My Husband

I would cross-post from bricolorful, since the post seems pertinent to both blogs, but I have a ton of homework to do today, and feel like it'd be more productive to just let you know I posted all about Grant here <--- so please check it out. :)

She says/ He says

I haven't kept up this blog very well so I hope you're keeping up with us at bricolorful.wordpress.com. If not, then I should probably announce to you that WE'RE PREGNANT! :) 7 months pregnant, actually. Zaby Jr. is due July 20th. To read my original announcement of the news click here. I'm debating whether or not to keep this blog up again with family news since we'll have so much more of it (i.e. the little guy - yes, he's a boy). In the meantime, enjoy this fun little anecdote from the Z's.

Bri: Just so we're clear, this child is heavy. I think since I carried him the first nine months, you should volunteer to carry him the next nine.

Grant: (laughs) Sounds good!

What a great answer. :)

My Knight in Shining Armor

True heroes . . .

courageously slay dragons!

And bring their princesses flowers too!

(No husbands were coerced in the making of this post.)

In the last little while here . . .

My good friend Amanda moved back to Washington! I miss her dreadfully.

The Zabriskies Sr. (Momsie, Dadsie, and Hannah Z) are moving to Europe for a whole year! (Who knows, maybe we'll get to visit). Before they left on their grand adventure they came to bid us goodbye and help us with one last week of finals.

Grant has been working tirelessly on MonasMusings.com for momsie.

We redecorated the house and hung LOTS of pictures.

We attended my beautiful cousin Tayla's sealing to her eternal sweetie.

We're coming up on our two year anniversary in August!

LOTS of ward events! The one pictured here was for the kiddies.

We celebrated Bri's 22nd birthday! She was a little excited.

Grant got her a how-to book of hairstyles and she has been enjoying playing with her hair all week!

And we've been on LOADS of hikes! We LOVE the summer-time!!

Hiking the Y - sorry it's dark.

Battle Creek falls on Bri's birthday

Battle Creek

View of the sunset from the Y

Zzzzs out!

A Personal Post From Grant

Hi everyone! Yes, believe it or not, it's me, Grant, blogging personally for all to read! I'm sorry I've been a little dormant for a while here. I haven't been completely blog-free though. I had an assignment in my class last semester to keep a blog about my thoughts on the media in my life. I called the blog "Big House Media". You can check it out here and I would love to know your thoughts on the topics I addressed there over the last four months.

Speaking of media, I thought I would update everyone on my current plans for the future. Bri and I will be done with school at BYU in about a year, after which we plan to move somewhere in the US so I can attend graduate school. Of course, the exact location will depend on where I get accepted. Some places of interest at this time are Florida State Univeristy, Indiana University, Georgia State Univesity, and possibly BYU as well. I want to study Instructional Design at any one of these schools. It just so happens that BriAnne's grandfather is a world leader in the area of Instructional Design (no joke) and so I'm pretty excited and confident about my opportunities to go to a good school and prepare for my future profession.

Some other updates: As some of you might already know, I have been a member of BYU's 9-man a cappella group, Vocal Point, for the last three years. I have loved every minute of it, but next year I have decided to exchange my seat as their vocal percussionist for a new position, the BYU A cappella Club President. I love to sing and perform a cappella music and look forward to the opportunity to help other students on campus do the same. There is some incredible talent and enthusiasm here for a cappella. I feel blessed to have had recieved this responsibility and hope I can make a different, big or small, before I take off for grad school.

So, there you have it! That's the news from Grant! Keep a look out here for more updates on some projects I'm currently working on.

So, to end of a fun note: please enjoy this short commercial I made for my media class last semester.

A Super Saturday

Going. . .

going . . .

going. . .

Still going. . .

and We're done!!!!

The end of the semester is such a relief. It's funny because we're just as busy but just the lack of pressure from deadline after deadline is so wonderful. Today we went from baby shower to temple to funeral to helping someone move to wedding reception. It was a great change of pace and we felt that we were so much more satisfied with what we accomplished than we ever are with a 7-page paper at the end of a Saturday. Sigh - now to end the day in a perfect way . . . Kale Soup (one of our favorite recipes, sounds healthy because it is) and a Jane Austen movie for me (I'm glad I have a husband who humors my silly, romantic self).

On the schedule for next week: 2 game nights, 1 movie night, and 1 sealing, wedding dinner, and reception. I love being deadline free!

So does Granto . . .

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. . .

Wrapping Up

We're not stressed about finals. . . not a bit.

Are we honey?

To The Point

Isn't the point of writing something for a journal to educate? - Why then, when people submit articles, are they so incomprehensibly inconsistent that only those who were present during the actual study could possibly comprehend them? If all the writings of the world were suddenly destroyed and the only things to survive were social science journal articles, our posterity would think us utterly ridiculous. Of this I am sure.

Semester's End

Dreading final's week but looking forward to this . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epUk3T2Kfno

New Happenings

Hey all,

I know I'm terrible at keeping this blog up. I like it though because it's a semi-catalouge of some of the fun things that we have done, so we'll keep it.

I thought I'd let you all know though that Grant and I have started some new blogs, his is for school and mine is more for fun but it's not necessarily about us (you'll see). I'll keep adding (very) periodic updates to this blog to let you know what Grant and I are up to, but if you want to know what we're thinking about, check us out here:

Grant: bighousemedia.wordpress.com

Bri: bricolorful.wordpress.com

And now for some lovely pictures (since silly blogger won't let me organize them, you'll have to see them out of order. Sorry.):

This is Grant and the mini-beatboxing prodigy, Christian Steavens (son of Vocal Point's director).

For Valentine's Day, we went to the Hoogle Zoo. We likened this elephant to the gargantuan load placed on our happy shoulders weekly by educational institutions. :)

Look, it's a mommy and a baby! Precious!

I surprised Granto on Valentine's Day with paper hearts all over and a special dinner. He was just arriving home from a Vocal Point trip to Preston, Idaho.

The obligatory picture of Hannah and I before the start of another Vocal Point concert.

That's all folks. :)

Poem

This week I was at my husband's grandfather's funeral in Florida. My husband has been close to him all his life and he was the one who sealed us together. I wrote this while reflecting on the experience.

---

Following the procession to the site
The lawn, a crowd of regal figures tall
From which hangs beard or flowing apparel
All seems dim and gray, even the light.

A gentle current sails 'long lacy drape
To grace the pale, wrinkled cheek in death.
Before his court, the king lies without breath;
a void; an empty shell leaves love agape.

Why at this sad occasion are there blooms
of brightest hue, of lighted face?
It does not seem to me to match the pace.
Side each other: death, life, happy gloom.

The good king only sleeps, God knows.
For us the King of Kings once rose.

Happy Halloween!!

Howdy y'all!

This is Harold the Happy Pumpkin (last year was Brendon the pumpkin)

Trunk or Treat
(sorry I didn't get an upclose of our fabulous homemade decor)

We went to dinner and a show.
This is Hannah, Grant, Bri, and Amanda's hat.

The original (and unbeatable) triad
- you can't replace me girls. The girls at dinner.

Us "cowpokes" at dinner

Sisters AND friends - by choice!

Now on to Christmas... yee haw!!

Conversation

Grant: I don't understand why girls are so proud of their bruises. I get a bruise, and I'm like, "OW! That hurts!" Then some kid pushes on it or it bumps into something and it hurts even more!

Bri: It's because your a man.

Grant: ...

Bri: You are already seen as tough and manly. We women have to prove our tenacity! Thus, when we get a bruise, we're like, "Do you see this?! Look at this baby! It's huge!"

Grant: Aw. When you get a bruise it just makes me want to be more gentle with you and kiss it better.

Bri: That's because you're a man. Sigh. ... Oh! But I do LIKE that you're a man!!!

Did you follow that logic? College is doing us a lot of good. We're learning tons. Really.



(No spouses were harmed in the making of this post)

1st Year Wedding Anniversary

Nothing says Happy Anniversary like year old wedding cake.

.... yum.

THE Summer Update

So, life is crazy. :) We apologize to our followers for our serious neglect.

This summer has been absolutely amazing.

Here's a little of what we've been up to:

Grant worked full time over the summer and learned a lot of computery things.

Bri had finally settled on English as her major and is all set to start the new semester on MONDAY!

We made lots of new friends in the ward and had several people to dinner.

Grant did a Vocal Percussion Assembly for a local elementary school.
Both Bri and Grant's families came to visit us in Utah. We had a BIG family reunion in Bear Lake with Bri's mom's family. We visited LOTS of extended relatives who live in Utah (all the way down to St. George and Ceder).
We went camping, swimming, hiking, yogaing, gardening, visited SLC, and did all sorts of summer activities.

Our little garden (at the beginning of the summer)...
Day in Salt Lake...
We snuck away to Vancouver for the first weekend in August. We went with the Zs to visit the traveling Jim Henson exhibit that was in Seattle at the time. Henson was the creator of the Muppets and co creator of Sesame Street. It was a very inspiring trip for Grant, who wants to go into the field of Children's Media.
We played with Bri's family that Sunday and then Grant flew away to do a 2-week tour of Nauvoo with Vocal Point.

Bri spent lots of quality time with both families in Vancouver, which included (but was not limited to) a "beauty day", lots of walks, plenty of chick-flicks (because she missed Granto), a trip to Seaside, Oregon (and The Hat Store), gardening, cooking, the Clark County fair, and having lots of old friends to dinner.
The Hat Store at Seaside is one of Bri's favorite places on earth (seriously)...

Then, on Thursday, August 13th through Sunday, August 16th, Bri, Hannah, and Momsie all flew down to join Grant and Vocal Point in Nauvoo. We saw tons of sites and shows and the experience was a memorable one for all.




This is Bri on the Mississippi thinking about how beautiful America is and how very blessed we are to live here.
Then, we flew back Monday to complete our whirlwind vacation with BYU's Education Week! We had some wonderful experiences at Education Week, some personal and some hysterical. We were very grateful to meet and befriend everyone that we did.

The following week (last Wednesday) was our 1st Wedding Anniversary!! It was so wonderful! We rode a tandem (two-person) bike all around Provo and on the Provo City Trail (we rode a total of about 7 miles). Bri was very scared at first and it took a while to get used to it, but it was the funnest experience ever! People would laugh and laugh at us at intersections. We came up with all kinds of "Marriage Analogies" as well. (Sorry, no pictures)

Now, we're back to normal (well, almost... we've only eaten at our own home 2 days this week), and preparing for school to start on Monday. Bri will also start a new job transcribing at BYU. This is a huge blessing after being unemployed for a couple months.

We're very excited for all the next year will hold. We'll attempt to keep you updated, but of course, school, work, church, each other, and even housework comes before you... not that you aren't important. :) Hope all is well with you!

We love you!!!