed then we can all do a session together!

And a picture, just because I like it. Plus, you cant go 3 post without including one, then it just gets boring!

New Callings!

Michael and I both have callings now. Well I have had one for a while, but Michael finally has one now (he was feeling a little left out for a while...but I think it was worth the wait!)

I am a visiting teaching supervisor, and have been for the past 2-3 months-ish. Not to difficult, which I dont mind! The sisters are pretty good about getting their reports in to me on time, and then I just make up a spreadsheet (usually in my downtime at work) and then just email that in at the end of every month. The one thing I need to get better at is getting to know the sisters in my district personally, not just by phone/email. In my head I say oh yeah, I can do that, but when it comes down to it the shyness in me comes out. Its a lot easier said than done, well, at least for me!

And now for Michael's calling. Drum roll please!...

He is now President Coon. Actually, we will stick with Brother Coon. President just makes me think of the Stake President or Prophet, and he certainly doesnt have that calling! Thankfully! Michael is the brand new President of the Sunday School for our ward. He is doing an excellent job so far and has two counselors (still waiting on the secretary), that I am sure will do a great job as well. He doesnt really know either of the counselors too well (thats pretty much how it is in our ward, there are just so many people!) but we are hoping to have them and their families over for dinner some night and get to know them better.

And now for my moment to brag about my amazing husband. So, the Sunday after being called Michael got to teach the gospel doctrine lesson, without any notice, and did a fantastic job! I could have never been able to do it. There was some miscommunication regarding who was teaching. My guess is whoever was scheduled to teach moved, and didnt tell anyone, since everyone, but the secretary, in the old S.S. presidency had moved, hence no teacher. But nonetheless, Michael did an excellent job and filled up the entire hour. Thankfully he had read over the lesson during the week, and had the thought to read it again Sunday morning. Thank goodness for those little promptings!! 

I am grateful that we both have callings. It makes us feel more a part of the ward. It was weird not having one for the first little while. I am sure Michael would love to give up the 8:30 Sunday meetings, 3 times a month, but it is great to serve and to meet and get to know more people in our (huge) ward.

Mother's Day!

A month late, but it was on my to-do-list for future posts, so I couldn't just skip it :) 

Enjoy!

No I will not be a Mom within the next 9 months! But I was able to plant the idea in Michael's head to get me a "Future Mother" Mothers Day gift, since I will be a mom, someday :) While on our trip to Yosemite Michael started reading the 1st Hunger Games book that someone had brought with them. The books were the topic of some of the conversations while driving so I causally added that, although I had already read the 1st one, I would love to read the other 2 in the series.

I really didnt think that I would get any sort of gift, nor did I really need one, a simple mother's day wish would suffice (Which Michael did do). But Monday after work, Michael asked if I could take the bus home because he needed to help his boss move something, then he would just go to Costco (we were going to do that together that night) before coming home. After being home for a while and still no Michael, he called saying that he wanted to get me something and they didnt have it at the store he was at, so he was going to try another store, and if they didnt have it he knew Walmart would. Well when Michael came home he had not one, but all 3 of the books in the series. I was really surprised, happy, and flattered that he had caught on to my little hint. So after eating dinner and watching our favorite show Chuck we each settled in on the couch with a book each- Michael the first one, and myself the second. After that I could hardly put them down and had finished book 2 & 3 within a week, or maybe less, I cant remember, but they were good!  

Decorating

While my mom was out for Michael's graduation I was able to get some much needed decorating done in our apartment!

Corinne (who came down for our "girls day" and picked Mom up from the airport), my mom and I got a bit of a late start that morning, but certainly made up for it that afternoon. We hit up 3 great stores: DI, Rod Works and Tai Pan Trading. After hours of shopping and less than $100 dollars later, I had some fun things to decorate with. (disregard some of the blurry pictures, I dont know what was up with my Mom's camera)

Our cute new towel rod...still need to get some decorative towels for it.

See those 3 candle holders? Yep. I got those from DI! 

 Our key holders. Fun story about these: The red one has some paint peeled off on one of the petals. So convinced the sales lady to give us 50% off. Overlap them slightly and you cant even tell (and I have to give Corinne credit for that idea)! 

About 9 o'clock that night Michael and I went to check out a couch that he had  found on KSL. 9:15ish, I called my mom and Corinne (who were home making dinner...yes I know its late) to start making room to bring the couch into the apartment. The guy, who had a truck, was nice enough to transport it for us right then. He also threw in a book case for FREE!!  So after nearly 5 months of marriage we were the proud owners of a used, but very nice, $60 couch!

 
 Unfortunately, we were too exhausted to do any more hanging , hence the lack of decor above the couch, but it is a huge improvement from our matching yellow butterfly chairs!

 Chilling on the new couch. Its nice to actually sit next to each other, instead of in two separate chairs 

 

Our FREE book shelf...perfect for our printer. 

Since this picture was taken I have put some books on there.

 Our bedspread. I had actually had it for a while. Just needed the motivation to take it out of the packaging. Oh and we (finally) got a bed frame- our mattress is no longer sitting on the floor! Our bed is so much higher, I felt like the princess and the pea sleeping on it the first night.

Oh and I cant forget the best part! In preparation of my mom and sister's arrival I had to clean up our extra bedroom. Now I wish I had a before picture, but it was a MESS!! Everything that didnt have a home ended up in there. You could just barely distinguish a path to all the important, readily accessible things in the room: the closet (where my shoes live), to the corner where the printer was on an old apple box, and to the crate with the school supplies. Anyways, one, rather late, evening the week before finals when Michael was writing a paper and I should have been studying, I tackled the mess. I was shocked, when less than 2 hours later, I could finally see the floor! It was such a good feeling to have it done, and earlier than the day before their arrival! Granted there are still boxes around the perimeter of the room, but you can walk in and access everything, and plus the closet is all organized too! Hopefully someday soon we will own a desk and another bookcase, then we can rid ourselves of all the boxes.    

Easter Weekend

The majority of Easter weekend was spent with Michael's family. After spending Saturday in Logan and dropping my mom off at the airport that evening, Michael and I headed to Kaysville. That evening we went out to dinner and a movie with Michael's parents in celebration of Michael's graduation. Michael chose Texas Roadhouse. We dont usually go to places like that, steak houses, 1) because of the price and 2) I am not a huge meat/steak eater. I had never been before and will admit I wasnt too thrilled, but man was I surprised! First of all I love the peanuts, and the fact you can just drop them on the ground :) And the ribs were to die for!! My mouth is watering just thinking about them...YUMMY! Oh and they had this really good lemonade drink and I had so much food there was enough for another meal and then some. Moving on though, this is making me hungry typing this. The movie we saw was the Unknown. Super good show. Good plot line with an ending that I did not see coming. Highly recommend it.

Easter Sunday was nice, sunny, and snow free, just the way I like it. Although last year was gray and overcast nothing can beat being in the conference center Easter morning. I think Conference should be on Easter Sunday every year!

Although I didn't have a new Easter Dress this year I did wear a new-ish dress that my mom had gotten me when she was here in March. Michael made sure to wear his spriny-ish looking tie. Here are a couple of Easter shots Michael's sister took...if only the top of his head hadn't been cut off though! 

We had a nice ham dinner, buffet style Although I am accustomed to a traditional sit-down Easter dinner, I am learning that buffet is the easiest way when there are already 14 members in just the immediate family. Following dinner there was a backyard egg hunt. I love egg hunts with little kids. This year I tagged along with Misty and her little girl Kiara. It was cute helping her find the eggs, and despite her pouting face, she was having fun (she had just woken up from a nap) Here are a few pictures that I snapped: 

To-Post-List

 *UPDATED*

I love checking things off my list!!

I work best when I have a to-do-list, it keeps me on track, I am more productive, and feel more accomplished. Michael has been bugging me to update the blog, and I have really wanted to, too. So here is my To-Post-List: A list of post ideas that I have been meaning to do and some things that you can look forward to reading about. The only hard thing is all my pictures are on my computer at home, and I have lots of free time at work. Perhaps I will need to bring my laptop to work some day. Hopefully I will get them posted soon. Until now here is my list to keep me motivated!

To-Post-List 

1. Easter 
2. Yosemite Camping Trip
3. Michael's Graduation
4. Mom's Visit/Decorating our apartment
5. Summer-to-do-list
6. New Callings
7. "Future Mother" Mother's day gift
8. Wedding Pictures (finally!!!)

Picnic Date

A few weeks ago (when the weather was really nice) Michael and I went on a picnic. It was so nice to chill on the grass after a long week of sitting in class and at work. We picked up some Chinese food and got to use our new picnic blanket (a wedding gift) for the first time. It was a nice evening out. Unfortunately the swings we occupied by little children, next time I guess. I cant wait until this summer- I plan on spending many evenings outside. Especially since I will be in an office everyday, 8-5!

 Michael thought the food was REALLY yummy! 

 It was sunny enough for sunglasses! I am so glad that winter is over!! 

Self-Portrait

Time for some summer tanning, don't you think?

Joe's Cafe

A while back, more like the end of February, I had to "do something different" with a spouse or significant other for a class assignment. Michael had been to this hole-in-the-wall place with his boss called, Joe's Cafe. He had been raving about it every since and kept telling me he would take me someday. So we decided to do kill two birds with one stone and went one Saturday morning for a "breakfast date". And he was right....It was DELICIOUS! We finished off our breakfast date with a trip to Costco. Romantic. I know. But really, I love grocery shopping with Michael, he makes sure I stick to the list! :)

 

 My plate...hash browns, sunny side up eggs (my favorite) and 4 super thick slices of the best bacon I have ever had! oh, and a side of toast

 

 

Michael with his food. He got a super big omelet, with a whole bunch of yummy mix-ins.  He finished it all, and managed to help polish off mine as well. Lets just say we were both so full, we didn't bother eating again until dinner!

Pictures

A while back I was told that a certain, adorable nephew of mine wanted to see more pictures of his Aunt Joci and Uncle Michael. So here are a few just for Tyler and whoever else cares to look. 

At a BYU Basketball game. It was pretty cool to see the infamous Jimmer play in person. 

(ps. sometimes its hard to get Michael to take a serious picture) 

A Date Night In...Movie and some homemade cookies. 

Yummy!

 

 No bake cookies. A recent favorite in our house. Half with chocolate, for me. And half without, for Michael (and yes I know it looks like I have more, but I just made mine smaller)

Ready to settle in for a Movie one night. 

Funny Story...One time Michael had a paper due. He started it the night before it was due. Stayed up till 5 am and then got up at 7 am. This is the result of a long day of class and work on only 2 hours of sleep.

Making Valentine's Day dinner. Michael thought it was really tasty! 

Michael and his yummy Valentine's dinner for me. I didn't get home from class until 7. He was in the kitchen making some tasty sweet and sour chicken. He is quite the gourmet! (and I love that he is!) He also had picked up a pie for desert, and a movie and popcorn for the remainder of the evening. Not only did he make a special dinner for Valentine's, but he makes dinner every Monday night, since my class doesnt get out until late. He really is so sweet!

A Typical Night in the Coon Home

This is what we have been doing for the past 4 months. 

Homework.

Thankfully the semester is almost over. 3 weeks to be exact. Michael graduates the 21st/22nd. I am so excited for him! Then we get a wonderful 4 months of summer, no classes, just work and lots of  fun in between. Until then, we both have projects, papers and finals to tackle. The end is so close...We cant wait!

Baking Gone Wrong

Friday night Michael and I got home from work a little after 5. We had a ward activity that started at 6:30 and had just enough time to make our treat, congo bars (a chocolate chip cookie bar), eat dinner and go.This is how it all played out:

1. I got started on the dessert. Realized we didnt have enough brown sugar. Went to Smith's to get some more.
2. Get back. Michael takes over so I can eat dinner.
3. Cookie bars in the oven and we are only 15 minutes behind schedule
4. Timer goes off. Check the bars. Perfect on the outside. Runny on the inside....Now what do we do??
5. Put them back in for a little longer. Maybe that will help.
6. Nope. They were still just as runny. And I dont mean doughy (because I rather like doughy cookies) these were runny like yogurt consistency...GROSS! 
7. We couldnt take them to the activity and we we already late so we just left them on the counter. Had a great time at the activity, played Ticket to Ride and met some more people in our ward.
8. Came home with a redbox, put the cookies back in the oven and watched our movie. 
9. A long while later, Michael says "the cookies!". oops, we had forgotten to check on them. I go to pull them out, expecting them to be totally burnt. Wrong, just a bit more golden on the outside and just as runny on the inside. I was very disappointed and reluctantly accepted that that was as good as it was going to get.

Well, it was either our oven, the recipe was typed wrong, the recipe was read wrong, or the higher altitude (they always turn out normal in CA) which messed it up. Whatever it was, lets just say I probably wont be trying this recipe again for a while, at least not until I am ready to experiment and find a possible solution. 

Check out these pictures I took the next morning.

 Dont worry, the top looked normal until we started picking at it. 

The top at least was cooked and tasted normal.

 The outside was so crunchy it came out of the pan all in one piece! 

Michael to the Rescue

Picture this: Sunday night. About 11 pm. I had just finished up the last of my homework for Monday. Then it hits me! I forgot to write my Shakespearean-like poem on a scripture story for my History of Creativity class. Now I hate writing poems. And this one had to be 14 lines, follow a specific rhyme pattern and have 10 syllables per line. This was going to take me all night!  After a momentary freak-out and exclamation of frustration, Michael says, how about this for a first line, "There was a studly young man named Nephi". Good. Great. It was 10 syllables and was a start. What's next? I am happy to say that we whipped this baby out in like 20 minutes. We make a good team! I am truly grateful for my wonderful husband and his sweet rhyming talent, something I didnt know about him till now. 

Oh, and as a side note, recently while going through some of his childhood things he found a ribbon for 4th or 5th place in a poetry contest...GO Michael!! Thats way better than I could have ever done!

Check out my our finished product:

A Modern Shakespearean Interpretation of Nephi

There was a studly young man named Nephi

He was the fourth son of goodly parents

and received revelation from on high

Lehi loved him, it was so apparent

Laman and Lemuel thought he was stuck-up

Therefore they ignored his divine warnings.

They treated him like an ugly pup

and once they tied him up in the morning.

He prayed to the Lord that he might be free.

Laman was angry, but then bowed down  

“Oh Nephi please forgive me” was his plea,

“I do”, now repent to receive your crown.  

Upon their return Sariah rejoiced.

Lehi sacrificed and many thanks voiced.

Courtesy of Daisy Sour Cream

Jump for Joy. Its good Exercise.

Very nicely put, Daisy. I am jumping for joy because I get to make taco salad (my favorite) with my husband tonight. And my birthday is in 4 days. And it snowed today, so maybe Michael and I can finally try our hand at making snow ice cream. Yumm!

 

What makes you jump for joy?

Let the Adventures Begin!

Well here it is, our brand new blog to document our adventures together in this new chapter of our lives. We are Michael and Jocelyn. Married on a rainy December day in California. Although the weather didn't completely cooperate for our special day, we didn't let the rain put a damper on our day. It was a wonderful day of celebration, family, love, laughter and friends! 

So come along and follow us as we Celebrate the Everyday!