Be Mine

So I've decided that Valentine's Day is way more fun when you actually have a valentine.  I've always loved this holiday ever since I was little, but today was extra special because I had someone to share it with.  We were able to do special things for each other throughout the day and that made it a lot of fun.
This morning I made cinnamon pancakes for breakfast.  You can't tell in the picture, but they were actually pretty pink in real life.

At school I was able to handle all of the craziness and was actually pretty spoiled with treats from my class.

Then at home, the spoiling continued with gifts from my wonderful husband (oreos are my favorite)!

While Grant was at work I decided to be brave and attempt to make some Hmong food.  He was very surprised when he came home and had pho waiting for him.  I was very surprised that it actually turned out.  It actually wasn't too bad.  

For dessert we had cookies and ended the evening with hot chocolate.  I ended up making enough cookies to feed an army, but we only had enough energy (and enough of an appetite) to decorate these.  I'll probably decorate the rest tomorrow and give most of them away.

We hope everyone else had an enjoyable Valentine's Day as well.  We love all of you and are grateful to have you in our lives!!

Valentine's Day

Well... My class is ready for the big day tomorrow.  We'll see if I am.  Bring on the art activities, candy, class parties, and valentines!

a new found passion

I LOVE skiing.  Let me say that again.  I LOVE SKIING!!!

This past weekend has been one of the most enjoyable weekends of my life!  I went skiing for the first time at a recruiting event PwC put on for the accounting junior core students.  I probably told Katie at least a few dozen times how much fun I was having.  She's been skiing before and gave me some good pointers for my first time.  After some quick tips, I was off down the mountain!  After a few necessary crashes to see how fast and how far I could push myself, I quickly gained back the confidence to start skiing with grace.  It was so much fun!  Here are some pics from our adventure.

One month down... Forever to go!

This blog post is a little bit over due, seeing as how our one month anniversary was almost two weeks ago, but at least I'm getting to it now.  Our first month as a married couple has been wonderful and we've been able to have a lot of fun together and enjoy being married.  It's been a lot of fun getting our apartment in order and making it our own.  We've both been really busy so we haven't been able to go out a whole lot, but we have had a few fun outings.  We're really looking forward to our ski trip this weekend!
For our first month's anniversary we decided to take a break from the work we had to do and go to a BYU basketball game.  They've been doing very well this year and it was nice to finally make it to one of their games.

We then came home and enjoyed some Martinelli's sparkling cider.  We received it as a gift and were very grateful to have it so we could celebrate.

The next night we went to a recruiting event with KPMG and there was a nametag waiting for me with my new name!  I'm so excited to be a Zinn (but I am still proud to be a Parker)!!

We stretched out the anniversary activities by going to the temple and having dinner at Olive Garden (thanks Uncle Mike for the gift card!) on Friday night.  We're excited to have been married for a whole month (now a month and a half) and can't wait to spend eternity together!

home sweet home

The past couple weeks have been fun as we've been making our new place feel more like home.  We still some work to do but we wanted to give ya the before and after pictures of what we've done!  So, here they are!

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Now you have all been on a tour of our new home!  Now you just have to come see it in real life!  Stop by anytime :)

-Grant and Katie Zinn  :)

I LOVE my husband!

I got way too spoiled over the break!  I was used to not spending much time with Grant last semester, but after spending two straight weeks with him, it's been hard to go back!

The first shock was coming back from our honeymoon and transitioning from spending every second of the day with him to having him work 3 shifts in one day while I was at home by myself.  I don't know if I've ever felt so lonely!  Not to mention it's a lot more scary being alone in this apartment than I expected.  I made sure there was music going all day so I didn't notice how alone I was.  I was able to get a lot of things done though, so that was good.  And the best part was that in the middle of Grant's second shift the doorbell rang and there was a girl there to deliver flowers!!  Grant ordered them before our wedding and planned for them to arrive Monday, knowing I would be home alone.  It made my day!!  

Grant didn't work as much the rest of the week as he did the first day back so I was still able to spend a lot of time with him.  We've done lots of shopping and spent about half of our gift cards and wedding money so far!  We even splurged and got ourselves a kinect :). Our apartment is coming together bit by bit.  Our bathroom and kitchen are pretty much complete, but we're waiting on a few furniture items and accents to complete the other rooms.  We're getting there.  I won't go into what a NIGHTMARE it has been trying to get our couches re-upholstered, but that battle should be over Friday if everything goes according to plan.  I never really realized how important couches were to me until I've had to spend a few weeks without them.

Our open house is this Saturday so we're just hoping we're able to get things together by then.  We're excited to see all of our friends and entertain at our new home!

Grant and I are both back into the swing of things.  I started teaching again on Monday and Grant went back to school yesterday.  His new group of missionaries arrived today so he's still been on a modified work schedule.  I don't know what I'm going to do when he goes back to working every night again next week!  The apartment will be even more scary when it's dark out :/

We went to the moon, it's made of honey

Well, we're back!  It's been a fun and adventurous week, but now it's time to say "goodbye" to paradise and "hello" to real life back in good old p-town.  Our wedding was beautiful and it was so wonderful having all of our families together!  That is something we're already missing.  But it is exciting for us that we are now a new family unit and our fun honeymoon was a great way to start off our marriage.
Unfortunately, the beginning of our honeymoon was not so great.  I got really sick our first night there.  I'm pretty sure it was food poisoning because I was throwing up all night and it felt like my body was trying to get rid of something it didn't like.  I was up almost every hour between 7:00 Sunday night and 9:00 Monday morning vomiting.  It was awful!  But it's a good thing I have a wonderful husband who was willing to take care of me.  He was up with me every time and he cleaned out the trash can every time I threw up in it.  We went to the medical center on Monday morning and they gave me a painful injection in my bum to keep me from vomiting any more.  It did it's job and I was no longer throwing up, but it didn't really make me feel any better.  They also quarantined me in my room for 24 hours.  Grant was constantly running out to get me things.  He even ran extra errands because I talked to him in my sleep a few times, asking for things that I didn't actually want.  What a sweetheart!  The one plus to all of this was that we got pay-per-view and anything from our mini-bar free.  But I think I would've traded that for better health!

Luckily, I got feeling better so they cleared me and I was able to venture out of our room on Tuesday.  We went up to the deck for most of the day.  We laid out, hoping to get some sun, but it was too cold and windy so we had to cover up with our towels.  Unbeknownst to me, I was getting some sun and I ended up with a ridiculous sunglass line on my face!  

On Wednesday, we were able to leave the ship for the first time.  We docked in Montego Bay, Jamaica and got a bus tour of the island.  We then got to ride a motorboat, which Grant did a great job driving.  When we got in, our guide tied a rope over my legs and told me to hold on because that was my seat belt and I was going to need it.  He was right!  It was very choppy and I thought I was going to fly out a few times!  But we made it!  The boat ride brought us to some beautiful falls that some people call the 8th wonder of the world.  A guide led us up the falls and we had to hold hands and a make a human chain with our whole group.  It was a lot of fun.  We weren't able to get pictures on the way up because we didn't have a waterproof camera, but we have one at the top.

Our trip on Tuesday was to Grand Cayman.  We were originally supposed to go parasailing, but the guy in charge of it said the winds were too strong so it was cancelled.  We ended up going to the beach instead.  At least we saved over $100 because of it!

Our last excursion was in Mexico.  We docked in Cozumel and then travelled on a ferry and bus to the city of Tulum, where there are ancient Mayan ruins.  We learned a lot about the Mayan culture and got to see some beautiful sites.  It was a great day!

Life on a cruise ship is a blast!  There is always something to do, always great food to eat, and always someone waiting on you hand and foot!  Every night when we came back from dinner, there was an animal made out of towels waiting for us and chocolates on our pillows.  There were shows every night from singing and dancing performances to magic shows and comedy acts.  There were games to play and watch and dance classes to enjoy.  We had so much fun!!  I would recommend a cruise to anyone!

Now we're back in Provo and I'm ready to tackle the daunting task of getting our apartment in order while Grant works this week.  We have a lot of shopping to do and I lot of things to set up and organize before school starts next Monday, but we're excited for it!