"When we're rich and have our own house, can we have heated toilet seats?'

For those of you who are not aware, it has already begun snowing in Utah. Just last night good ol' Mother Nature dumped five to six inches on us. Apparently Mother Nature is not aware that it is still October.

But I digress.

The changing of the weather indicates several things:

1) I suddenly feel the urge to listen to Christmas music (although, to be honest, I've been listening to it the last couple of weeks).

2) I start wearing beanies -- and, on occasion, my Eeyore slippers -- to bed.

3) I drink hot chocolate like there's no tomorrow. And not just any hot chocolate -- Stephen's Gourmet Hot Chocolate.

Back in the day when Heather and I were roommates, we had a hot chocolate collection unrivaled by anyone in the ward. Here's a picture for proof:

Impressive, no?

Well, once Heather and I stopped living together, we had to divide up the hot chocolate collection, which was definitely a tragedy. And since that day, my collection has been dwindling.

Jacob said he won't let me buy more hot chocolate until I exhaust my current supply. I take that as permission to drink a minimum of one cup a day.

The other day, while glancing at the label of one of those cans, I noticed that Stephen's had a website. Being the fan that I am, I perused it to see what new flavors they had.

Horror of horrors! When I clicked on the "Shopping" button, I noticed that they didn't stock Orange Creme anymore -- which was by and far their most delicious variety. Why, oh why, did the company commit such an atrocity?

My faith was shaken. Until I saw that Orange Creme was, in fact, in stock -- and listed in the Clearance section.

Happy day!

Houston, we have a problem.

Apparently I wasn't thinking straight when I planned my grocery list a week and a half ago (yes, we only go every two weeks. Otherwise life would be bleak. For me, at least.), because I intended to make a lovely tater tot casserole for dinner tonight. Okay, maybe it isn't that lovely. It isn't much more than ground meat, cream of mushroom soup, and tater tots dumped into a casserole dish, but it is easy, which is definitely one of its perks.

And somehow, here I am, tater tot-less.

Do you think Jacob would eat it if I served straight ground turkey for dinner tonight? (Actually, don't answer that. He'd probably drown it in ketchup and then eat it, but what would I eat?)

Looks like cold cereal and/or waffles for dinner tonight. Again.

Update: I just might be able to whip together some tostadas or burritos or something. Lucky for me, I had a can of refried beans on hand . . . :)

For those of you who love a man in uniform . . .

This is what Jacob wears to the Police Academy every Monday and Wednesday. Strapping, no?

I like to think there are a lot of possibilities with this outfit. Just yesterday, we went to our public library to pick up a DVD that Jacob had on hold. Much to our (and the librarian's) dismay, somebody had stolen the DVD from the shelves. I told Jacob that he should just stand by the exit or the hold shelves in this uniform for an hour after class every day to deter potential thieves.

He didn't seemed terribly thrilled with the idea.

I also told him he could pretend to be a cop in an unmarked vehicle and sit at the side of the road and watch for speeders.

For some reason, he didn't like that idea either. Something about being "illegal" or such. 



And then, there's always the possibility of coming to my elementary school to speak to the students about "Stranger Danger" or something like that. Never mind the fact that he isn't an actual police officer yet. The kids don't need to know that.

A disclaimer of sorts

Lest you think the title of this blog is ridiculously cheesy (and I know it can be taken that way), it's in reference to this fabulous song:



Jacob and I have engaged in many a dance party to this song. And yes, I know it well enough that without even watching the video, I can tell him "this is the part where she dances with Moses with the ribbon! This is where they get married!" and so on and so forth.

Embrace it.

"Dang wishbones. They never work!" -- Jacob

It's no secret that I'm a very jumpy person. It's also no secret that scary movies and I do not make a good combination. Years ago, I watched The Grudge with some of my friends in high school and I screamed like a little girl for the entire duration of the last ten minutes of the movie.

So I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of watching it again when Jacob proposed the idea over a year ago, before we were engaged. Nevertheless, he is a persistant fella, so I finally agreed, provided he signed a little contract before we started the movie.

We found the contract today while we were cleaning up our apartment in an attempt to cut down on how many boxes we have stashed in our second bedroom. And now, for your reading pleasure, I present to you the official contract:

"I, Jennifer Sudweeks, consent to watching The Grudge if and only if the following terms, conditions, and restrictions are met:

"1. Jacob is not allowed to make any sudden movements, send Jennifer any texts, or make the creepy throat noise during the movie.

"2. Jacob is not allowed to mock Jennifer for any screaming or other whanny actions she does during the movie.

"3. If Jennifer deems it necessary, a guard shall be posted outside the bathroom when she showers to ensure that no creepy Japanese children enter the bathroom.

"Jacob, the undersigned, agrees to comply with these terms and conditions under penalty of never again having the opportunity of watching a creepy movie with Jennifer."

And then I had both of us sign it at the bottom.

Teehee.

Just because Jacob says we need a "joint blog"

Oh hey. Jacob and I have been married for nine months now, and despite the fact that I have my own blog on another site, Jacob was insistent that we get a blog for the both of us. You know, something for us to post pictures on and such.

Well, I haven't posted on my other blog in two months, and we haven't even taken most of the pictures off our camera since getting married, so we'll see if we ever update this thing. But I suppose miracles happen.

I also suppose that a fitting first post for our joint blog would be something about our "story." And since I haven't committed that to writing for the whole world to see as of yet, here goes:

Once upon a time, in July of 2009 to be precise, there was a girl named Jennifer who was living with some fabulous roommates in Provo.




(Yes, I realize that the last picture is from freshman year. But look at the hotness of Cari's eyebrows and our flattering facial expressions.)

Now, Jennifer was not expecting to find love anytime soon, despite one of her coworker's attempts to send her on flirting missions. Said missions included inviting an apartment of guys over for cookies and talking to three guys at ward prayer and things like that, but they didn't result in anything promising.

At the same time, there was a strapping man heading up to Utah for a mission reunion.
As it just so happens, this young man (hereafter referred to as "Jacob") needed a place to stay while in Utah. So he hit up one of his old mission buddies and arranged to sleep on the couch at his apartment complex.

Lo and behold, that was the very complex that Jennifer was living at!

It just so happens that Jennifer and her friend decided to throw a game night after ward prayer while Jacob was in town. They invited several apartments -- including the one where Jacob was staying. Jacob, who had decided early on that he was going to check out the BYU girls to see if they were really all that, figured he'd attend and see if there were any potential prospects.

Jacob strode into the apartment and Jennifer had a few thoughts run through her mind, not necessarily in this order: "He's really tall." "Is he new in the ward? I don't recognize him." And "He's really cute."

Throughout the game night, Jennifer and Jacob engaged in "lingering eye contact" and a bit of light flirting (nothing too over-the-top, though, as there were a good eight or nine other people there).

After they parted ways, Jennifer immediately went online to try to stalk Jacob on facebook. Unsuccessfully. She didn't know his last name, and when she tried to find him through a mutual friend, the profile pictures were all so small! Good news for her, though -- Jacob stalked her on facebook as well.

Friend requests were accepted, and the two chatted online for awhile. Finally, Jennifer had to retire to bed, as she worked custodial at BYU in the mornings, but she gave him her phone number and suggested they hang out during the week. Impressed by her boldness, Jacob agreed. And so the two made plans to hang out after she got off work the next day.

Well, Jennifer just had butterflies that whole night and had a hard time sleeping, because here was this very handsome guy expressing interest in her! What exciting news!

Jacob came over to her apartment Monday afternoon, and after he agreed to participate in a Disney sing-along, she decided that he was a pretty good guy. After that, they spent almost every free moment together.

They went to the temple:
They went hiking:

And then went on a tour of BYU campus and attempted to find an animatronic figure of Brigham Young like she'd heard rumors of, but they were unsuccessful.

And at the end of the week, Jacob had to go back home to Arizona. Jennifer was sad, but they decided to keep dating over the phone and see what happened.

After a few weeks of phone dating, Jennifer booked some plane tickets to visit Jacob in Arizona. She met his family, including his adorable nieces and nephews, and thought they were a pretty sweet bunch of people. She also thought that Arizona was ridiculously hot, but it wasn't so bad in Flagstaff, where they rode a ski lift:


Another month went by, and then the two decided to fly to California so Jacob could meet her family. And to, you know, ask a very important question to her father.

Despite claims that he was going to wait until at least October to pop the question, the day after talking to her father, Jacob surprised Jennifer by taking her sky diving! Jennifer suspected something was going on, but didn't want to spoil the moment, so she didn't say anything. Sure enough, after she had both feet firmly planted on earth again, Jacob got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. And of course, she said yes.

And so the two made preparations to get married in December after finals and before Christmas. They saw each other twice more before the wedding -- once in Utah when Jacob came up to celebrate Jennifer's birthday, and once in Arizona when Jennifer went down for Thanksgiving. But by the time they tied the knot, they had only seen each other in person for a total of about three weeks!

The wedding was beautiful, and everything ran smoothly. And now Jacob and Jennifer are together forever.
Life still has its ups and downs, but they're enjoying the ride . . . together. ::cue the cheesy music::

(Not) the end.

If you had been driving -- or even if you had been walking or riding your bike -- around my neighborhood this evening, you might have seen me jogging down the street in shorts and a sweatshirt, sweat dripping down my face.

But Jennifer, you might ask, if you were so sweaty, why didn't you just take off your sweatshirt?

That, my friends, is an excellent question.

The answer is this: Somewhere between taking off my regular shirt to change into my workout clothes and putting on a sweatshirt to protect me from the initial outside chill, I forgot to put on another shirt. And I didn't find this out until I was already several minutes into my run, and I clearly didn't want to throw off my groove by running home and putting on some proper attire, so the sweatshirt stayed.

Whoopsie.