My new do

So I've never been one of those girls who is really good with hair and can do lots of fun things with it.  I've always wanted to be, though.  I love cute hairstyles and I get so bored with the same thing all the time.  I do mix it up with curly and straight but that's about it.  I guess that's why I have so many headbands-- they just add a little extra something.
I've always wanted to be able to do my hair with a side braid.  It's very "in" right now and I see girls with it all the time and wish so badly I could do it.  I decided today to learn how once and for all.  The one problem was that I have tried time and time again to french braid my hair and I just cannot do it.  I can't ever keep the hair tight enough for it to work.  So, I tried several times on my own today without success until I finally called Grant over to help me.  With an extra set of hands (and a few tries together) we were able to french braid my hair!  What are husbands for if they can't help you look pretty?  Just another reason I'm glad to be married to him.  We were very proud of our work and went to our friends Kelsey and Trevor's wedding reception.  Maybe someday I'll be able to get it down on my own :)

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 :/